True story. It's February 2001 and I was working as Executive Director of a large faith-based nonprofit running thrift stores, food banks, soup kitchens, outreach centers. In Seattle. It was Ash Wednesday, and there was an earthquake. A lot of stuff fell down. One of the things that didn't fall down but falls into the category of "couldawouldashoulda...whwwweee, dodged one" was a large bridge/elevated freeway. It really should have crashed...however, I think Tiffany was just saving it for her next surprise...it will be more fun.
Like Minneapolis. What's cooler from her point of view than a bridge full of slow moving cars just relocating 60 feet down? Oh, yeah, a steam pipe rupturing and blowing up a road next to the NYC public library, killing someone and scaring the shit out of 8 million people. Or levees failing in a hurricaneand destroying a quintessential piece of Americana that was home to a lot of people. None of this is a surprise -- I heard the problems with the 100 year storm and New Orleans discussed on NPR in the 2004 timeframe.
It's 7 years later and guess what. They still haven't agreed to a plan, let alone begun to build the damn thing. Cost estimate -- $4-9 Billion. Impact on the region if it falls down -- catastrophic. Liklihood of them getting it fixed -- slim. Oh, yeah, the governor is a Democrat, the Mayor is a Democrat, the legislature is Democratic. It just isn't gonna happen because no one can agree....Until it becomes totally unsafe and then they'll have a problem.
We have been discussing infrastructure failures in this country for a helluva long time. I first started watching the issue in 1986. When I was stationed in Panama and the doors to locks broke...and, no one was in business in the US that could make the goddamn parts needed. I've stood under bridges looking up; on them looking down; walked across roadways; looked at core samples for retaining walls; watched mudslides. Got angry during 1990 because they cut away from a 49ers game to show one of the floating bridges in Seattle roll over and sink as a result of routine maintenance...well, it was a really good game, but I did enjoy watching the bridge sink. It's fascinating -- because if this shit goes south, we cease functioning.
Now, we have a history of building shit. Well. And in a hurry. Mankind in general, the US in particular. But, what we don't have is a history of maintaing shit, well. So we find ourselves scratching and digging around trying to find solutions when it's too late. I don't know why the bridge failed...but, there was some routine maintenance going. Damn those highway maintenance people!
As a LEFT-Libertarian, I expect government to provide essential services. Roads and bridges and airports and waterlines and the electrical grids. I can live without subsidies to some things; I can argue in favor of other approaches to some things. LIke Homeland Security. I can even go along with outsourcing the planning, funding, and executing of the massive construction efforts needed to keep us from having the world literally crash around our ears. But, the responsibility to make this happen is that of the Government. When they were screwing around trying to figure out the mission for the Army in the early 90s, I was just a dumbass Irishman First Sergeant, but it seemed fairly clear to me -- the Army Engineers, Transporters, and Logisticians along with those in the Marines, Navy and even the Air Force were excellent. There really isn't that much difference between a tank and a bulldozer. Put the Army to work and keep it big enough to deal with two wars and all the rest of that crap...that we are no longer capable of doing.
Certainly, there was no justification for starting this when thebudget was balenced -- except that we had a Republican legislature more interested in purusing Bill Clinton beyond death. (I wonder what would happen had the Independent Counsel thing still been in effect a la Ken Starr with the Bush administration. Ahhh, Good times. ) Of course, when Bush took office, there was absolutely no reason to think that the CEO president would not invest the surplus in something -- if not social stuff, then the infrastructure. Yeah. Then came 9/11 and tax cuts, and the nonsense that in war you should cut taxes above all else and that we should invade Iraq because it was there. So we can't pay for the war and we can't fund infrastructure.(If Rush Limbaugh interviews Tom Delay, is that a living breathing oxympron? Except in Iraq. Which is an embarassment to anybody involved in the rebuilding fiasco.
So, now the country that conquered a wilderness in what historically amounts to an instant through its ability to produce engineering marvels ranging from the Erie Canal through the Alaska Pipeline, from the 7 Mile Bridge to the Hoover Damn can't even build a fucking prison at a level not embarassing to Idi Amin. And, our own shit is falling down....So, Tiffany and devolution and inbreeding bear fruit.
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