Last night, I sat down to my computer after my kids were put to bed, and to my horror and astonishment, I saw that the bridge had collapsed over the Mississippi River in Minnesota. I called to my wife, and we watched, transfixed, for hours the coverage of the rescue and recovery efforts. The first reaction was a combination "Holy Sh..!" and numbness. Then, I worried about the people who were on the bridge or under the bridge when it collapsed. My heart and my prayers go out to these people. This morning, my mind races, but the questions fall into two categories. First, what caused the collapse, and how many other bridges are vulnerable? Second, when are we going to wake-up and realize that you can't run the greatest country on the earth on the cheap?
In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) issued a report card( http://www.asce.org/... ) on the state of our nation's infrastructure. Overall, the infrastructure of the country was given a D. This was further broken down into categories (Aviation, bridges, dams, etc.). Though there were some improvements. Overall the grades have trended downward since 1988! How long are we going to allow this to happen? Bridge collapses are dramatic, but they don't happen every day. However, there are many other ways in which our infrastructure fails us on a daily basis that do have a huge effect on our lives.
Who has not been stranded in bumper to bumper traffic? Who has not had their flight delayed? These are everyday occurrences. The state of mass transit in most places in this country is abominable. I live in one of those places. In the city of Altoona, bus service, even with a last minute funding boost from the Governor, is being cut resulting in bigger hassles for those that depend on it to get to work. In the hinterlands, don't even think about it. This, however, is short-sighted thinking. Cutting costs upfront for important goods and services results in much larger costs in the future. We pay these larger costs in dollars due to inefficiencies, time from sitting in traffic or on the tarmac, and in lives, as we witnessed yesterday.
The ASCE has an action plan ( http://www.asce.org/... ) for fixing our infrastructure woes. They are calling for a $1.6 trillion investment over 5 years. The tax-cutters will freak out about the costs. To them, I say, "Tell that to the people who had a bridge fall out beneath them." It is tremendously short sighted to focus only on costs. This is not a third TV that we are buying, it is an investment in us. It is an investment in our safety, it is an investment in our economy, and it is an investment in our future. Investing these dollars will put Americans to work rebuilding our country when many are losing their jobs to overseas competition. In the long run, this investment will more than pay for itself.
This I believe to be a good start, but I believe that we need to do more than this. We need to ensure that everybody has access to broadband. In the 30's, we had the Rural Electrification Act. This is the 21st century. If you don't have broadband, you may as well not have electricity. While we are at it, we must ensure that there is Net Neutrality. If we allow the corporations to own it, the Internet will suffer the fate of our health care system.
Today, I will be driving my family to Wheeling, WV to go to my brother-in-law's wedding. I will travel over and under many bridges, and I will continue to pray for those families affected by yesterday's disaster. In between my prayers, I will continue to dream (and strategize) about high speed rail.
You can find out more about my campaign at http://www.tonybarr2008.com