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Aug. 4, 2007 I am a Minnesotan who lives about 11 miles from the Mississippi River bridge that collapsed on Wednesday. I have driven over it several times. And then, in a flash, it wasn't there anymore and I was left feeling surreal. How can this happen? The problem is that we, as Americans, live in a constant state of denial. I cannot speak for the rest of the world but here we do live in the dream world that everything in life has happy endings and there is a black and white truth. On Wednesday someone gambled and lost, assuming that the sheer idea of inspecting something more frequently would mean it would last just enough longer. But that is the joke on all of us. As the bridge lies in the river, we are left to wonder how long luck would hold out and that bridge would stay put so that, someday, we could get around to building a new one. Our governor, a die-hard anti-tax guy, stands on national television and spreads his sympathy to those affected, as if a "thoughts and prayers" speech makes it all better. I say that he should be fired along with all of the others that tried to make do with what we had and ignored the fact that things like bridges and roads cost money and, in the case of an extreme temperature place like Minnesota, need to be replaced. But, sadly, this bridge wasn't even slated to be replaced soon. They weren't working on the underside of the cracks in the beams. They were repaving the roads. I can slap lipstick on a pig too but it doesn't change the fact that it is now gone. I think the truth of our lives is that we have gotten so good at assuming everything is all right that, when stuff hits the fan, we are shocked and leveled. It's like me assuming that my grandfather, who died on Sunday, was going to be around for longer. I was at his wake when the bridge fell. My step-brother, in attendance, would have been on that bridge at around that time when it fell. We almost took that bridge to my hometown that day but chose a different route. You just assume that things are supposed to go as you want them too. In the coming weeks, months and years, this bridge will be investigated, re-designed, in court and memorialized. But it was all preventable. Someone just assumed that it wouldn't happen when it did and they were wrong. I guess their luck ran out. I feel bad for those that perished in their families. It's unfortunate that their loss was wholey unnecessary. It hasn't been bandied about much lately but it's interesting to me that Minnesotans actually wanted to have a raise in the gas tax by about five cents a couple of years ago but the governor vetoed it. That five cents would have gone to work on roads and solely roads. Maybe it could have gone to this bridge. Who knows. Now we get to spend even more money fixing this and covering the butts of those that gambled with the safety of hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans everyday. Hey Tim Pawlenty, I got a bag of nickels for you. I don't mind paying some more so I don't, you know, have to watch my fellow citizens die so that you can keep your anti-tax pledge...Putz. ------------ About the author: Nicholas Olson is an aspiring playwright and former journalist. He spent parts of his high school, college and professional life as a journalist, serving as a military journalist from 2000-06. Mr. Olson is an avid writer and enjoys political opinion. His views are not that of any particular party or of the country he once served: They are his own. Email: nicholasjolson@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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