Structural Deficiencies

Imagine, if you will, that someone came to your home once every other year and thoroughly inspected it from top to bottom. Imagine, at the end of one of those inspections, if you were notified that your home had structural deficiencies that put it at risk of falling apart. What would you do? Would you wait two years to fix those issues that put your home in jeopardy? Very doubtful. You would probably take out a loan, or use your savings or hit up your parents and fix the problems as quickly as possible.

Then why doesn't the government act efficiently when faced with a similar situation regarding our nation's infrastructure?

Think about your neighborhood. I live in an association where certain covenants require a level of cosmetic maintenance of all properties. Chances are you do too, or you at least maintain a certain measure of tidiness in your yard so you don't offend your neighbors. You also probably clean your house regularly, paint a few rooms every couple years, clean the carpet, reseal the wood floors, recaulk the tub, etc. You do these things to keep your home safe and comfortable. Businesses do the same thing. Yet the government doesn't.

Our bridges, highways, schools, dams and other municipally maintained properties are old and crumbling. We add trailers on the grounds of our crowded schools to avoid construction costs. We dot our roads with pothole patches to avoid complete resurfacing. I have no idea what scary stop-gap measures are taken to fix other infrastructure issues that affect the power grid or water treatment facilities.

I lived in Minnesota on and off for 20 years of my life. I watched with utter horror on Wednesday when the 35W bridge collapsed. I made my calls to my siblings, especially fearful for my brother who is two years older than me and studying for his master's degree at the University of Minnesota right now. Thankfully, as a family, we suffered no losses on Wednesday. But we all lost a little of our sanity. Who hasn't thought about the number of bridges they drive over everyday and started saying little prayers in exchange for safe passage? The Department of Homeland Security was quick to state that the bridge collapse was not an act of terrorism. I disagree. I am terrorized daily by reports in the news of crumbling schools in the nation's capital, of decrepit neighborhoods in Baltimore, of unfilled promises in New Orleans. Can we continue to fund activity in Iraq to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year at the expense of our own well being?