Bob Herbert:What’s Wrong With Us?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/opinion/16herbert.html

Gov. Ed Rendell likes to tell a story that goes back to his days as mayor of Philadelphia.

As he recalled, the city had a long cold snap with about a month and a half of below-freezing temperatures. Then, abruptly, the mercury rose into the 60s, he said, “and 58 of our water mains broke, causing all sorts of havoc.”

The pipes were old. Some were ancient. “My water people told me that some had been laid in the 19th century,” said Mr. Rendell, “and they were laid shallow, without much protection. So with any radical changes in temperature, they were susceptible to breaking. We had a real emergency on our hands.”


(snip)
The great danger right now is that we will do exactly the wrong thing, that we’ll turn away from our screaming infrastructure needs and let the deterioration continue. With infrastructure costs so high (the needs are enormous and enormously expensive) and with the eyes in Washington increasingly focused on deficit reduction, the absolutely essential modernizing of the American infrastructure may not take place. That would be worse than foolish. It would be tragic.

The 35 W bridge in Minneapolis, those burst water mains in NYC, concrete falling off bridges and killing motorists - it's all part of the neglect. And the repukes are responsible for every single bit of it, starting with that asshole Reagan.

I just love how the DOT is trying to blame the 35 W bridge collapse on a faulty design. What a pile of crap. It's repuke neglect. Some roads in this state are in such poor shape it's like driving over cobblestones. From that weasel Arne Carlson to the incompetent Jesse Ventura to the cross-eyed dipshit Timmy 'the Tool' Pawlenty, there has been 20 years of ignoring the infrastructure in this state. And more bridges will fall. You can count on it.

Do you know how much it costs to keep these WARS going.

Don't you trust Warbama to keep the priorities straight?

have a toilet you could flush...

infrastructure maintenance work. In light of the deaths that have already resulted and those that will result, this is criminal negligience.

But this goes way deeper than Reagan. State and local governments have long squandered money that should have been used for maintenance on other crap. It's easy to get good PR when you open a fancy new bridge, do a ribbon cutting for a new civic center or do groundbreaking for a new airport. It's much harder to get the public excited about replacing 50-year old underground pipes and sewer lines, but someone has to do it.

When the truth tellers out number the naysayers,when votes,not money get people elected to office.When greed and hate is outlawed.When justice prevail and the lawless go to jail.When the republican rids it self of the Reagan label and return to the Lincoln label.When the democrats rid themselves of the blue dogs and become again the party of the people.Lofty goals but all of them are attainable,mercy is the choice that can bring about change.