Time, the Slow-Motion Terrorist

To get America’s attention, people have to die--in wars, on falling bridges, in coal mine cave-ins. Even then, hearts sink, heads shake and the news moves on to the next disaster.

Now that the catastrophe du jour is infrastructure, some politicians are trying to do something constructive while public emotion is still raw. This week, a Minnesota Congressman proposed a plan to fix the nation's 73,784 bridges rated "structurally deficient" by the Department of Transportation.

Rep. James Oberstar suggested paying for the repairs with a five-cent hike in the gas tax, but the next day President Bush, about to go off on vacation, dismissed the idea of any new taxes, saying Congress should change its priorities when spending highway money.

Bringing the nation's roads and bridges into the 21st century will cost $155.5 billion, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The $75 billion in annual spending by federal, state, and local governments is not even enough to keep their condition from getting worse.

"Maintenance,” says one expert, “is just not sexy.” Politicians like new construction they can brag about to voters while posing for ribbon-cutting pictures.

If a bomb had blown up the Minneapolis bridge, politicians would be scurrying to throw money into something to satisfy their constituents. But time is a slow-motion terrorist, and nobody is eager to pay new taxes or tolls to prevent the disasters waiting to happen.

Mourning in Minnesota

In the Rose Garden today, President Bush said the Federal government “must respond, and respond robustly, to help the people there...recover.”

The First Lady will be in Minneapolis Friday to console the families of those who died.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said today, “This is a horrible time for the families of those who lost loved ones yesterday, and it's also a very trying time for anybody in public service."

After the uproar over FEMA’s failure in New Orleans, the Administration is now responding with appropriate action and expressions of sympathy to a disaster in the city that will host the Republican National Convention next year.

The official death toll from the collapsed bridge is now four, with as many as 30 others missing.

In Iraq, 54 young men from Minnesota have been lost, 11 of them this year. Unlike yesterday’s victims, they died far from home and officially unmourned.

No one knows yet if the bridge disaster could have been averted and the victims spared. In Iraq, we do. Will the President “respond robustly”?

Casualties of War

Sudden, violent and unexpected death is horrifying under any circumstances, but the wall-to-wall coverage tonight of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis prompts reflection on the kind of people we have become.

The casualties seem to be far fewer than those in the equally horrifying bombings in far-off Baghdad today, and as we wonder about the safety of thousands of aging structures all over the U.S., there is a connection.

How much safer would we be if some of those billions of dollars underwriting the carnage in Iraq had been devoted to modernizing our aging infrastructure at home?