filtherton

I used to drive over and/or walk under that bridge every day on my way to class. I always liked looking at the underside of the bridge and how it was a tangible example of the principles of statics and deformable mechanics i was currently learning about in my classes.

I'm happy that no one i care about got hurt, not that me and mine are necessarily any more important in the grand scheme of things than anyone else. It's just a lot easier looking at a tragedy from the outside than from within.

One of my friends was driving on the bridge right next to it when it collapsed, it was luck that he wasn't underneath it at the time.

A friend of a friend was on the infamous school bus. She broke her leg and some vertebrae in the initial fall, then some bones in her foot kicking debris out of the way when she was trying to get her and the kids to safety.

I tried to go see the aftermath yesterday, but the powers that be have blocked off every possible vantage point - probably because the president is currently photo-opping.

There is probably plenty of blame to go around - the twins postponed the ground breaking ceremony for their brand new, several hundred million dollar stadium because of the collapse. Perhaps they feared a public backlash over an obvious misplacement of priorities - maybe that imposed hennepin county sales tax could have gone to bridges instead of millionaires.

The governor has been notorious vetoer of tax increases, but he's currently calling for a special session to raise taxes. I guess it takes a few deaths and the indefinite closing of a major thoroughfare to admit that sometimes tax increases might be necessary.

The first statement from the local "taxes are bad" lobbying group, the taxpayers league of minnesota, questioned the need to place blame, and they haven't said anything since. A quick, "Ahem, nothing to see here, please move along." from one of the largest local anti-infrastructure funding groups.

Not to be all political or anything, but this is the state of the state in minnesota. It is difficult for me to separate the tragedy from the context, be cause the context is part of the tragedy. We(the average minnesotan) have consistently misplaced our priorities, building stadiums for lackluster sports teams, voting for inflexible fiscal conservative ideologues instead of actual problem solvers, and ignoring problems with less exciting things like bridges, and roads, and schools.


Oh yeah, thanks for the thread, Pan.