Man-Made Disasters

.
A bridge collapses in Minneapolis. A holding pond dumps an avalanche of toxic ash on a neighborhood in Tennessee. What do these two man-made disasters have in common?

In each case, needed maintenance was deferred because it was too costly. And in both cases, the decision was made by the government, by the part of our society that is supposed to operate, not on the profit motive, but rather on the philosophy of the common good.

In the rush to (supposedly) cut government spending, so that people could (supposedly) receive tax cuts, we have left common sense in the gutter. Notice that I don’t say Republicans or Democrats have left common sense in the gutter. No, it isn’t one party or the other, but all of us – all of us who allowed our elected representatives to persuade us that government never knows how to spend our tax dollars wisely, that bureaucrats are only interested in protecting their turf and not in doing what’s right.

This is the result of making fun of people who have experience and education and might, just possibly, know more about doing their jobs than we do. It’s also the result of smiling knowingly and shrugging our shoulders when we hear of a boondoggle, no matter how large. It’s the result of the cynicism that pervades our culture that everyone is only out for himself, that no one really cares whether something is right, but only that it will make his life better. It’s the result of thinking that greed is good.

I used to think that the rise of religion would lead to greater honesty in our public life, but it seems only to have created a phalanx of credulous morons who think that if a Democrat says it, it must be a lie. Our thinking that if a Republican says it, it must be a lie, doesn’t help us get beyond this and back to the point where we reward people for being good citizens and punish them when they're not.

I’m not sure how we get there, but we better figure it out soon, before the next man-made disaster happens.
.