Last Friday afternoon Sally and I took a short drive to observe the incredible flooding that was taking place in our area. Less than 12 hours later a levee gave way and flood water submerged one of the streets we had been on swallowing up scores of homes and businesses in that neighborhood. Nationwide news coverage is telling us that in places like Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and now farther south along the Mississippi drainage the flooding is unprecedented. As of this morning there have been more than 20 levee breaches reported. My heart goes out to those who are suffering in the aftermath. Of course you have seen the news coverage. I really don't need to add to it.
What is on my mind is the fact that since the floods of '93 very little has been done to resolve such high water crises. The epic floods of '93 led to the convening of congressional committees, Army Corps of Engineers studies, numerous commissions and investigations. Many reports offering detailed remedies were presented. And what we have learned so far is that 15 years later, in 2008, very few of the recommendations were carried out. The aforementioned neighborhood, which also flooded in '93, was negligently left with the "protection" of a levee over 60 years old which officials knew could not withstand another big flood!
There are some lessons we can draw from all this.
1) As we saw with Hurricane Katrina and now the floods of '08, don't expect the government to solve problems like these. In addition to mortgaging the future of the nation to China and strapping the next generation with unimaginable debt, the government (local, state and federal) has scandalously neglected our infrastructure. Bridges are collapsing, levees are failing, streets are in disrepair, sewer and drainage systems are obsolete. Our officials have ignored these "unsexy" spending priorities choosing instead to fight questionable and very expensive wars, nation build abroad and give huge tax breaks to those who need them the least.
2) If you have placed your trust in any levee to keep your residence safe, you may want to reconsider where you live.
3) We've had two 500 year floods in 15 years in this area, not to mention the record number of tornadoes this year. What further evidence do we need that climate change is real?
4) If we don't discover and empower the kind of leaders and problem solvers who will get on top of this mess and mobilize the necessary resources to get the job done soon, we're in a heap of trouble. Personally, I'm not in the mood for any more photo ops and rhetoric from our "deciders" and candidates. We need action.
5) The greatest threat to the security of American citizens is not global jihad. It is a collapsing infrastructure. Repairing it and modernizing it for the 21st Century is the war we should be fighting.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Such A Long Way...
My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Atlanta, GA. One of the first things we did was tour the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and Museum. We had parked several blocks away and walked through a run down district of crumbling buildings, urine soaked sidewalks, liquor stores and homeless pan handlers to get to the MLK Center adjacent to the historical Ebenezer Baptist Church. The sense of despair and brokenness was heavy and made me acutely aware of the lingering effects of systematized injustice and inequality.
Anyone who has ever visited the MLK memorial and taken the time to read the captions and displays that tell Dr. King's story and the history of the Civil Rights Movement can't help but be deeply moved by the collective journey of African-Americans in the United States--especially in the "Jim Crow" South.
Inconspicuously displayed among the larger exhibits featuring the March to Selma and Dr. King's now immortalized "Letter From the Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech, are books that pictorially tell the story of the plight of the American Negro in a society dominated by bigotry and racial hatred. These books are easily overlooked as one's attention is drawn to screens showing film footage and recordings of key events in Dr. King's life as he led the non-violent outcry against segregation.
As my wife flipped through one of these books, she found a picture which she called me over to view. Although I have been generally aware that there were atrocities, lynchings and murders that occurred along the way in the struggle, I was not prepared for this horrifying image and all that it symbolized. It was a photograph of the body of a black man who had been lynched on a telephone pole with a sign pinned to his clothing that declared, "This N----r voted." The message was clear to all. If another black person tries to vote around here, we will do the same to them. This terrorist incident took place in the USA just a few short decades ago.
Yesterday we learned that the Democratic Party will nominate an African-American, Barack Obama, to be it's candidate for President of the United States. Whatever one may think of his political views, the historical symbolism of this occasion is astounding. Americans have come such a long way toward undoing the evils of racial prejudice. But, we have also learned from exit polls conducted during this primary season that notable percentages of voters in various parts of the country have openly admitted that they voted against Obama because he is black. In these voters' minds the content of his character was not a consideration. It is the color of his skin that was the deciding factor for them.
So, yes, we have come such a long way. But we still have such a long way to go...
Anyone who has ever visited the MLK memorial and taken the time to read the captions and displays that tell Dr. King's story and the history of the Civil Rights Movement can't help but be deeply moved by the collective journey of African-Americans in the United States--especially in the "Jim Crow" South.
Inconspicuously displayed among the larger exhibits featuring the March to Selma and Dr. King's now immortalized "Letter From the Birmingham Jail" and "I Have a Dream" speech, are books that pictorially tell the story of the plight of the American Negro in a society dominated by bigotry and racial hatred. These books are easily overlooked as one's attention is drawn to screens showing film footage and recordings of key events in Dr. King's life as he led the non-violent outcry against segregation.
As my wife flipped through one of these books, she found a picture which she called me over to view. Although I have been generally aware that there were atrocities, lynchings and murders that occurred along the way in the struggle, I was not prepared for this horrifying image and all that it symbolized. It was a photograph of the body of a black man who had been lynched on a telephone pole with a sign pinned to his clothing that declared, "This N----r voted." The message was clear to all. If another black person tries to vote around here, we will do the same to them. This terrorist incident took place in the USA just a few short decades ago.
Yesterday we learned that the Democratic Party will nominate an African-American, Barack Obama, to be it's candidate for President of the United States. Whatever one may think of his political views, the historical symbolism of this occasion is astounding. Americans have come such a long way toward undoing the evils of racial prejudice. But, we have also learned from exit polls conducted during this primary season that notable percentages of voters in various parts of the country have openly admitted that they voted against Obama because he is black. In these voters' minds the content of his character was not a consideration. It is the color of his skin that was the deciding factor for them.
So, yes, we have come such a long way. But we still have such a long way to go...
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