Recently in the news we’ve seen some tragic events involving a bus rolling off an overpass killing 6 members of a college baseball team in Atlanta, a tornado that directly hit a high school in Alabama killing 8, and of course the horrible conditions and treatment of veterans at the Walter Reed Medical Center. You might ask what these three stories have in common. What they have in common is that they are all the result of doing things on the cheap. Or what Republican’s call “economically” or “cost effectively” or in real life terms, “do it for as little as it can be done.” Unfortunately, this means cutting corners and leaving out vital safety features.
In the case of the bus rolling off an overpass. As a retired associate highway engineer I can say with a great deal of confidence that building a “T” intersection 20 feet off the ground was about as stupid an idea as I’ve ever seen. And you can bet the farm that the reason those ramps were built in that configuration was MONEY! What other reason could there be for building such an inherently dangerous intersection. And I can tell you for a fact that the reason the “safety” rail was not high enough to stop the bus from rolling over it was because of Republican pressure to limit spending, resulting in the Federal Highways Administration and your state governments deciding a long time ago that building guard rails and bridge rails rated for busses and trucks would be too expensive. That’s right, a few lives per year aren’t worth the cost of doing it right. Of course I think you’ll get an argument from the family and friends of the victims of that horrific crash.
Over 40,000 Americans die in car crashes every year and most could be prevented if we just spent some money. But Republican’s say “we can’t afford it.” They try to sell us on the idea that they believe it would be nice to make everything safe, but it would be too big a burden on the American tax payer. The truth, is that Republicans hate spending tax money on what the government is supposed to do. They would rather spend it on pork barrel projects that line the pockets of their wealthy constituency.
I don’t know how they can look themselves in the mirror. Forty thousand lives a year is what… acceptable losses? My God, what are we talking about here. The fact is that most fatalities are on high speed, opposing direction highways. If we just placed physical barriers (like the familiar concrete rail we’ve all seen) between these opposing directions of traffic except at intersections of course, we could drop that number considerably. Yes, it would cost a lot of money, but like I said, what are we talking about here?
Let me put it a different way. Most Americans live in small cities of between 30 and 60 thousand people, so most of us can imagine a city of 40,000 people right? Now imagine that once a year a city of 40,000 people was completely wiped out. Every man, woman, and child, and every single year this was happening. What do you think the reaction of the American people would be? I think they would believe no amount of money would be too much to stop the carnage. Yet we go merrily along year after year as if it were no big deal. Why? Because the Republican, or conservative, or what ever you want to call it attitude toward our government has been so engrained into our psyche, we accept it as normal. But I say it’s time to stop the madness.
That bus should never have been able to go over that rail, or even have been in that situation in the first place. How much could it have cost to build a storm shelter for that high school in Alabama. My question is, how could anyone contemplate building any school in an area where it is not a matter of if, but a matter of when a tornado will hit without a storm shelter. And how could, I’ll repeat that, HOW COULD our government allow the facilities and service at the Walter Reed Medical Center (the most well known military hospital in the country), charged with the care of our most sacred citizens (our wounded soldiers) to fall to the despicable level it has.
But the most grievous example of the fatally dangerous practice of doing things on the cheap is the “War On Terror.” As far as this correspondent is concerned, sending our most precious resource into combat under equipped, under trained, and poorly supplied and then having the gall to say things like “you go in with what you have” is criminal. We’re the richest country in the world for crying out loud. I think we can afford it.
After 911 the people of this country would have given President Bush anything he wanted, but he wasn’t even able to think in those terms. Doing things on the cheap is in the Republicans DNA I think. They are incapable of thinking in any other terms. And what’s worse, is that they’ve succeeded in trapping all of us in the lie “we can’t afford it.” But we CAN afford it, and we must afford it if we ever want to advance as a civilization. I think it was one of the Rockefellers from the 19th century (a Republican) who said “taxes are the price we pay for civilization.” And he was right. If we don’t shed this Republican lie that says taxes are inherently evil and pony up to responsibly pay for the work of government, we will become stagnant. And if that happens, God help us all.
***************
Devin Barber, Politics Correspondent
Devin’s column, “Left Of The Right” published every Tuesday and Thursday to Gather Essentials: Politics is a Blue Collar Democrats take on current political news.
Devin was raised by proud Roosevelt Democrats. Being the son of parents counted among the throng of Americans displaced by the Great Depression has given Devin a deep rooted passion for causes dealing with the poor and the working class.
You can find all of Devin’s columns at http://gather.com/leftoftheright
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Comments: 37
I notice you don't address any of the points raised; you just "spin" what was said, then answer the "spin". Good job.
In every case, the result is inept cronyism, failure to govern, failure to produce, failure to act, corruption, and collapse.
The only saving grace for us all being forced to endure this unending parade of republican disasters is that, with any luck, the American public will finally realize that the same economic policies that brought us the Great Depression are NOT very good for the middle class, nor the whole of the nation.
"Considering the word, "Bush" was never mentioned"
Don is in love with his precious cheerleader pretendident, and has become so overly used to seeing bad things happen as a result of his incompetent leadership that he's become overly defensive, in his unending, vain efforts to worship his precious lover boy. The Bush worshippers simply have no capacity to see any wrongdoing on the part of their beloved, and have come to respond to any criticism of anything having to do with any layer of the government to be an attack on their boyfriend. It's pretty pathetic, isn't it?
But, in their defense, imagine how terrible it must be to be married to such an incompetent louse for a president. Imagine if you were such a rigid, blind ideologue that you couldn't even see any of the tragedy that naturally follows the worst president in the history of the nation. Then, picture having to read and hear about these tragedies ona daily basis, while at the same time trying to pretend to yourself that reality isn't real. It's GOT to be immeasurably difficult for these ideologues to maintain themselves on a day to day basis, don't you think? I actually feel sort of sorry for them.
If all they can come up with is "Dumb", and an obsession with the fact that I DID get the state wrong (which I've corrected). I think I'll be able to survive. It is unfortunate they're so fixated on President Bush though. The issue I've brought up here is a systemic one that has been with us since the days of the founding fathers. The only other example I can find of such a deep resistance to change was the Dark Ages, where fear of scientific advancement stiffled our civilization for hundreds of years.
I do believe that the neocon plan is to revert this nation to serfdom, frankly, so it's fitting that you mention the dark ages.
In the minds of the neocon, the masses are only on this planet to serve their aristocratic masters. There is no need for a social fabric, except to the extent which it, too, serves the masters. Public wealth is for the elite, not for the public.
I would like to remind all that the return of these policies came with Reagan. He may have been a charismatic speaker, but make no mistake. The disaster of neocon "trickle on" economics was re-started by him. By the time he and Poppy were done with their 12 years of economic damage, the nation was nearly $5 trillion in debt. Now, of course, we're nearly $9 trillion down, thanks to Humpty Dumpty.
The intent of driving the nation deeply into debt is so that all social spending can be eliminated, and the public coffers turned entirely over to the elite.
Military hospitals and VA clinics have ALWAYS been substandard, if you have ever spent time in the military and had to go to the base hospital, you KNOW what I mean. However, THANKS to the whining liberal LEFT, money that SHOULD be going to our military personell goes to Prisons, Welfare programs and useless "Global Warming" grants. I for one would rather MY tax dollars go to military funding then making sure some child molesting murderer gets a comfy room. What is WRONG with you people????
So what you are saying is; Stating that it was wrong for a high school NOT to have a storm shelter in ALABAMA and that the (PREVENTABLE) loss of those inocent childrens lives was a crime, is whining? Wow, open your G.D. eyes Don. Are you so blind that you don't realize your defending the most failed, inept president in the history of our nation. Think about your future man. In less than 2 years Bush will be gone and you'll still be here with egg on your face.
And just because tornados "happen all the time," is not an excuse not to do everything we can to prevent the loss of life. I DID NOT say all buildings should be built F-5 proof. I SAID that storm shelters should have been available.
And because military hospitals "have always been substandard" is a reasonable excuse to just LEAVE them that way?
And because I dare to bring up this issue that equates to me defending molesting murderers. How dare you make such a nasty, despicable accusation. I think you owe me and all liberals an apology. And if any of you other Right wingers aren't as apalled by this kind of talk as I am, then I invite you to get out of my article and never return.
This is an isolated incident - and the kids were far safer at a school than at home with all weather conditions being equal.
Great to see you here. Thanks, I will.
The government continues to take our hard earned cash and waste it on a worthless, non-winnable war.. At the same time they take away a few more of our rights daily. Internet Gambling for one. Who are they to tell me what to spend my hard earned US dollars on, While at the same time threatening me with Jail time if I don't give them money? It's Pimpism 101 and I have had it.
And I NEVER said that the substandard military hospitals should remain that way, I was JUST pointing out a simple FACT that it is not new news about the deplorable conditions at military hospitals and I was comparing the difference in spending our tax dollars. I NEVER accused YOU of anything. I accused the ACLU and the liberal left of caring more about prisoners than our military, which is a fact. Now, if you AGREE with the ACLU and the liberal left who think murderers, thieves, buggerers, molesters etc...deserve better treatment and programs than our military, then that is your problem, not mine.
Wow you sure are defensive! Consider me gone, if you can't READ a simple post without getting it all turned around, I won't waste my time with you.
AND as much as I'd like to get into a battle of wits with you, I don't believe in battling with the unarmed.
I too agree that much of our taxes are wasted on pork barrel garbage that only ends up in the pockets of those who are least deserving. And your absolutely right about the current administration. I'd love to hear one of those old Texas sayings Lyndon Johnson would have hurled at these guys.
It is outrageous that you would state as fact that these honorable entities, as a matter of policy, care more for the scum at the bottom of our society than for our proud service men and women. If you truly believe such an outlandish, out and out lie, then as far as I'm concerned, you have nothing to say.
Clark, these people (read: Don H. what's the "H" for anyway, Hitler?) are so bereft of intellect that they have absolutely NO difficulty acting as they do. If not for an Autonomic Nervous System they would doubtless forget to breathe.
The tornado that killed 8 high school students was Enterprise, Alabama.
After a helicopter tour of the area, Mr. Bush said: "I come down with a heavy heart, and I will try, to the best of my ability, to comfort those who lost life and property."
He added: "I hope it helps for the citizens here to hear that we declared your county a major disaster area, which will provide some relief. You can never heal a heart, but you can provide comfort, knowing that the federal government will provide help for those whose houses were destroyed, or automobiles were destroyed."
Mr. Bush visited the rubble-strewn Enterprise High School, where eight students lost their lives on Thursday afternoon.
Mr. Bush emerged from the school looking sober, his arms resting gently on the shoulders of Megan Parks, the 17-year-old president of the Student Government Association.
"Out of this rubble will emerge a better tomorrow," Mr. Bush said, adding, "The biggest effect of the storm is the shattered lives."
Megan nodded and wiped tears from her eyes as he urged her to work to bring people together in the aftermath of the disaster.
Meg King, a 17-year-old senior, said she had been in the classroom next door to the one in which students were trapped. "It's like a movie," she said, describing the chaos in the storm. "The lights went out. The skylights above us busted. You wake up to half the hallway gone."
On Friday, officials
Officials defended their decision not to evacuate the school earlier, saying the impending tornadoes would have made it too dangerous.
For grief-stricken parents like those of Andrew J. Jackson, a sturdy 16-year-old cheerleader and weightlifter, there was no consolation in their bewilderment.
"We lost a good man yesterday," Andrew's father, Tim Jackson, said on Friday.
Mr. Jackson said witnesses had told him and his wife a heroic story of their son's last moments. Andrew held up a falling concrete beam long enough for another student to escape, they told him, and was then crushed by it.
"I actually thought that this was the end, that, like, I was about to be taken away from earth," Antoine Perry, 31, of Newton, said Friday.
Grief hung especially heavy over Enterprise. "You don't expect to take a child to school, then go back and pull him out of the rubble," said Maxie Searcy of Searcy's Funeral Home, where some of the relatives of the victims were headed on Friday.
The Jacksons' agony had been prolonged over 12 hours of waiting. After the tornado, parents and students assembled in a dark church next to the school, and church officials called out the students' names. Parents awaited anxiously in the gloom for their child's name to be spoken, and for the longed-for response.
When nobody responded to "A. J. Jackson," Laura Jackson, Andrew's mother, said, she knew something was wrong.
"Oh, gosh, they probably called it out four times," Mrs. Jackson said. "I knew, when he wasn't at the church, I knew he was trapped."
It was not until hours later that they got word.
"He would have helped anybody he could," said his father, who owns a car wash.
Neither parent wondered about what they had been told.
"Even knowing the outcome, he would do it again," Mrs. Jackson said. "For Andrew not to survive, it must have been bad. He was strong as an ox."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/us/03cnd-tornado.html?ex=1330578000&en=97cabb685e3dfecc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
But this administration isn't the only problem. We have a short-term bottom lline mentality in this country where government projects are concerned.
Why do roads need to be resurfaced every 5-10 years, because building roads that last 40 or 50 or more years costs money--as long as they last until the current office-holders are done, that's enough money to spend. And it's from the National level all of the way down to local townships. My civics teacher made this point back in 1973.
And my 2 states (I live in a metro area that crosses state lines, so I claim both sides of the river since it's the "natural" boundary for the community that defines us, not the artificial one that divides us) have been overwhelmingly Republican for the last 40 years at the state-level. The tide has turned, and we now have Democratic leaders, but it takes almost as many years to fix the problem as it did to create them.
And of course the general public is to blame too--we want everything to be wonderful, safe, up-to-date, and CHEAP! We want the gov to make everything perfect, but we don't want to pay any taxes so they can.
It's time personal responsibility included responsibility for the government that we want to have take care of us too!
"Military hospitals and VA clinics have ALWAYS been substandard"?!?!? WHY? And how is that an excuse or justification. We've promised our soldiers we'd take care of them in return for their service. And, instead of the care they deserve, we get selfish people like you shrugging their shoulders and saying "it's always been that way". How obscene. We should be giving our wounded servicemembers the BEST care available, not long waits for moldy, rat-infested hospital beds. The cancerous rot in the system, caused by decades of underfunding, has crept its way to what was once the premiere American military hospital. The name, "Walter Reed", used to be synonymous with excellence, and we let it get the way it is by not paying attention. I guess it was easier to assume that Conservatives, who love guns and all things military, would keep the nation's pledge to its soldiers. But to them, money was more important.
THIS IS NOT NEW NEWS, MILITARY HOSPITALS HAVE BEEN IN ICKY CONDITIONS FOR A LONG TIME, EVEN UNDER CARTER AND CLINTON'S REIGNS, ER SO YOU CAN UNDERSTAND, EVEN WHEN CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT AND WHEN JIMMY CARTER WAS PRESIDENT.
You've proven to me that libs are just NOT willing to take responsibility for any of THEIR actions and want the Government to tell them what to do and how to live.
Man, what a horrible way to live, not being able to make your own decision. I pity anyone who lives that kind of life. Oh wait, didn't Communist Russia, East Germany, etc.. live like that?? MMMMMM, and where are those Communist communities now?