Atheist Meditations

I saw in the paper today that 78% of Americans are still actively keeping up with news about the tragedy that is our collapsed bridge. That makes this news event one of the top ten 'attention grabbers' since 1991, or something like that. Hmm.

First, let me say that the incident did give me some personal insight into what something like 9/11 might have been like for New Yorkers. At first, Cindy's yelling distracted me from whatever I was working on in my room, to see the headlines on CNN or MSNBC. The national cable networks didn't know dick about our local infrastructure, and their reporting was so confusing that I mistook the bridge in question for another one to the south - closer to where my parents live. My father travels a lot with his occupation, so I called him immediately. He didn't have time to chit chat, so I admitted in the trill of the moment that I only wanted to hear the sound of his voice - confirmed that mom was good too - then called my brother to get word on his family. Verizon was overloaded by then, I could not make a call for the rest of the night.

For about four hours everyone in the metro was either trying to call family or fielding calls from out-of-state relatives while watching the news. Even though in the end only about a dozen human beings actually died, the panic effect was powerful.

I think the effect hit me a bit more intensely than it might otherwise have, my father's clan buried two of its own in the two weeks leading up to this; I carried his brother to his final resting place exactly one week before. Bitter irony and the 'rule of three' were pounding on the panic button when I speed dialed the old man.

Thoughts post collapse:

It must be nice to be the Governor of a state with a well known fault line. Any failing bridge is going to collapse during an earthquake for sure, and everybody will buy that as an act of Gawd. Like that Murray peacock who owns the mine that ate those men this week - just keep talking about Gawd and earthquakes, the media will ignore those geologists who define the seismic noise as the sound of the mine collapse, not the cause of the collapse.

Like a morning show guy on KFAI mentioned this week, we finally have a reason be be happy that the Republicans are going to kick us out of our own capital city for a week while they have the theater they call a convention. They have an opportunity to turn the 35W tragedy into a 'win' for them, so for once our Blue State might see more money come back from the federal government than we pay out every year in taxes. They are still the party that holds graft and cronyism in an elevated spiritual realm far above reality, so I'm not holding my breathe. At least I can grant them a possible motive force.

Not to be ghoulish, but I just don't get why we are still sending divers down into the river to put their lives at risk, rather than just bringing in the heavy equipment and getting the clearing process underway. What gives here? It is not like after a week, when the chances of finding a living survivor from 9/11 were zero, the recovery teams broke out the shovels and toothbrushes and turned ground zero into an archaeological site. The remains of the 35W bridge are underwater. We are going to spend weeks, and millions of dollars, and put human lives (not just any human lives, but highly trained divers) at risk to recover remains that are water-logged and crushed, rather than remains that are water logged and more crushed? I understand respect for the dead, but over a million people can not continue to pour money, time, and risk lives over the remains of a few corpses. Obviously, if we lived in a society with limitless resources the bridge never would have collapsed in the first place. . .

Finally, our NPR station has devoted an ass-load of time to dwelling on the tragic event (despite my disdain for the network, a savvy listener can filter useful information out of their hopelessly 'objective' propaganda). They had a doctor on this afternoon who had evidently had some positive role in the treatment of victims of 8.1.7 (yeah, whatever). This crisis response official was asked about a scenario that kept him awake at night and he did not have an answer that involved asteroids or the eruption of Yellowstone. His response was an influenza pandemic. He stated that it might not be this year or the next, but it would happen within his career as a physician, and that our hospital system could never handle it. We have 20% less hospital beds today than we had in 1970. Large segments of society would have to be triaged and isolated. Think Katrina. To summarize, we have not had a pandemic in the history of 'modern' hospitalized medicine, but we are due, and we're screwed.


Remember to live life in the moment and appreciate all that we have. Any of the French Louis' would have unhesitatingly slain their own fathers to have a lifestyle that most of us take for granted. Plus we have access to the level of education and understanding that would have driven them to abdication or suicide. Don't shirk from the subversive truth. Revel in your consciousness, enjoy your existence. Move our culture forward.

Labels: current events, personal, pseudo-inspirational