The Importance of Infrastructure

The Lights Went Out!

Electricity
Temporarily shut down
Americans bitch

Gadabout would like to remind everyone that our country enjoys a widespread, advanced and intricate network of infrastructure. Infrastructure of highways, bridges, water and sewage plants, electrical grids, natural gas pipelines, gasoline stations, universities, governmental structures, National and State Parks, telephone, and a host of other wonders that the rest of the planet envies. Americans have already paid for a majority of these cornerstones of our society, and others are still on the books listed as debt in the form of federal, state and municipal bonds.

Our infrastructure is the fabric that binds us as a nation. It allows us to travel, flourish and survive. We are fortunate in this way. The Twin City bridge disaster showed us how delicate our fabric is and that we must be vigilant in maintaining our infrastructure, because if we fail to do so chaos follows.

Let us remain keenly aware of the newest little democracy of Iraq, with all of the unrest it faces that threatens its water, sewage, electrical supplies and so forth. Take note of how inconvenient life is in America when we lose power for a day or two, or when highway lanes are closed for repair. It will take time in Iraq. Let us not be hasty with unreasonable timetables for success. A lasting friendship with a new Iraq may very well be worth the wait. Human life is at stake in Iraq. Ordinary everyday people are affected there. We are a nation of kindness, but we like to bitch a lot too.