Friday, August 1, 2008

One Year Ago




One year ago today, 13 people lost their lives and multiple others suffered severe injuries when the 1-35 bridge in downtown Minneapolis collapsed. Every citizen for miles around has been on that bridge too many times to count. My own husband was on it that very afternoon, just a few hours before the tragedy.

In my opinion, this is what our taxes are for: to provide safe and solid infrastructure, enough police and firefighters, good schools, snow plows, inspected food, clean energy, etc.

A rising tide lifts all boats, and we won't have a functioning society without taxes. My dream: that our leaders actually lead and make damn good use of our tax money. That I don't have to worry that the ground underneath my feet will sink away because we've become too greedy to share.

9 comments:

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Your taxes are for Blackwater and whoever else the Bush crime family wants them to go to.

Billie Greenwood said...

Are you some sort of commie pinko nutcase? We're engaged in a WAR on TERROR.

Billie Greenwood said...

I hope the sarcasm in that previous comment was adequately obvious. What is more terrifying than having the infrastructure of our nation crumble beneath us?

Anonymous said...

I've got a right wing brother-in-law, well more than a few of them, and when one of them starts bitching about taxes, I bring up this exact point. I like having paved roads, water in the tap, trash pick up, and some semblance of a system that will make sure that the shit that is flushed from my toilet will be treated before it reaches the beach in which my kid swims.

tshsmom said...

"My dream: that our leaders actually lead and make damn good use of our tax money."

Me too! That's why I'm voting anti-incumbent AND outside the corrupt 2-party system!

Joe said...

Unfortunately this is precisely what happens when you take people that avowedly hate government, and ... put them in charge of the government.

laurie said...

oh god what a day that was.

Christopher Tassava said...

Oof. Those pictures, by my calculation, are worth 30,000 words, or roughly the number I plan to put write this summer and fall encouraging a vote for Obama. He may not singlehandedly build (literal or figurative) bridges, but he - and the corps of actually *competent* people who'll go to D.C. with him - will at least keep them from falling down.

Fran said...

This is a wonderful post Mnmom- so well put.

To live in a manner of interconnectedness and interdependence... a dream that must become reality.