Early this morning, a huge cargo ship, stacked high with \u201cinter-modal containers\u201d, ran into the main bridge across the Baltimore, Maryland, harbor. In the darkness, several sections of the 1.2 mile Key Bridge collapsed. There was minimal traffic at that early hour, but there were construction workers doing routine maintenance. It\u2019s a long way down to the forty-seven degree water. At best guess at this moment (Tuesday morning) at least seven are missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Key Bridge is the main interstate bypass around downtown Baltimore, designated I-695. It\u2019s \u201clucky\u201d that the collision didn\u2019t occur at rush hour, when the bridge would normally be bumper to bumper traffic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What happened? How did a ship over a football field long, weighing 165,000 tons, run straight into a bridge pier? Did the Singapore based crew, bound for Sri Lanka, somehow miss the well-travelled and marked channel? Was there a failure of the ship systems, or negligence on the part of the crew, or some more nefarious \u201cattack\u201d? We don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this is what government is for.\u00a0\u00a0While we all get caught up in the politics of American life, Left and Right, Blue and Red; this emergency is why we elect officials either party.\u00a0\u00a0The tasks are:\u00a0\u00a0rescue of possible survivors, recovery of the dead, investigation of what happened, re-opening the harbor, re-routing the vehicle traffic, and rebuilding the Key Bridge.\u00a0\u00a0It will take cooperation from every level of our Federal system:\u00a0\u00a0the local emergency services, the state police and highway departments, the US Coast Guard, and the Department of Transportation\u2019s Maritime and the Federal Highway Administrations. And don\u2019t forget the Army Corps of Engineers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then there\u2019s the money: to pay for the rescue, the recovery, the investigation, the clean-up and, most of all, the rebuilding. The Key Bridge cost $110 million when it was built in the early 1970\u2019s. That\u2019s over $800 million in today\u2019s money. Every level; Baltimore, Annapolis (the state Capitol) and Washington, DC; will need to chip in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of this is not a \u201cRed or Blue\u201d issue. In fact, the Mayor of Baltimore, the Governor of Maryland, the Secretary of Transportation and the President are all Democrats, but that isn\u2019t the point. All of these leaders are now put to the test. It\u2019s the same test faced when the I-95 bridge collapsed in Philadelphia last year (a relatively simple overpass), and the I-35 Bridge collapse in Minneapolis back in 2007. That bridge was a quarter-mile long, with ten lanes, and cost $234 million to replace. It was constructed in fifteen months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is likely NOT the cause of this disaster?\u00a0\u00a0Comments on Facebook included:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cthat\u2019s what happens when you hire using DEI\u201d (diversity-equity-inclusion).\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m sure the Singapore-based crew were certainly inclusive of West Asians, but not a product of US hiring practices.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s not likely that this was a \u201cterrorist attack\u201d (though that would make a great movie, starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck??).\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m sure that angle will be checked out.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s definitely not \u201cthe fault\u201d of Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, even though he\u2019s a Democrat.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m pretty sure he wasn\u2019t driving or guiding the ship out of the harbor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This just isn\u2019t about modern American politics.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s about what we always expect our government to do, whether it\u2019s Democrats in Maryland, or Republicans here in Ohio with the East Palestine train derailment.\u00a0\u00a0We expect the government to \u201ctake care\u201d of the problems, and provide solutions as quickly as possible.\u00a0\u00a0Mayor Brandon Scott, Governor Wes Moore, Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and of course President Biden; it\u2019s \u201call on\u201d you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"