Posted by
Ric Dibney on Thursday, August 02, 2007 8:44:12 PM
All I want to say at this time is that I am tired of "news cycles". The current "cycle" involves the barely day-old tragedy involving the 35W bridge in the Twin Cities. People lost their lives. Others were severely injured. Many more have had their daily lives affected for the foreseeable future. The human element of this incident can be explored in depth. But here we are, roughly 26 hours have passed, and already it would seem there is a "crisis" involving America's infrastructure. And there are some who seem to think the answer for every problem is more taxpayers' money. And there are others, many others, sniffing around in the fog of other peoples' pain for someone to blame. What does it mean that the bridge was given an evaluation in 2005 that was "structurally deficient?" Whose head should roll for this? I haven't heard yet that it's W's fault for diverting funds that should have went to bridges and sending them to Iraq, but we are just hours into this.
Isn't it true that sometimes a tragedy is just a tragedy? Don't we have men and women doing the best they can all over our country to inspect and repair and evaluate our bridges and highways already? Does anybody doubt that the folks in Minnesota were doing their best? (Don't answer that). Is it at all possible that everyone was doing their jobs and tragedy struck anyway? Is there room for that sort of thinking today? Or are we destined always for a parade of experts and pundits and university professors to analyze the "crisis" to death each time something happens in this country? Are FoxNews and CNN that desperate for ratings? I really wonder if there isn't someone at PMSNBC who sees something like this as a "ratings winner". It's sick I know. But how much more sick is it to see how long something like this is strung out. Every ounce of relevance is milked out of the accidents and spills and murders and missing person cases that most catch the public's eye. It is making careers for certain people in media today. There are certain folks who seem to cover nothing but the mistrials and collapsed bridges of America.
I think there are times when we just need time to mourn. We don't need the networks to figure it all out for us and have someone to finger for our tragedy before we turn in for the night. And we certainly don't need more from the Democrats turning every incident into a political football. Sometimes we just need to cry, to reflect, to rebuild, and to try to get on with our lives. So pack up your news trucks, shut down your helicopters, roll up your microphone cords and get out of our faces. Sometimes tragedy is just tragedy, not a ratings winner.