I must have driven both directions across the I-35 bridge 3,000 times during my six years in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Only a few times did I ever entertain a “what if” thought of the thing collapsing. You never do your life that way, right?
Both of my children were born in St. Paul. We lived in both cities during our time there. The cities are peppered with massive bridges spanning the mighty Mississippi.
It’s deeply tragic, this collapse of the I-35 bridge. Of course it is. I’m simply thinking right now of all the victims and their loved ones, and praying silently for the rescue and recovery efforts.
Minnesota is an amazing place, populated with some of the most caring and engaged people I’ve ever known. That is true of people everywhere, I believe, when catastrophes occur. We all pitch in and do whatever we can to help. But whatever it is — that hardy Scandinavian-Lutheran-Democrat-Farm-Labor personality that Garrison Keillor has always captured so perfectly in his writing and radio monologues, perhaps — these people will band together and soldier on.
I wish them all the best.
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I must have driven both directions across the I-35 bridge 3,000 times during my six years in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Only a few times did I ever entertain a “what if” thought of the thing collapsing. You never do your life that way, right?
Both of my children were born in St. Paul. We lived in both cities during our time there. The cities are peppered with massive bridges spanning the mighty Mississippi.
It’s deeply tragic, this collapse of the I-35 bridge. Of course it is. I’m simply thinking right now of all the victims and their loved ones, and praying silently for the rescue and recovery efforts.
Minnesota is an amazing place, populated with some of the most caring and engaged people I’ve ever known. That is true of people everywhere, I believe, when catastrophes occur. We all pitch in and do whatever we can to help. But whatever it is — that hardy Scandinavian-Lutheran-Democrat-Farm-Labor personality that Garrison Keillor has always captured so perfectly in his writing and radio monologues, perhaps — these people will band together and soldier on.
I wish them all the best.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, August 2nd, 2007 at 8:49 am and is filed under All, Community, One World.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Amen and amen. When I retired in 80, the Coast Guard was responsie for inspecting bridges without adequate funds as per usual. I’m waiting to hear what they have to say.
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:23 pm
My favorite Prairie-Populist was Paul Wellstone, a philosophical and political descendent of Hubert Humphrey.
Wish he was still with us…….
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:40 pm
Oh, Paul Wellstone. I had the good fortune of interviewing him and his wife, Sheila, just days after he launched his first U.S. Senate campaign back in 1992. He was the real thing. They were so grass-roots and unknown that they met me in a Denny’s on the outskirts of Minneapolis for the interview. No one recognized him, no one had any idea who he was. A few months after that, Wellstone came up with that fabulous TV ad blitz that played off Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me” only using his Republican opponent and Senate powerhouse Rudy Boschwitz as the butt of the “where’s Rudy” joke. It was a genius campaign and along with his brains and common man sensibilities, helped him win the seat.
I miss him terribly.
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Being a Scandanavian, Lutheran, Democrat (albeit not from Minnesota), I loved the time I spent in Minneapolis on different business trips, including a trip to a Packer - Viking game. Great people. My heart breaks for them….
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm
The last time I was in Minneapolis was over ten years ago. At that time the bridge in question had been on a list of “substandard” bridges for over five years. The fact that our bridges are crumbling is not news unfortunately. We even know which ones are most likely to collapse. I fear we are going to have quite a few more of these before we decide to actually fix them.
August 3rd, 2007 at 3:51 pm
“American Assassination: The Strange Death Of Senator Paul Wellstone” (Paperback)by Four Arrows (Author), James H. Fetzer (Author)
I was never a conspiracy theorist nut but in the last six years I have been converted and this book was part of the persuasion.
Frightening.
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Larry;
I have not read Fetzer`s book and certainly would not put murder beyond someone like Cheney. But, I own a similar aircraft to the one that crashed and read the NTSB and AOPA synopsis of the accident. The two pilots seemed to have simply screwed up the approach to Eveleth. Takes team work to execute a non-precision VOR procedure with one guy flying and the other double checking altitude,speed and in this case VOR course displacement. Also, they had no back-up from ATC center radar. Much more difficult than flying into SFO or LAX and being under constant surveillance from approach control.
Paul Wellstone`s death was such a tragedy…he was a voice for the underprivileged and spoke out against Iraq, long before it was fashionable to do so. I hope Norm Coleman goes down to defeat next year……just a pretty-boy weenie who lip-syncs with Cheney.
August 5th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Anyone who lip-syncs with Cheney makes me believe in conspiracy theories…uck.