Our virtual debate via technology sent me searching in many directions for answers - still illusive - but ohhh, so worthwhile to highlight.
Is America the greatest country in the world? Absolutely not - it's deteriorating!
America does have the greatest PR machine and Main Street voters continue to buy into a vast mass marketing program from every state and federal politician - working diligently to keep the following realities as quiet as possible. In this 2020 Election Year - armed with even a little extra information voters can ask serious targeted questions and insist on answers this time - not [budget] excuses, which are just that.
IT IS the people living on Main Street America who make America great! Our overall leadership - 'not' so much...
Main Street functions with a practical, logical, straightforward approach - while [most] politicians do-not. Trump attempted to identify the level to which business-as-usual in our nation's capital had sunk when he labeled DC a "swamp". He was mistaken. The-Hill in the District of Columbia is one l-o-n-g, w-i-d-e BUFFET from which far too many federally elected people - who hold a public office of trust - take from us for themselves...
Members of Congress and the Senate are busy shuffling budgets [supported by our taxes] from one ledger column to another too often for pet projects and a gain that only makes a difference to those who contribute to their reelection and/or to a lobby system - too often narrowly focused. [eg. banks, military contractors etc...]
Airports...The last time America's national airports received a major overall update was in the late 1950s/early 60s. Since then the system has been 'patched' together - not even on a regular schedule as needed - but too often after a malfunction that narrowly averted an incident. And it wasn't only due to aging radar and I.T. but a weakened electrical grid. Nationally an investment of 130 Billion [or 26B a year for five years] would bring our airports up to 2015 technological standards.
Electrical Grid...If you want to stay awake nights terrified then read Gretchen Bakke's book "The Grid". Between the mid 1950s and 1980s power outages averaged less than 5 in a year. In 2007 there were 76 and by 2011 the increase was more than 300 a year. Though taxpayers have invested millions in subsidies for the development of renewable energy, America isn't capable of taking advantage of green-energy like solar panels and wind power because most of it can't be integrated into our aging grid. Our electrical grid is not capable of 'storing' the additional power. And worse yet our national electrical grid is a national security risk - it's weak and unstable - a fact not a secret to factions with the capability of crashing it. The estimated cost to update America's electrical grid is a cheery $5T. [That's Trillion folks.]
Mass Transit...One hundred years ago the public transportation system in America was the envy of the world. One hundred years later - much of America's mass transit is still 100 years old. Most rural communities once had train service between towns that moved people and goods. Larger urban cities enjoyed an efficient above ground trolley system [that ran on clean electricity later converted to buses that ran on electricity] and underground subways. By the 1920s a motorized car for every family had become almost a quest, spurred on by a growing political lobby system of car manufacturers and petroleum industry executives - who golfed, and had lunches [and more] with lawmakers. They held influence with the lure of high employment and with greater employment an increasing tax [revenue] base - from voters.
[Ohhh, but gee-whiz where did all our tax money go? Was it - has it - been spent wisely? No...]
U.S. Sea Ports...From east and west coastal ports to along the Mississippi and the Great Lakes, America's ability to keep pace with the rest of the world peaked in the mid 1980s. Besides a security structure and tracking procedures that hold water like a coffee filter - due to aging technology - if the U.S. could export our products at a higher volume it would also mean a better balance of trade.
Water...Slowly through the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and the post war boom of the 1950s and 60s a vast sewer system with POTWs [Public Owned Treatment Works] and clean drinking water was the pride of every community from small towns to large cities. But less than 12% of the sewage [POTWs] or pipes carrying drinking water have been replaced in their original areas since, unless there was a main break requiring localized 'repair'. Hence the issue that rose to the surface [excuse the pun] with Flint, Michigan. And even the 'newer' water systems engineered in our ever expanding suburbs during the 1970s, 80s and 90s have remained out of sight out of mind for most municipalities.Since we're already 20 years into the 21st Century every pipe laid prior to 1980 is a candidate for the Antique Road Show. The estimate for a national [overdue] plumbing update is 384 Billion.
But even beyond the water [to America's older neighborhoods] that people need in their homes - a threat to the water source itself is vulnerable. The average age of America's 84,000 damns is 52 years. With inadequate maintenance and environmental issues we can assume all of the dams built between 1930 and 1970 are on the verge of being structurally compromised. Added New Note...The damns that failed in Midland County, Michigan - causing 10,000 residents to evacuate Edenville had poor federal inspection reports for twenty years straight. BUT that doesn't absolve our federal government of their responsibility. Why wasn't the structural weaknesses corrected then the cost of that repair subtracted from annual federal-state funding? WHY? Perhaps Midland's federal representative John Moolenaar could answer that why?
Bridges...The vast majority of America's 'newer' bridges are already 60 years old. Just addressing the backlog of tackling those maintenance and improvement projects will be about 189 Billion.
Information Technology [I.T.]...And if you have been impressed with the stats so far - you're gonna luv what our government departments are run on. The latest I.T. that was first installed - was in use when Nixon ran for office! I kid you not! This [besides being connected to an aging grid] is also a National Security/cyber security issue. [That's why so much outsourcing is done to private contractors - but who are these private contractors? How do we monitor them?]
I.T.]-A...Our Defense Department has a 53 year old [backup system] to send and receive nuclear emergency action messages running on a 1970s computer that uses 8-inch floppy disks incapable of anywhere near the storage of modern flash drives. [Replacement parts are hard to find.] It was set for a complete replacement in 2020 however, the Chief Information Officer considered that system completely secure - because - it was a closed system. [An outhouse is a 'closed' system too, but let's see a show of hands for those who want one.]
**Side note: besides an aging federal information technology gap, severe budget cuts in nearly every state in the Union [since 2008] has been exposed by Covid19. With thousands of people applying for their Unemployment Insurance Benefits - it's not the number of people applying that has crashed the system - it's aging I.T. systems unable to handle the traffic. Once again - who gets hurt? Who gets hurt are the very people whose taxes pay for state and federal infrastructure including underfunded state pensions. Poor management of our taxes has been chronic for decades, but continues to be so because there are no consequences for poor performance...
I.T.]-A...Our Defense Department has a 53 year old [backup system] to send and receive nuclear emergency action messages running on a 1970s computer that uses 8-inch floppy disks incapable of anywhere near the storage of modern flash drives. [Replacement parts are hard to find.] It was set for a complete replacement in 2020 however, the Chief Information Officer considered that system completely secure - because - it was a closed system. [An outhouse is a 'closed' system too, but let's see a show of hands for those who want one.]
**Side note: besides an aging federal information technology gap, severe budget cuts in nearly every state in the Union [since 2008] has been exposed by Covid19. With thousands of people applying for their Unemployment Insurance Benefits - it's not the number of people applying that has crashed the system - it's aging I.T. systems unable to handle the traffic. Once again - who gets hurt? Who gets hurt are the very people whose taxes pay for state and federal infrastructure including underfunded state pensions. Poor management of our taxes has been chronic for decades, but continues to be so because there are no consequences for poor performance...
I.T.]-B...The master file at the Internal Revenue Service where the public's taxes are assessed and refunds are generated runs on a 1950s 'assembly-language-code'. It can only run on a single computer that is difficult to maintain and is the main reason the IRS makes mistakes and has trouble addressing refund fraud.
I.T.]-C...The Social Security Administration has a slightly 'newer' system that is only 31 years old. However it has been patched together with no less that 162 subsystems - some of which runs on an early 1960s programming language called COBOL. [See IBM museum archives!]
I.T.]-D...The 26 year old computer system used by the State Department to track and validate annual visa information for about 55,000 foreign nationals is no longer supported by the original vendor. And - it's system like 'all' the other government departments eats up a large chunk of the annual budget in maintenance that would be significantly reduced and more efficiently used if replaced completely then kept updated. [Gosh - do you suppose we might need to track who shouldn't be here like oh I don't know - someone who is a possible threat?]
I.T.]-E...Then again the cost of maintaining the Transportation Departments records to monitor thousands of companies that make and ship and store hazardous materials has steadily increased annually - with a database record system that pretty much parallel's that of the State Department - patched, flawed and vulnerable.
Apparently in February 2018 Trump presented an Infrastructure Plan to the 115th Republican led Congress. The proposal was $200 Billion in federal funding and 1.5 Trillion from the private sector. Democrats opposed that Plan because due to its structure of state and local funding with private investments. Okay - was Trump's Infrastructure Plan so flawed that the [then] Republican Majority couldn't work with most Democrats? [Though there was a persistent undermining Republican faction led by John McCain (R-AZ) openly supported by Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and John Kerry (R-UT)) -and- a government shut-down -and- the Muller Investigation of Trump.] But once again what was 'best' for America as a whole ["We-The-People"] was sacrificed.
Personal Envy and inflated Ego hurt the 115th Congress potential for Trump the way Envy and Ego hurt some of Obama's efforts within the Democratic Party. So - who in state and federal political office is looking ahead and thinking of their District and how each District affect the others and other states? Far too few politicians look ahead beyond 'their' next election campaign. [For the record - I'm a registered Independent who voted for George H. [1st-term] then Clinton B. [1st-term] then George W. [both-terms] then Obama B. [both-terms] then yup Trump D. -because- he wasn't a career politician...]
Moving on...The important point here is America. Year after year - decade after decade - generation after generation voters are born and die while Infrastructure In America ages. Petty distractions come and go that do nothing to move America forward or prepare America to deal with issues already identified and those yet to be recognized for the rest of the 21st Century...
The 10 Best states for infrastructure are: Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Georgia. The 10 Worst states for infrastructure are: Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Naturally each of the other 30 states [not including any of the U.S. Protectorates] fall somewhere in the middle. Look up your state - find the weaknesses then start making phone calls and writing emails - and - phone and write again. Think of your voter responsibility like any task in your life that requires upkeep. It would be nice if we only needed to mow our lawns or do laundry every two years, but grass and laundry needs attention every week. It would be nice if we only needed to vacuum our carpets or wash our cars once every four years...you get the idea.
America is vast and complicated, but we-the-people can no longer afford the 'luxury' of unlimited, blind trust in the hands of too many people who have truly let us down either through incompetence or compromised ethics. Now, months before the 2020 Election with so many of us with more time - we need to stay in monthly contact with every single person we last voted for and check how they're doing. What have they been doing? Do they deserve our vote again? Maybe not...!
The 10 Best states for infrastructure are: Oregon, Washington, Utah, Nevada, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Georgia. The 10 Worst states for infrastructure are: Mississippi, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Naturally each of the other 30 states [not including any of the U.S. Protectorates] fall somewhere in the middle. Look up your state - find the weaknesses then start making phone calls and writing emails - and - phone and write again. Think of your voter responsibility like any task in your life that requires upkeep. It would be nice if we only needed to mow our lawns or do laundry every two years, but grass and laundry needs attention every week. It would be nice if we only needed to vacuum our carpets or wash our cars once every four years...you get the idea.
America is vast and complicated, but we-the-people can no longer afford the 'luxury' of unlimited, blind trust in the hands of too many people who have truly let us down either through incompetence or compromised ethics. Now, months before the 2020 Election with so many of us with more time - we need to stay in monthly contact with every single person we last voted for and check how they're doing. What have they been doing? Do they deserve our vote again? Maybe not...!
*Sherrie Todd-Beshore was a feature writer and columnist [for a number of magazines and newspapers Memoir From 'There' to 'Here'] who shifted to fiction in 2006 with 16 novels in print. This blog attempts to highlight some of the social issues reaching critical mass in America. The next one is: Journalism In America...
http://www.patchworkpublishing.com/
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