We Are The Common Good

If you've had your television set on lately, you have seen the mangled remains of the I35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, and those images are shocking - just plain shocking.

Attempts to remove the dead from the river continue; the injured are recovering from their wounds. The politicians are scurrying about trying to make sure the responsibility falls elsewhere, even as they contemplate raising the gas tax to begin to go to work on the long-deferred problems on our roads and bridges. It seems politicians cannot imagine the future and always like to forget the past.

As I have thought about this local tragedy, I find that I have two reactions: this was a real test of our emergency services, and they appear to have passed with flying colors. Personnel had been well trained; communications systems worked to plan, and the hospitals successfully met the demands imposed. I guess one could call that an operational/strategic reaction.

The second reaction is harder to write about because it is predominantly emotional. When I think of the young man who helped all those kiddoes off the school bus in a precarious position, I find the tears welling up...or when I hear about the passersby and neighbors who saw what had happened and got involved until the police and fire personnel arrived...or when I saw on television the female fire fighter who went into the water to do a complete check of all the automobiles she could reach and said, "We needed to be sure those vehicles were unoccuplied, and it was just part of the job,"...or when I read about the work colleagues of Sherry L. Engebretsen who died in the collapse and their response to her death and their strong continuing support of her family.

Some of us would say, "Well, that's just Minnesotans for you."

Not true, mostly...not any more.

Like a lot of places in this country, we are a diverse metropolitan area, but we share one thing in common: We have survived Minnesota winters, whether it's just the last one or all the ones since World War II. We understand what it's like to dress like the Pillsbury Doughboy (or Michelin Tire, for you across the pond), We know what it's like to fall on our rear-ends on an icy walk. We share a deep and abiding gratitude for a heating system that works, for a cup of coffee hot enough to throw off a curl of steam, for a sack of sand in the trunk of the car, and for a dog who comes promptly when you've whistled him in from an open door when its 30 below zero (f.).

These are our shared values, so when one of us gets in over our heads, we don't stop to do a lot of analysis, we just pitch in.

And we did. Now, this wasn't Hurricane Katrina or anything like that, but it was more than enough, and we stood up to it pretty well.

The investigation and the inevitable lawsuits will drag on for years, and the politicians will have skedaddled behind the nearest hay stack, but those of us who live here are grateful for the help offered with no conditions, for that was, in its own way, a gift to all of us who live here.

In this sad event we have been reminded that it is the common good which requires our service from time to time. And there was no bickering about differences of color or belief or anything else to impede the decision to act, as there might have been in other parts of the world.

In our sadness for what happened, we are simultaneously reminded of why we live here. Not just the challenges and joys of our winters, but the realization that it's one boat we're all in, and when the time comes, each of us has to be prepared to pull on the oar.