Where Did The Transportation Crisis Go?
By Jerry Fuhrman
Now that we've mostly settled the macaca matter once and for all, finally, we can get back to the one crisis that looms largest for all humankind, a problem that, if not dealt with, will most assuredly bring about the destruction of all life on the planet.
No, I'm not referring to the report released last week, the details of which were reported in the Washington Post, that sent shivers down the spines of Red Lobster busboys everywhere, a study that predicted the extinction of the planet's ocean marine species within the next 50 years due to over-harvesting.
And I'm not referring to the worsening global warming crisis that prompts thousands of overpaid and underworked United Nations delegates to be assembling, as you read this, in Nairobi, Kenya, so as to find a solution to the planetary carbon dioxide emissions dilemma. Thousands of delegates.
Two weeks. All expenses paid. At luxury hotels. With plenty of adult beverages. Live entertainment. Poolside frivolity. Fun and sun. Stretch limos. Private jets. Gathered together to figure out how to conserve the planet's precious resources. On your dime. A crisis indeed.
Nor am I bringing up the dreadful calamity that is soon to result from Category 5 hurricanes slamming into the Gulf region, as all the experts have predicted. They tell us that the warming temperatures of the oceans will cause shifting weather patterns that will bring ruin, once again, to New Orleans and southern Mississippi. Maybe even before the end of hurricane season, which is fast approaching.
Beyond these imminent catastrophes, there are also brooding crises having to do with E. coli in our spinach and flu bugs in our chickens, medigap and the earnings gap, prophets as cartoon characters and evangelists as immoral characters, and Mel Gibson. Problems, to be sure, of biblical proportions.
None of these troubles, though, holds a candle to what we face currently here in Virginia. Or, to be accurate, what we faced just a few short months ago. A problem that must have corrected itself while we were all distracted, trying to keep up with more important matters like what a macaca is.
Just what the heck happened to all those crumbling roads and bridges? To our deteriorating infrastructure? To VDOT's impending demise? To the end of life as we know it? Did someone sneak into town in dark of night and resolve our monumental transportation crisis while we slept? They must have, because nobody is whining about it any more.
It seems it wasn't that long ago that we were subjected to this:
• Gov. Tim Kaine: "Solving Virginia's transportation crisis is the most urgent issue facing my administration, and I am getting started on it right away."
• State Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr.: "While traveling across Virginia, I realize that Virginia has one of America's worst transportation crises."
• Bev Fitzpatrick, chairman, Virginia Municipal League's Transportation Policy Committee: "Virginia is in a crisis that would have our Founding Fathers rolling in their graves. The lead state of all the colonies has forsaken its responsibility to ensure a future for its citizens by not investing strategically in a long-term solution for our transportation needs."
Gosh. Urgent issue? One of the worst? Sounds serious. How did we let these dire warnings go unheeded? Could it be that we saw the hype for what it is? A naked -- and feckless -- attempt at growing state government?
After Mark Warner pulled the same stunt (substituting the word education for transportation), could it be that the people of Virginia have gotten wise to the game being played?
If our democratic republic teetered on the brink, is it possible that a small handful of Republicans in the House of Delegates, led by the courageous and indomitable Morgan Griffith, could have stopped this train in its tracks? Seems so.
Because the transportation crisis is as dead as a turkey in the oven. An apt metaphor for so much of this shameful saga.
