Kansas' Entire Congressional Delegation Should Support Infrastructure Investments

By Timothy Adams, Kansas Reflector

May 22, 2021

The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Timothy Adams is a retired Newton High School history teacher and a retired U.S. Navy veteran. He lives in North Newton.

There have been lots of newsworthy happenings lately. Unfortunately most of them are troublesome, but at least one is close to miraculous.

The rapid development and free access to medically sound COVID-19 vaccines should be recognized as one of the great health-related achievements in human history. In only a few months, a pandemic which could have killed tens of millions is slowly coming under control.

If the same medical expertise had been available in the 14th Century, an estimated 75 to 200 million lives would have been spared in Europe and Asia. Today though, instead of giving thanks, close to 50% of Americans seem to be disdainful of miracles. The resultant vaccine hesitancy and the rush to maskless living will most certainly delay a return to “normal” and could allow a mutated Covid organism the time to become vaccine resistant.

It’s a good thing that Americans in the 1950s had more trust in science, otherwise polio would still be front-page news.

The current casual acceptance of possible death and a complete disregard for others seems to be a continued outlier in human behavior. Regardless of mind-boggling technological advances, way too many humans are still narrowly focused, mired in ideological dead ends and resistant to any form of enlightenment.

The post-pandemic American economy is slowly on the mend thanks to improved job openings. That would be good news if people were rushing back to work, but that’s just not the case especially if they would be stuck in their same old low paying, soul crushing jobs. It’s easy to blame job reentry delay on generous federal Covid assistance, except that for once millions of Americans can for a time earn enough to put food on the table and plan for a better future.

Employers, at least those with some semblance of humanity, might take a moment to reflect on the collective economic and social strength of a nation fully employed with a workforce able to earn a decent living while enjoying the benefits of quality healthcare and education. What’s the downside, maybe put the mega-yacht industry out of business?

Such a workforce could be on the horizon if the proposed federal infrastructure plan is realized. Of course, Congressional Republicans whine about the $2 trillion price tag, but where were those same politicians who over the past 20 years squandered $6.4 trillion on wars in Central Asia and the Middle-East? And what did that accomplish except to bring horrific destruction to many countries who were no real threat to us, and enrich the already bloated defense industry? The only work created during this mess was in the military, mostly among the enlisted ranks who earn so little that their families have to rely on food assistance.

In the meantime, our home infrastructure crumbled through legislative neglect. The future is clear: We must put the same effort and skills into a complete infrastructure restoration that we accomplished with the Covid-19 threat. Infrastructure is not only roads and bridges, but a wholesale rethinking of what defines a thriving nation, human as well as structural.

Kansas’ entire Congressional delegation should support new investments in infrastructure, which should touch every institution: family, education, government, the economy and work and health care.

World War II provides the template, let’s do it now during peacetime. That would be good news.

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