When did the word infrastructure come into my vocabulary? In the ‘80’s … maybe. It’s one of those words that get its meaning more from context than its formal explanation. Defined by dictionary, the word is most often used to describe the physical structures that underpin a business or a community, e.g. roads, power production, water sources, etc.
Infrastructure is the autonomic nervous system of civilized living. It functions without notice until it doesn’t. There is a tendency to assume that it will all work without our attention. It’s just there, like air. The words of the old song, ‘You’re gonna miss me when I’m gone” might be rewritten to acknowledge that we don’t appreciate the importance of infrastructure until it’s gone … as when the power fails or the road is out or we have a boil water advisory.
Texas is a perfect example of communal hubris and neglect, rejecting the lessons learned from a previous storm related power failure. The infrastructure related to power collapsed. Texans assumed that all would be well, that someone was “taking care” of things… thus no power, no heat in freezing weather and even more ominously, no potable water!
Are there lessons to be learned from Texas?
And didn’t the pandemic bring us up short to understand an extended definition of infrastructure?
The pandemic required us to ask what is necessary, important and this important hierarchy reveals another dimension of infrastructure. Living with Covid has revealed a plethora of interconnections (read infrastructure) that exist to support the economic, sociological, psychological and political structures of our society.
All of a sudden, low wage workers have become essential workers, who without any additional remuneration, are called on to provide service at great risk during the time when we were all asked to stay home. Essential workers had to accept the risk of contact to keep our society going. They bore a greater burden of contact that those of us who could stay home. This begs the question of who these workers are and how we compensate that which is important work.
Schools became far more than the budgets that were haggled over every year, the place where our kids learned to read and write, to absorb the culture of our nation, etc. It quickly became clear that schools perform important, critical underpinnings for the economy as well as the personal growth and safety of the children. “Open the schools, let the teachers and the students take the risk to save the economy”, a cry heard from many quarters in both high and low places. Sad commentary, at least from my perspective. How often did we think that without schools, the economy would faulter? Did we consider that some children would be at risk of hunger, even danger if they weren’t at school?
And, it became dramatically apparent that there are not enough medical professionals or hospital beds to accommodate all who need help during a pandemic. There are not enough beds or medical professionals to treat all who are in need of care when the primary focus is on caring for the Covid 19 afflicted. Were we aware of this? Should we have been better prepared? It became very clear in New York City how the difference between how health care was provided and how we could quickly respond to the needs of the populace infected with Covid was dramatic. In areas of the country where hospitals have gone out of business, there were no resources to treat Covid patients. When Emergency Departments and ICU’s were full of Covid … no room for other sick people. And didn’t we realize that doctors and nurses and respiratory therapists and housekeeping staff can get the virus too?
In the beginning, the thought was that we would approach this infection as if we were at war, with a united front. A bipartisan, whole country response! American exceptionalism! Mobilize our resources to fight the virus! But the pandemic quickly showed that we were not only unprepared but the values of the populace, what was important and behavior based on what was important produced a fractured front. Instead of science and unified resolve, we got resistance. Those with loud voices and nefarious agendas encouraged these rifts because of … any number of spurious reasons .. a sense of individual “rights”, political machinations from inside and outside the United States and an off-putting sense that “my comfort, my fun, my, my…” is more important than the lives of others.
In Asia, and this applies to most countries regardless of ethnicity, government structure, culture, etc., the people returned to “normal” life quickly after a short period of complete lockdown, while here we still hear things like, “Let the old people die off. Go for herd immunity …. Cull the weak and we will go to football games and Spring break and have big parties because it won’t affect me”… This keeps the virus circulating, spreading and mutating. If I were to draw an analogy, it would be as if during a shooting war, we harbored some of the enemy in our homes and then sent them out to fight again.
So, searching for the definition of the word infrastructure within the context of today, we see how those things that we depend on have been challenged and have laid bare troubling faults in what we thought was a nimble, responsive and united country. At base, the relevant infrastructure, far more than roads, etc., is that of values we share and what the cost is of living those values creates.
I am all for fixing the roads and bridges, finding better, more sustainable ways to produce power. Doing this creates a stronger economy and better living conditions. I am even more interested in fixing the fractured value system that draws imaginary lines between people, chaotic responses to national problems and a cruel selfishness that is embarrassing at best and costly poisonous at the least.
And … leaving us vulnerable to the machinations of those who replace democracy with something else.
