Proponents of “inevitability” have always been prone to condescension, examples of which are liberally sprinkled throughout Chairman Dalby’s essay in today’s Tribune.
In such arguments, superior strength and iron certainty must be conveyed to the listener, the feeling that someone so far removed from the seat of power and authority essentially has no rational say in the matter.
Bob Knight expressed similar sentiments when he counseled rape victims to relax and enjoy the experience. It’s also reminiscent of medieval Europe, when flesh-and-blood men — not gods from afar — built huge, towering cathedrals, and then pointed to the immensity of these structures as irrefutable evidence of a higher power’s inevitability.
How could mere mortals fathom such grandeur without supernatural sanction?
Supporters of the Ohio River Bridges Project now exhibit the same attitude, one unconsciously echoed by Kevin Zurschmiede at last Thursday’s council meeting: This project is so big, so impressive, so very irrefutable, that smaller minds have no place in the discussion. We can only cower in awe as the earth is moved, and lower our trousers while smiling at our good fortune to have lived and died only slightly before the bridges are finished.
Apart from a palpable irritation with area plebians for refusing to bow to the inevitable, as devised by extra-governmental functionaries who are not in any way answerable to voters, Dalby reiterates a familiar case for two bridges and a reworking of Spaghetti Junction.
However, precisely because the idea of tolling existing bridges to pay for the forthcoming boondoggle is the mother of all Achilles Heels for bridges project proponents, Dalby gives it short and dismissive shrift.
There’ll be much more to say about Dalby’s treatise in the coming days. In the meantime, cutting through the verbiage, the veracity of his position comes down to this single paragraph.
It is a delusional vision. They have missed a key element — reality. The reality is that to get a real transportation solution for the Louisville region that serves the needs of today and the next 50 years, we have to add capacity— and capacity comes in the form of highway lanes.
Is reality the addition of capacity, or isn’t it? Let’s discuss.
