Putting up with Pulling Down

for paNOW

When I drove over the Diefenbaker bridge recently, I noted how badly the guard between the sidewalk and the roadway had deteriorated. Pieces of cement the size of flagstones have fallen away.

Which summer was traffic held up to make that mess? A picture of the crack in the superstructure was shown recently. Heavy trucks are not allowed across the bridge at the moment. That bridge does not inspire confidence and yet patch upon patch is slapped on each summer.

Former mayor Jim Stiglitz is correct in saying there should have been money set aside ten years ago to replace that bridge. Where in the Bible does it say that new cloth should not be used to patch old clothes? Patches is a good name for a dog but it is not good policy for bridges.

Husband and I were in Dresden, Germany this summer. On February 13, 1945, just weeks before the end of World War Two, 1200 British and American bombers laid down such a carpet of explosives that a fire storm erupted and the old part of the city was totally destroyed.

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What happened? The citizens rebuilt the entire area, brick by brick and stone by stone, just as it had been before the war. The incredibly beautiful Frauenkirche was a pile of rubble 42 feet high, left for 50 years by the East German government. The restoration, 1985-2005, used a computer to identify the original location of every stone. A coincidence: the English goldsmith who fashioned the gold cross situated at the roof's highest point, is the son of one of the British pilots who bombed the city.

There are two experiences in Europe that never fail to amaze me: walking where people of history walked and seeing the absolutely incredible rebuilding of historic Europe and the British isles.

Much of the clearing of the rubble and rebuilding was done by hand by the women of Europe because the men had not yet returned home. Imagine.