UPDATE: 47 deaths thus far

I am in awe of the scale of hubris, greed and neglect that produced this disaster. But every aspect is very “on brand” (as my son would say) for Texas.

I predict there will be an inquiry and reports galore. And some years from now, just like the sequence after Katrina, it will be concluded that it was not, in fact, the storm/weather but the catastrophic neglect of the levees/generators etc… by then no one will be paying attention, so preoccupied we will be with the most recent failure.

Will anything change? Or will we continue to stagger from disaster to disaster? Chanting brave slogans “____Strong” (fill in the blank) We act like we’re cheering for a sports team. Pointing to small acts and threads of kindness and generosity as evidence that we are still caring human beings. Increasing our reliance on a social service sector to pick up the pieces our failed systems have scattered about. Substituting individual heroics and small acts for collective mitigation and preparation. Cascades of catastrophes are not “in our future”. They are in our Now.

Infrastructure. Infrastructure. Infrastructure. The most boring aspects of government. Energy. Transportation. Logistics. Ports. Grids. Power. Water. Storm protection.

Smart, large scale, multi-year, no glamour, no camera projects, addressing our vulnerabilities and basic necessities. (ie : not another f-ing freeway expansion because it’s not 1975. FFS.)Infrastructure.

The “foundation” of everything. And in about 15 minutes in #Texas, after a catastrophic failure, we went from learning and talking about ERCOT, energy sources, supply and delivery to talking about Ted Cruz’s attempted vacation. Like idiotic magpies.

I look for, but cannot find, the leadership that could harness the necessary long term, wholistic new thinking and constructive action needed to navigate this era of upheaval.

Just leaping about holding press conferences and thanking one another for picking up the pieces from their own failures.

© Angela Blanchard