While I am enjoying my mug of organically & shade-grown, fair-trade, Guatemalan-Roast coffee, my thoughts are of Wednesday’s catastrophic collapse of the Interstate 35W Mississippi River Bridge.

I spent the entire day glued to the radio listening to the coverage of this tragedy, I couldn’t tear myself away. It was our own 9-11—‘though on a much smaller scale. We were horrified by the tragedy, buoyed by the stories of survival and the selfless actions of ordinary citizens in helping the victims, and by the extraordinary response of our emergency services personnel.

We still don’t know the extent of lives lost to this disaster, and it may be days before we do. Recovery efforts, suspended yesterday due to dangerous currents around the debris, making it too risky for divers to search. I suspect that by manipulating dams on the river they are attempting to lower the water level, and decrease the current in the search area.

When I finally stopped listening to the radio or watching TV news of the event last night, I came away with a number of things to reflect upon, ranging from very negative, to very positive: (more)