EC from DC - June 27, 2014
It is time.
In fact, it's way past time.
And for the sake of generating jobs, revitalizing the economy, allowing businesses to grow, and assisting communities in forming around solid infrastructure, we must reauthorize the nation's transportation funding. I spoke on the Floor of the House of Representatives this week in hopes of highlighting the decisive role transportation and infrastructure play in all of our lives.
Here's the bottom line, the crumbling infrastructure in Missouri's Fifth District is maddening, frustrating, and just plain unnecessary.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers in a 2013 report card:
- 3,500 bridges in Missouri are considered structurally deficient
- More than 3,300 (14% of the bridges in our state) are considered functionally obsolete
In just a few months, the highway and transit programs in this country will expire. Before that though, we could see the Highway Trust Fund become insolvent as soon as August.
This is a sad day in our history. We must pass a highway and transportation infrastructure bill. And we must do it now.
Why?
- Every dollar invested in Missouri transportation generates $4 of economic activity
- For every $1 billion spent on transportation - 34,000 direct and indirect jobs are created
- Investment in transportation infrastructure generates growth and jobs during initial design, construction and post construction
We must not sit back while our highways and bridges crumble - playing partisan politics while our infrastructure deteriorates more and more each day.
If you'd like to view the Floor Speech to hear more on this issue, please click here.
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Our nation's capital recently welcomed a group of future leaders who, in my humble opinion, might prove more civil and functional in Congress, than what is going on right now. One of those future leaders is Orrick High School incoming Senior Mitchell Martinez. He and his FFA Advisor, Don Honeycott, stopped by the office to talk about issues of importance in our rural, urban, and suburban communities in Missouri's Fifth District, before heading off for a tour of the Capitol.
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While many others sleep in on the weekends, Jackie Strickland climbs out of bed, and begins bagging lunches for the homeless throughout her area. The Grandview C4 School District cook recently learned her big heart was going to mean a big grant for those she works so tirelessly to help. Strickland was named the Sodexo 2014 Hero of Everyday Lifee, and received a $5,000 grant that will be donated to the hunger charity of her choice. The not-for-profit Sodexo Foundation was created in 1999 with the goal of ending childhood hunger. She chose the City Union Mission as her charity. Her personal donations, of time, treasure, and her talent, number in the thousands of dollars and hours -- but the true reach of her selflessness is priceless.
As an ordained United Methodist Church minister, when I speak at home or around the country, I am exceedingly particular about the language I use to express my support for, or opposition to, political or policy positions. I am humble enough to recognize clearly that the voice of God that I hear is sometimes really my voice in disguise, and therefore I am on guard to prevent my ideology from becoming my theology; to do so is dangerously divisive and further encourages political division.
Many who read this message may not share my theology, or my politics, but, to be sure, there is a common tenet that guides our personal interactions—the Golden Rule. In fact the world's Abrahamic's monotheistic religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism—teach the Golden Rule, and when practiced, propels us toward the greater good. Socrates beat me to the punch when he said, "Do not do to others what angers you if done to you by others."
And because our government has seemingly ceased to function at a level where the critical issues facing us as a nation are addressed, my hope is that further polarization will not only be avoided, but transposed. That can only happen if we begin to teach that scorn, division, and want of forbearance will not nourish a single hungry child or rebuild a decrepit highway. If we show that cooperation is superior to coercion, we can play a most important role in assuring a bright future for our progeny. Though faith and freedom may mean something different to each of us, they are not defined by adherence to a rigid dogma.
Faith, it seems to me, is embodied by how we treat our fellow Americans, the active compassion we offer those who, through no fault of their own, find themselves caught in the vice of life. Our faith, I believe, must guide us not by fractious language, but by plainspokenness rooted in respect - not by attributing malarkey to motives, but by awarding opponents the benefit of the doubt.