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ENGINEERING FAILURE IN ILLINOIS
I used to work for the state of Illinois in the
Bridge Office and have designed more than 200 bridges and structures in the
30-plus years I have been a civil engineer. Recently, the collapse of the
bridge in Minneapolis has captured my attention, as I know it has many
civil engineers’. I have studied the film on TV, read the stories in
the newspaper and listened intently to the reports on TV. Although the loss
of human life in such a tragedy is very disturbing, I believe things could
have been much, much worse and the hand of God saved many lives in this
bridge collapse. But, as a bridge designer, my real purpose in reviewing
the reports is to try to figure out what went wrong. The years I spent at the Illinois Department of
Transportation taught me a lot. My squad leader was German Roncancio and
his second in command was Suresh Desai. These two gentlemen taught me how
to be a bridge designer and, I hope, a good engineer. The sad part of my story is that I have never been
able to pass the Illinois Structural Engineer exam. The exam given at that
time, and today, is very difficult, covering 16 hours over two days.
Although I have designed more than 200 bridges in Illinois, I have never
been able to pass this test. The strange thing is that most other states
allow engineers to design bridges if they have a PE [Professional Engineer
license], which I have. I have gotten my PE in Missouri in 1997 and can
design bridges in Missouri but not Illinois. Most bridge designers in
Illinois working in the Bridge Office designing bridges do not even have
their SE [Structural Engineer] licenses, although the state will say they
are working under someone who has their SE I know, and many of them also
know, the SE has very little to do with being able to design a safe bridge.
So are our bridges safer here in Illinois than
Minnesota? The real question is how much is it worth to have safe bridges
in Illinois? I know that IDOT has had a hiring freeze and reduced budgets
for at least three years. Do you think that cutting staff and
early-retiring the best-trained employees makes our Illinois bridges safer?
Do you think that diverting funds from transportation to support other pet
projects helps Illinois’ roads? Do you think that giving the best
projects to firms who donate funds to their political friends is the right
way to select design firms?
I think the Minnesota bridge failed because of
delayed maintenance of critical components of the bridge which were hidden
from view, perhaps the bearings. Hidden from view, kind of like the way we
do things here in Illinois.
Jerald F.
Jacobs, P.E.
Engineering Design Solutions Inc.
Springfield
TAKING THINGS TOO LITERALLY
Sadly, much of what is happening in Islam and
Christianity recently is the result of both groups’ interpreting
their religious texts as if they were written as historical and literal
expressions of the things of God. Notice the recent argument generated
among Christians as to who can claim to be the “real” church.
There needs to be a renewed awareness in religious circles that the nature
of ancient religious documents is primarily symbolic rather than literal.
In more ancient times it was understood that the language of spirituality
was necessarily symbolic. Ancient religious writings are efforts to explain
the unexplainable. The authors were not motivated by historical accuracy or
literalness. People in our culture generally think literally and physically
unless reminded or encouraged to think symbolically or metaphorically. It
is not our natural way as it once must have been for humans. I find many
“Bible believers” feel only that which is literal and
“historical” and physical is real. They do not realize that
that damaging viewpoint is itself a result of the philosophical thought of
the Enlighten-ment or Age of Reason of the 18th century, not of any rule
from God as to the nature of these treasured ancient sacred texts.
Fundamentalism in both Islam and Christianity is a
very real and dangerous example of misapplication of “reason”
to the Bible. Ironically, those holding to it often see their view as the
only way to be “loyal” to the Bible even
though theirs is a relatively new way of reading the Bible. Eventually this
prevailing viewpoint will not survive but lead people further and further
away from the more spiritual and truly timeless communications that the
Bible text brings. We are at risk of losing the truly spiritual
elements of our religious traditions. The “historically and literally
accurate” assumption about religious texts is very unfortunate. Some
people might be more interested in the Bible if they knew it can be more
responsibly viewed through different glasses, with the results not being
the radicalism that is so divisive, dangerous, and close-minded.
Religious texts taken literally usually place the
human mind into an “either-or and only” state. This becomes a
mind trap that closes off all viewpoints except one. This is very hard to
overcome, for it is experienced by the devotee as an ultimatum from God
since it has come, supposedly, directly from revered religious texts. In
contrast, symbolic interpretations of a text more often create a
“both-and” state of mind, which does not carry a locked-in
point of view but can carry a strong sense of personal and community
responsibility to ascertain spiritual truth. This generates opportunity for
genuine spiritual learning experience that opens the mind to possibilities
not before imagined — a legitimate and freeing purpose of healthy
religion.
Literal interpretations of the Quran have resulted in
the radical Muslim movement that is so threatening and hard for Americans
to comprehend. All radical religion that is exclusive rather than inclusive
of other humans comes from literal rather than symbolic interpretations of
ancient religious texts. The same is also true of the Biblical documents. I
think a person can become aware when a “literal” reading has
placed them into an “either-or and only” state of mind. It
results in that feeling of having no choice but to deny, exclude, judge, or
put down others or others’ points of view in one way or another.
(Sadly, the pope’s recent statement implying that all Protestants are
not really the church is such an example.) This is the mindset of
radicalism, no matter what the religion might be. And my guess is we
Christians of all types fall into a radicalism that is negative toward
others far more than we realize. It is a state of mind that is contrary to the freedom
in Christ described by Paul in Galatians (4:31, 5:1) and the notion of
freedom in the fourth gospel (John 8:32, 36). To feel “I have no
choice but to exclude or otherwise castigate others” is not a freed
state of mind or being. It comes from a mind that is “locked
up” (Galatians 3:23) from itself and other of God’s people. And
what an anti-Christian or anti-Muslim tragedy is brewing when the
thing about which “one has no choice” is but to exclude and not
respect the viewpoint and gifts other human beings, sometimes even those
one’s own faith.
Jim Hibbett Springfield
ENSHRININGPROPAGANDAINLAW Even nonsmokers should be alarmed when legislative
acts purporting to protect the public health are premised upon
propagandized talking points promulgated by special-interest lobbyists.
Yet, that is precisely what the preamble to Public Act 095-0017, the Smoke
Free Illinois Act, does.
The act enshrines into law the
essence of the scientifically rebuked and legally rejected conclusions of
the Environ- mental Protection Agency report of 1993. Neither the
legislators nor their staffs sought factual information upon which to enact
this public policy. Rather, the legislators accepted the false
advo-scientific numbers that the anti-smoking lobby has promoted and
propagandized through it contrived public health scare and expensively
financed public-relations media campaigns. Joseph J. Goleash Jr. Springfield
CORRECTIONS Doe Run Peru offered the father of a lead-poisoned
child 2,000 soles, or roughly $700. Our recent story about the lead smelter
provided the wrong amount in Peruvian currency [Amanda Robert,
“Sisters to the rescue,” Aug. 2]. Humorist Will Rogers, who died in a
plane crash in 1935, thought hard and long about politics and other
subjects, but probably not in the 1950s, as we said in a recent column
[Fletcher Farrar, “August amusements at the Statehouse,” Aug.
9].
This article appears in Aug 9-15, 2007.
