The Aug. 11th, Vancouver’s, Columbian editorial, “It’s time to move forward“, was insightful and accurate. Like many, I was prepared to accept that the Columbia River Crossing was dead. However, it looks like there may be a glimmer of life left in the idea. More than $170 million, countless man-hours of expert engineering data, and nearly a decade of time is invested in this project. Our State and Federal leaders must exhaust all avenues before giving up. And so I was elated when I discovered Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber is working on a last ditch effort, “Oregon Lite…CRC”, http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2013/08/crc_lite_oregon_should_build_a.html, to still work with the CRC project and breath life into this extremely important project.
What surprised me (yet again) was the apparent anger and resentment by the Republican coalition of the Washington state Senate to even consider another idea. Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, made reference to Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber as, “uncooperative”, for even bringing forth this unique idea. Our leaders should be looking at all ideas to fix a problem — not to kill a possible solution. Such attitudes and actions tell me people’s own agendas, or egos, seem to have more value to them than looking for compromise that can address this big problem that faces the largest roadway on the Western side of North America — Interstate 5.
To value ego over the possibility of a good idea to help find a solution to the I-5 crossing is not good leadership. It is not leadership at all.
We can and must do better.