Well, the Republican and Democratic Leaders of Bismarck-Mandan ultimately got their way, and in the name of Progress rubbed out an architectural structure, the Memorial Bridge (memorializing WWI) that spanned the Missouri River since the early 1920s. I'm rather empathetic toward the idea of keeping an eye on what our tax-dollars go toward, but is it possible to keep in mind, in regards to Historic Preservation, that these are literal national treasures? In destroying these sites we, as a nation, are essentially destroying our past.
There are often cries of, "Well, it would've cost a lot more to renovate and fix the old bridge. So we'll just tear it down and make a nice, sleek, concrete modern one..." What if we thought that way, for example, about public and national cemeteries, about the Lincoln Memorial, about Jefferson's Monticello home or about the Alamo? They may say, "Well, MFT, it'll never come to that..." But just wait until someone with a big enough pocket book decides to buy out locals who are about as indifferent and unempathetic as they were in Bismarck-Mandan. The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. It's gonna be a whiskey Monday for MFT, that's for fucking sure. (note: I've linked the above title to the picture I snapped of the bridge in August 2008).
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