Wednesday Walk: Safety vs Profits
Remembering Baltimore's bridge, learning about Palestine, and podcast recommendations
Welcome to Willoughby Hills!
Every Wednesday, I offer a few short ideas that I hope will inspire you to do some more reading, thinking, and exploring. Let’s take a little walk together and see where the path leads…
An Important Read
Every time I write about Palestine, I notice a handful readers seem to unsubscribe to this newsletter. I hope that those of you who remain behind are here because you’re willing to learn about what’s happening in the Middle East beyond the narrative presented by politicians and the news media.
If you’re still in the early stages of learning or have been curious to learn more, I wanted to share a great piece that
published yesterday titled “Palestine, Private Schools and Politics.”It was penned by an anonymous Palestinian woman who accompanied her white friend to her friend’s daughter’s school after the child was disciplined for wearing a “Free Palestine” shirt. The school alleged that the shirt violated the dress code on political grounds and might be offensive to Jewish students.
The piece is incredibly well written and shows how a lack of education around the issue of Palestine has led to censorship around any discussion of Palestinian rights. Here’s a brief except:
“These women — who in their conversation with my white friend were extolling their inclusivity, how safe their school is for students of color, the ample DIB training they’ve conducted for staff, all the ways they are already doing the right thing — say no. They don’t know anything about what happened to Palestinians in 1948.
Of course these righteous sacks of sh** don’t know. Their knowledge is powered off of stereotypes and Wikipedia articles about “Free Palestine” written by Zionists.
So I tell them the basics. 750,000 Palestinians displaced, 15,000 murdered.”
The first step for any of us at this juncture is to be educated and understand what’s happening to people everyday in Palestine and what has been happening for 75 years. Here4TheKids in general is a great resource and this article in particular is worth a few minutes of your time to read and absorb today. (You probably know, but I also produce a podcast for Here4TheKids called Abolition, Liberation, Solidarity)
A Quick Reminder
This newsletter and my podcast are entirely audience supported endeavors. If you enjoy reading this newsletter, listening to my podcast, or both, please consider upgrading to a paying membership to help support the work that I do.
If you’re able, you can contribute for $5 per month or $50 per year. Each one of you really makes a difference in keeping this little operation going.
A special shoutout to Keri and Kathy who recently upgraded their memberships! I really appreciate the support.
Thinking of Baltimore
You have probably heard the news that a container ship lost power in Baltimore harbor early yesterday morning and drifted into the Francis Scott Key Bridge which carries I-695, causing the bridge to collapse.
According to the Baltimore Sun:
“Several cars were knocked into the Patapsco River and as of Tuesday around 11 a.m., authorities were searching for six construction workers who had been repairing potholes on the bridge. Two others were rescued — one who was briefly hospitalized and another who declined to go to a hospital. Extensive rescue efforts were ongoing…
Before the collision, the ship’s crew notified authorities that the vessel had lost power. That “mayday” allowed Maryland Transportation Authority Police on the highway above to prevent many cars from driving onto the bridge just before the catastrophe.”
When my wife heard of the collapse, she texted me to ask if that’s the bridge we typically use. I used the search function in Apple’s Photos app to confirm that it is.
When we drive our RV south, we have always had to detour around Baltimore using I-695 because the propane tank on board is considered a hazardous material.
There are a series of photos that my wife had taken as we crossed the bridge in 2022: there are some of the bridge itself from the windshield of our RV (one of which I posted on my Instagram at the time), some of me driving over the bridge, and then a few of my two kids snuggled under blankets on the RV couch reading books.
These were mundane moments for us on our multi-day treks to Florida, and it’s a bit disconcerting to think that a moment like that could have been our last on this planet. It’s heartbreaking to think of those who lost their lives working on the bridge and imagining the terror of those last moments.
Thankfully, ample warning was given and it seems like traffic was blocked before the collision and collapse. It’s also fortunate that this event happened overnight when vehicle traffic is low. At rush hour with no warning, this tragedy could have been much, much worse.
While this bridge collapse seems to be an unlucky fluke, it does seem to reinforce a concern that I have with our modern systems across all industries, which seem to prioritize speed, efficiency, and returns on investment over basic humanity.
This existential dread that I’m feeling seemed to be best summed in up in a New York Times article from January with the headline “Boeing Faces Tricky Balance Between Safety and Financial Performance.”
I shouldn’t have to say this, but safety should always come first. Period.
No human life is worth “strong quarterly results” or whatever matters to the executives.
Plane panels shouldn’t be blowing apart mid-flight, and air passengers shouldn’t have to resort to trying to find out which aircraft they will be on, since there are really only two large suppliers for larger commercial aircraft at this point (Boeing and Airbus).
Back to Baltimore, it may be weeks or months before we know what went wrong on that container ship that caused it to crash and why the crash caused the bridge to collapse.
I can only hope that the failure was not the result of some cost cutting scheme to save a few dollars and eliminate some kind of safety system, either on the ship or with the bridge, that may have prevented this tragedy.
No Podcast This Week
As I’ve written about in past issues, the last few weeks have been very busy with fixing up our new house to prepare for moving day and fixing up our old house to prepare it for sale.
As such, I have decided to take a break from posting a new Willoughby Hills podcast episode this week and will be back to it in two weeks.
If you’re missing the show, there are now 121 episodes in the archives, so chances are there’s something in there you haven’t yet heard. Here’s a few of my random favorites, both with recognizable names and folks who you may not know but should still listen to:
113. Journalist Rebecca Clarren on the Parallel Histories of Jews and Lakota
103. Birder Christian Cooper on Protecting Nature and Civil Rights
71. Sesame Street Star and Writer Sonia Manzano (Quarantine Creatives)
I publish new issues every Wednesday and Sunday. Sign up to always receive the latest issue and support my work:
Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.
Hi Heath,
Sorry to hear that people are unsubscribing after some of your comments about Palestine. It’s sad that they are so narrow and ignorant of the history of the area. You are doing a great service by sharing your perspective, so I hope you aren’t daunted by their reactions. And your newsletter is excellent all around. Keep up the good work.