“The I-95 bridges were built in the early 1960s and are now more than 50 years old. The same vintage as the I-35 bridge that collapsed in Minnesota back in 2007, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The antiquated Skagit River Bridge in Washington state that collapsed last May after a truck hit one of the trusses was even older. And it's not just bridges. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 32 percent of the major roads in America are now in poor condition and in need of major repairs.” PeopleNeedsYearsMayStatesLastsAmericaPoorConditionsMajorsPercentBuiltRiversKillingBridgesEngineersTruck1960sVintageAmerican SocietyMinnesotaCivil EngineerWashington State Author:Ed Rendell
“But we have not used our waters well. Our major rivers are defiled by noxious debris. Pollutants from cities and industries kill the fish in our streams. Many waterways are covered with oil slicks and contain growths of algae that destroy productive life and make the water unfit for recreation. "Polluted Water-No Swimming" has become a familiar sign on too many beaches and rivers. A lake that has served many generations of men now can be destroyed by man in less than one generation.” MenWellsUsedGrowthWaterCitiesGenerationsIndustryMajorsRiversEnvironmentalFishesOilFamiliarDestroyedBeachStreamsProductiveLakesCoveredSwimmingRecreationSlickDebrisAlgaeProductive Life Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“There is no excuse-and we should call a spade a spade-for chemical companies and oil refineries using our major rivers as pipelines for toxic waste. There is no excuse for communities to use other people's rivers as a dump for their raw sewage.” PeopleShouldUseCommunityCompanyWasteMajorsRiversExcuseOilChemicalsToxicNo ExcusesDumpEcoSpadesPipelineSewageToxic WasteRefinery Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
“Most of the world's major waterways have been diverted or dammed or otherwise manipulated - in the United States, only two per cent of rivers run unimpeded - and people now use half the world's readily accessible freshwater runoff.” PeopleWorldHas BeensTwoStatesUseRunningWaterUnitedHalfUnited StatesMajorsRiversCents Author:Elizabeth Kolbert
“The best memoirs - like This Boy's Life, or Crazy Brave [by Joy Harjo], for instance - bring you through a private river of storytelling that joins a major ocean of human struggle and joy. The act of enunciation - the forms and strategies of storytelling - are every bit as literarily serious as they are in poetry or other prose forms.” HumansFormJoyBitsBoysStruggleCrazySeriousOceanMajorsRiversStrategyBraveMemoirStorytellingInstanceProse Author:Lidia Yuknavitch