One of the things that becomes true over and over when you pay attention to things that go wrong is some combination of things thing was built X number of years ago, before Y thing became more common, and now the rare Z circumstance combined to make a historic disaster.
It's often the case in everything from home repair shows to things like a ginormous ship toppling a 30 year old bridge. I watched one home repair show where after the initial assessment one of the contractors was chasing down an issue and in looking into that realized that a previous builder had cut into the floor joists and now the entire second floor needed to be torn down. The contractor showed the homeowner and said that it would actually be cheaper and safer to demolish this house and build a new one. That repairing this was possible but it would take millions of dollars and lots of time, and if they didn't love this house enough, they could absolutely find a new house for less than the cost of the repairs.
And the same is often true of systems. This is not to say the government doesn't exist or work, but we all know it doesn't work for everyone all the time. And sure, there are charities and non-profits that fill in some of those gaps. But when Mr. Rogers famously talked about looking for the helpers, he meant us. We, the adults, are the helpers.
And there is so much that needs help right now. There's lots of ways to plug in, whether it's donating money, or skills, or time. We are the infrastructure. It's us.
