It has been no secret the interchange between Interstates 80 and 380 near Coralville needed improvement. It has long been one of the most crash-prone places in the state of Iowa. Commenced in 2018, the infrastructure project to reconstruct it is approaching completion, maybe in time for the Labor Day weekend.

On Friday, Aug. 25, the Iowa DOT held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to “open” the Highway 218 part of the exchange. This is a bit of an artificial marker because the place is so large, the part of the exchange I use to travel to Des Moines has been finished and open most of the summer.

The exchange sprawls a lot of land, so that is a negative. A potential decrease in number of accidents and ease of use are in the asset column. Once a driver learns how to use the exchange, it can be a stress-reliever. The rebuilt exchange should improve traffic flows which will be noticeable for University of Iowa sporting event patrons.

Naturally, area politicians attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. Coralville Mayor Meghann Foster got the lead quote in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Iowa City Mayor Bruce Teague was also quoted. My member of congress Mariannette Miller-Meeks was the highest-ranking elected official present and she was not quoted. All the elected officials present were supportive of the project.

Events like the opening of an important Interstate Highway exchange could be a kumbaya moment for the community. This one wasn’t. After the ceremonial scissors sliced the ribbon, the politicians broke down into groups by party for selfies. By the weekend, they were posting photos with their friends, said photos, with the exception of the one above, included no members of the opposing party. It was a subtle vibe, but increasingly present as time went on and the partisan pics came across my feeds.

What was I expecting?

The term kumbaya originates in an African-American spiritual song from the American South. The earliest record in the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center (AFC) comes from lyrics collected in North Carolina in 1926 for a song called “Oh Lord, Won’t You Come By Here.” The spiritual pleads for divine intervention—for God to come by here and help a people in great need, referencing an area historically connected to the enslavement and oppression of African Americans. The word kumbaya is taken from the song’s refrain.

Dictionary.com

Maybe we need divine intervention to relieve us of partisanship. What the politicians did that Friday isn’t getting us to the promised land.

Society is divided, even at a ribbon-cutting for infrastructure that helps everyone. At least we have a new, safer Interstate interchange upon which to drive. I’m not sure it helps us get anywhere better with regard to our politics. We need something that will bridge the political gap between us. Sadly, this event wasn’t it.