$20 million for a bridge to help 1,500 people? YES

I expect there are 20 million good reasons why the state should not build a bridge over Tonto Creek in tiny Gila County.

Twenty million reasons why the state shouldn’t be on the hook to shell out big bucks to connect 1,500 people to their homes on the other side of the channel.

But then there are those three other reasons: Willa, Colby and Austin.

Rep. David Cook has filed a bill proposing that the state set aside $20 million to build a bridge over Tonto Creek at the Bar X Crossing, where the three children were swept away in flooding on Thanksgiving weekend.

“If now’s not the time to do a project like this, when is?” the Globe Republican told The Republic’s Andrew Oxford.

For years, this eastern Arizona community has pleaded for a bridge over the Bar X Crossing. The county, with just 53,000 residents, can’t afford to do it. The federal government isn’t interested in doing it.

That leaves us, the people of Arizona who cannot and should not turn away from the tragedy that happened.

Willa Rawlings, 6, her brother Colby Rawlings, 5, and their 5-year-old cousin Austin Rawlings were swept out of their family’s military-style vehicle on Nov. 29 after the Gila County Sheriff ’s Office says Willa’s and Colby’s parents attempted to drive across the flooded creek.

The parents, along with four other children, were rescued.

No doubt, there will be those who point to the tragedy as a human error, and they will be right.

I’ve actually heard from readers who believe the parents should be prosecuted for crossing a creek closed because of to rising floodwaters. As if there is any punishment we could inflict to increase their suffering.

Who among us, I wonder, hasn’t made a mistake and been lucky enough to have our children survive it?

No doubt, there will be those who do the math and decry the fact that we would be spending $13,300 for each of the roughly 1,500 residents who must cross that creek to get home.

As if the state with a projected $700 million budget surplus cannot afford to do that which may not be fiscally prudent but is morally satisfying.

As if our leaders haven’t long stiffed the entire state on money needed for roads, especially in rural Arizona.

Count me in with Cook, the Globe Republican who will lead the drive to bridge this creek, in the hope that never again are children swept down this river and off this earth. Not if we have anything to say about it.

“We do not need to repeat another tragedy such as this so let’s be up front and ask for the whole thing,” Cook said. “This is 2019. We’re not a thirdworld country.”