That the north-end ferry dock is to be crippled for a year at the cost of $15 million to make it “more earthquake resistant” is a tribute to the power of the doomsday prophets. The certainty with which the horrific scenarios are predicted reminds me of the Y2K fiasco.

We Americans love apocalyptic visions of future disasters more than we like to deal with current disasters. Funds for “earthquake proofing” flow freely; funds for critical human needs depend on pennies being dropped into a tin cup.

If “the big one” does strike, destruction of a ferry dock would not top my list of calamities.

— Abe Bergman