Every Man a King!
Fellow blogster NA Confidential will certainly have more to say, and soon, but for now is digesting the provocative happenings at last evening's New Albany City Council meeting. I assure you, for a commentator, that one meeting provided enough food for thought to generate hours of thoughtful discourse.
Here is my response to Roger's brief posting, which ended with this: That's where New Albany's "revolution from nothing" will have to begin.
Perhaps not from nothing, NA Confidential. While there are those who would attempt to strangle the baby in the crib, I believe there exists in this city a vast hope and belief that New Albany should be a better place to work and live.
The question to be put is this: Can it be? My soundings are that a tremendous number of citizens are ready and willing to support leaders who will lead, who don't make excuses, who aren't afraid to speak the hard truths about what needs to be done, and who have the smarts to accomplish it, either through jawboning, deal-making, or just plain competence.
We saw a hint of that last evening from the chief executive of the city. Could he be the one to articulate a new vision for this city? After the annus horribilis that was 2004?
The most distressing part of the evening for me was the casual dismissal of the value of education as a component of proper government and service delivery. One CM was heard to say all an education offered was the ability to read books. An unfortunate turn of phrase if ever I heard one.
In fact, my mind wandered to one of the great books of the 20th Century. In 1946, Tennessee's poet laureate, Robert Penn Warren, chronicled the political career of a scoundrel so eloquently that it has ever been, for me, the epitome of modern fiction.
While RPW may not have been the most enlightened of beings, his All the King's Men should be required reading for any politician facing temptation.
Read the book...even watch the movie and see Broderick Crawford's winning turn as Willie Stark, whose evolution from "man of the people" to shady dealer is a sight to behold.
Stark rose to popular acclaim with the help of his campaign theme song, Every Man a King, and as I listened to the bravura performance by Mr. Dan Coffey, the tune whirled through my mind with each faux-populist utterance from that worthy.
Here's my question. How many of you, how many of the council, would agree with the statement made to me by a "concerned taxpayer" just this week, to wit: I'd be perfectly content for New Albany to remain a third-rate city."
Here is my response to Roger's brief posting, which ended with this: That's where New Albany's "revolution from nothing" will have to begin.
Perhaps not from nothing, NA Confidential. While there are those who would attempt to strangle the baby in the crib, I believe there exists in this city a vast hope and belief that New Albany should be a better place to work and live.
The question to be put is this: Can it be? My soundings are that a tremendous number of citizens are ready and willing to support leaders who will lead, who don't make excuses, who aren't afraid to speak the hard truths about what needs to be done, and who have the smarts to accomplish it, either through jawboning, deal-making, or just plain competence.
We saw a hint of that last evening from the chief executive of the city. Could he be the one to articulate a new vision for this city? After the annus horribilis that was 2004?
The most distressing part of the evening for me was the casual dismissal of the value of education as a component of proper government and service delivery. One CM was heard to say all an education offered was the ability to read books. An unfortunate turn of phrase if ever I heard one.
In fact, my mind wandered to one of the great books of the 20th Century. In 1946, Tennessee's poet laureate, Robert Penn Warren, chronicled the political career of a scoundrel so eloquently that it has ever been, for me, the epitome of modern fiction.
While RPW may not have been the most enlightened of beings, his All the King's Men should be required reading for any politician facing temptation.
Read the book...even watch the movie and see Broderick Crawford's winning turn as Willie Stark, whose evolution from "man of the people" to shady dealer is a sight to behold.
Stark rose to popular acclaim with the help of his campaign theme song, Every Man a King, and as I listened to the bravura performance by Mr. Dan Coffey, the tune whirled through my mind with each faux-populist utterance from that worthy.
Here's my question. How many of you, how many of the council, would agree with the statement made to me by a "concerned taxpayer" just this week, to wit: I'd be perfectly content for New Albany to remain a third-rate city."
posted by All4Word at 1:48 PM
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