8 years ago I lived in the west bottoms (unofficially). I remember well what I was doing on September 11th. I went for a walk in the morning. I had a 1988 Subaru that I was hoping to find a rim for. There was a tire place around the corner (several corners, actually). I went there and asked about rims, if they got any in since they dealt in a lot of used rims. While the guy at the counter was checking on that, I heard what sounded like Peter Jennings voice on the radio doing what we call in the biz, wall to wall coverage of something. It sounded to me like he was talking about some sort of bomb going off. So when the counter guy came back, I asked him what was on the radio. He said that it was some sort of world trade center was bombed. He was so nonchalant about it that I didn't think much about it either. So when we concluded the business at hand with him telling me that they didn't have any kind of rims in the place and they never got them, I continued my walk. During this walk, the gears in my head started turning as they so often do when I walk, or mow the lawn. So, after awhile of me concluding that something wasn't right, I hurriedly finished my walk and headed back to the loft. I didn't really have much of a tv at the time, but I did have a small 5" LCD tv thingie that I tuned in to the nearest channel I could find. I saw smoke from a skyline that looked familiar. It was an aerial shot, so it took me a second to realize what I was looking at. It was a very familiar skyline, except something was missing. Then it hit me what I was looking at. I was there about 11 months before. I said out loud "OH MY GHOD!"
Indeed, there is a hole in our hearts....
I have heard this quote once before... I don't know where. It goes "We have the leaders we deserve, and sometimes we get the leaders we need." I think that quote is appropriate for the city which I live. We have the leader we need, but soon, I fear, we will have the leader we deserve. In other words, I personally think our mayor, when you delve into the nuts and bolts of what he has been doing, has been doing a good job. However, if you look at a lot of the media and blog hype, all of which has been focused on his spouse, I fear we will so have a mayor who is a lover of TIF's, and big developers, large corporate takeovers of our public trusts and etc. In other words, we will have more of the same that we've had for a long time. All of this will be thanks to the special interests who have been running a propaganda war against our Mayor and our city. If you think this is not true, just wait and see. We have a shitty clowncil who is pretty much owned by developers, a city manager who is accountable to no one, thanks to our past mayor and our present city clowncil, and we have a majority of our clowncil members who are more concerned about fighting the mayor than what is best for the city, and it's poorest citizens. And, since most of our local media is asleep at the switch, many of the so called intelligent folks of the city are getting most of their news from local bloggers, whose agenda is very very suspect.
No comments:
Post a Comment