Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

You don't have to be old to speak the truth...

Despite tv shows like "West Wing," the reality is that power isn't much about doing things differently, but maintaining power. Just like I laugh when people complain that the Republicans are "no longer the party of small government." Republicans were never for small government (ask Halliburton), they merely focused the benefits of government and government contracting on a different group from the Democrats.

And certainly, the points I make aren't swooped up and seized upon and adopted (or at least not in DC; in other places more...). I speak "truth" plenty, based on experience, theory, reviewing the past, and observing the present.

Anyway, this quote from the Post article, "Footnote to History: Rituals Of Delivering the Iraq Report," about the Iraq Study Group, quoting Virginia Congressman Frank Wolf (who helped f* up the Dulles extension of the Metrorail):

"There's almost a biblical thing about wise elderly people," said Wolf, referring to the 10 study group members led by former secretary of state James Baker and former Democratic representative Lee Hamilton of Indiana. "I mean, Sandra Day O'Connor" -- the woman on the panel -- "is not looking for another job. So they can speak truth."

generated this blog entry. And note, decades ago I read the fiction book Armageddon about Berlin after WWII, which was about the US military government of Germany, reconstructing Germany, and the Soviet Union. Too bad that President Bush never put this book on his list to read.

The phrase "shooting the messenger" has been around a lot longer than the phrase "telling truth to power."

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