Rise and look around you
And you'll see who you are
On a clear day
How it will astound you
That the glow of your being
Outshines every star
You’ll feel part of every mountain sea and shore
You can hear
From far and near
A word you’ve never, never heard before...
And on a clear day...On a clear day...
You can see forever...
And ever...
And ever...
And ever more. . .
While I cannot agree with Barbra Streisand's politics, I've long been a fan of her early musicals. With weekends like the one we've just had, I couldn't help but be reminded of her song, "On A Clear Day," especially when I realized that we could easily see West Sister Island from our house.
West Sister is about 18 miles from our house and usually isn't visible with the naked eye. If you look at the far right side of the island, you can see a white vertical structure (looks like a break in the trees) which is the old lighthouse on the island. Additionally, we could pick out Middle Sister and East Sister (roughly 25 and 31 miles, respectively), even though they didn't show up well in the pictures.
In my time growing up on Maumee Bay, I can remember 4 times that atmospheric conditions were just right for seeing West Sister. However, I do not recall ever being able to see Middle and East...so I guess that it's true - on a clear day, you can see forever.
***
But being able to see clearly isn't always a good thing...considering some recent local items in the news.
The Mayor wants to spend $39,000 for flowers to plant in the gateways of the city and two of our local Republicans (Ludeman and Sarantou) think this is a good idea. Of course, these are two of our council members who also said there was no where left in the budget for cuts which is why we have a brand new trash tax.
And then there was the news that the Mud Hens are in discussions for an Arena 2 Football league and, perhaps, an NBA development team. Good for the Mud Hens - except that in both these stories, the price of the arena is being quoted as $85 million, $5 million more than originally estimated. Of course, the publicized funding streams identified for the arena only total $80 million - but is anyone asking where this additional $5 million is going to come from?
And so I was reminded of Robert Kennedy's quote...
"It is not enough to understand, or to see clearly. The future will be shaped in the arena of human activity, by those willing to commit their minds and their bodies to the task."
2 comments:
The extra $ 5mil. or so?
That's chump change; those chumps (us) will just have to kick in a little extra, that's all...
It's only tax money; it's not like it's REAL or something.
Anything, whatever it takes, for the new gherkin arena; everybody has to have their own ego shrine, right?
Nice post Maggie. Loved the picture. You know your point about the fiscal soundness of the remarks and conduct coming out of the council chamber were quite well put.
There is a disconnect somewhere here. Either there is excess money in the budget or there isn't. For a city who has just imposed a use tax on tax subsidized service - it's adding insult to injury for them to even be having the flower discussion.
As they said when the 9/11 movie came out, 'It's too soon...it's too soon. The wounds are still too fresh'.
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