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Friday, April 3, 2015

Editorial: The Spice Must Flow! AKA I'm Better When Pissed.


You know I think I'm going soft. I just haven't been as pissed off as I normally am. Sure I tried to hide it but I was absolutely infuriated when I first got home from college because I knew I was going to be more broke than my peers by only a year or two off.

I'm still not where I want to be but I'm better off and I think that it's making me lose my edge, letting things get past me I really should be more ticked off about.  And this article right here was just what I needed to put me back in that head space. Time to earn some dark side points.

Apart from finances part of the reason why I've been so chill is that I had an elected official in office who was more or less saying everything I was thinking and doing it in a way that didn't make everyone want to curse him out, (seriously you poke the poodle once  and everybody gives you the stink eye for like six months.) Former Councilman Moss was in a lot of ways the best I could have hoped for and now I have to deal with the reality that he's no longer on council and the closest guy to him policy-wise is vacating his seat as well so yeah I'm back to demon days.

You know how I said I was angry when I first got back from college. You know what didn't help. Sitting in a room for 4 hours with more or less the whole town saying they didn't want to live next door to me. I'm the master of deferred anger, I know its unhealthy and I'll die from a heart attack at 50, but damn was it hard to not take some of the Lawrence Tech dorm thing personal.

And the signs are on the wall that we're headed back in that direction again from everything to business to gay rights (I swear to god if that stupid thing actually ends up on a ballot) and I just can't do it again. Nope.  Even handed, level headed "Nice young man" Greg has left the building. Meet the id that he kept chained in his brain basement.


ARE PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN OUT OF THEIR GODDAMNED FUCKING HEADS?!

Councilman Siver gave a speech at the regular meeting which mirrors what "Nice Greg" has been thinking for years and what I have been saying when ever he would let me off the leash. Nothing gets built in this town without an army of people opposing it mostly just because they hate the idea of change. And if this were a utopia I would be fucking fine with it but we still have an unemployment rate higher than the state average let alone the national and a 26 % office vacancy rate.

And everybody is acting like we have our pick of businesses. Like fucking hell. And before you get started I know as non-profits churches don't pay taxes. The point stands damn it! If we spend 2 hours slinging mud at a pastor (hey while I'm an atheist I still have some respect for the cloth) what are we going to do someone wants to build an office or heaven forbid a factory.

Look this ain't a town of scrappy homesteaders fighting off the railroad, people. Trade, the exchange of value is the lifeblood of civilization.  Business. Without the transfer of goods and services this town will dry the hell up. Look around. In a lot of ways it already is. Even if it ain't the retail the me of three years wanted we need to move the money which means that maintaining the residential status quo can't be a blanket defense for stymieing anybody who wants to build something because honestly the residents need to work, and build, and trade and serve. The money must flow. When people can't go to a grocery store or can't get a job they'll leave too and all the whining about traffic and noise pollution won't mean a damn!

You know I once said something on twitter that I think people took the wrong way, I talked about how democracy was chaos. I think people thought I was talking about the problems of democracy but I wasn't.

See in order for things to improve there must a risk that they won't work out, but that risk or chaos is inherent to a dynamic system. Positive change requires that risk, requires, uncertainty, requires chaos. Nothing in this town is going to get better and, believe me it needs to, until people are on board with change and the chaos it brings. We have to be comfortable for a time not knowing if things will work out.

P.S.
While I'm at it Council really needs to have a conversation about pavement management. If they keep demanding individual roads get fixed that bond won't do anything for the system on aggregate. It's starting to drive me a little batty, well more batty.

P.P.S.
Since I'm still airing my grievances they also need to schedule more meetings

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