Morning Thoughts: November 28, 2017

Talked cities most of yesterday. Woke up in one of the great ones this morning. All in all, having a splendiferous time. Storm clouds threaten, though.

As elected officials in our nation’s capital and our statehouses become increasingly frivolous and irresponsible, those in our nation’s cities are buckling up for the crises ahead. They are even taking on the opioid epidemic while others quake in fear of big pharma. There may be lawsuits, and there surely will be blood. As Margo Channing said, “Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night.”

I would just say that before you curse or denigrate your mayor, consider that she may be the last bulwark between you and Gotterdammerung. Consider the current problems she faces: wealth inequality, crumbling infrastructure, vacant retail buildings gone to Amazon, and mega-rich families hoping to end their public-school systems. She also sees more serious ones of the potential variety:

- A two front war that would require a draft of most entry level workers and most, if not all, of our federal budget, (Who’ll serve us Big Macs? How would we get to them or pay for them)?

- A day when practically all public resources not allocated for war will be allocated to serve the automobile and simple walking is impossible,

- A Brave New World environment in which public contentment will be determined by mind-controlling pharmaceuticals, and

- Our downtowns, once the heart and souls of our communities, laid waste and bare, save for vacant concrete slabs where we once met and knew one another, and
- Others that we cannot now imagine. After all, we've seen much in the past 11 months that we couldn't have imagined in times gone by.

It’s a bleak and possible future no doubt, one whose problems won’t be solved in Washington or, heaven knows, in our state capitals. So far, we do elect good people to our city halls. Here’s hoping we continue to do so.

A beautiful city, and may she always be.