From the Village Square

Hi. This is your imaginary dog, Sport, reporting back.

Are you going to be surprised with what I've discovered!  Only a dog (and especially an imaginary dog) would have found the reality of what is going on at Village Hall.

No. It is difficult to keep claim about this. This is worse than anything you would have imagined.

Of course, I've got your attention. And I'm going to give it to you as easily as possible. Sit back.

One of the basic truths about dogs is that we can smell humans from long distances. And although there appeared to be 7 human beings at Village Hall at this particular meeting, with about 3 or 4 assisting, I was getting only a rather slight human scent from the area. This seemed strange.

Okay, just wait, I'm going to give it to you as easily as possible. Stay in your chair. Out of that group, I sniffed out only three real human beings. Yes, only three. 

Before you ask any questions, here is the summary of my report to you. The rest were robots. Three human beings and the remainder only excellent appearing human robots. What a superb production of human robots.

Are you getting the true reality of this? All your talk about decisions and action by consensus is all wrong. What appears as consensus is built into these robots in such a perfect way that not even humans can tell the robots from other humans.  Which one is which?

Even the three humans can't seem to the tell the difference.   Yes, I know that I've aready said that.  It deserves to be repeated.  That's why trustees are NOT responding to your questions and suggestions. Only a dog, a specie with such special relationship with human beings and with such sniffing skills could really discover this secret.

All robots except three. Wow!  Sure I'm proud of this discovery. Bow, wow!  If I weren't imaginary, you wouldn't have known either. Why, only three human beings?  Who knows?  The robots were evenly distributed.

If I were you, and I know your are a human being not only because I can smell your special smell but because of the stupid way you forgive anything I do, and always say “good dog” when I please you, I would ask why would anyone want to have robots at the head of local government instead of real human beings?

Okay, I know you think I just made this all up. You think it's so delicate that your are not going to post it? I understand. You don't think I went to the meeting?  But you've got a good excuse and say that its all fiction.

This should be one of your verbal cartoons that you like to create. After all, it was reported to you by an imaginary dog. Why don't you title it “dog gone it?” Or “good dog?”

Most of my postings have been aimed at integrating older citizens of Shorewood into a community-like structure.

These long term analyses show that characteristic elements of community do exist in Shorewood but that they are not sufficiently energized or appropriately aligned and integrated to accommodate older adults into a supportive community.

What is it then that can unite us as a village and as a community?  We have few elements in operation that would make us a community here in Shorewood?

Quite simply, the thing that we have most in common is the school system. This is our main focus. Here is where our children come together on a daily basis, except for the week-ends and on school breaks, they are a major proportion of our day-time population.

This is the main element that centralizes us as a community, even if other significant elements of community are absent. Even parents are often brought in to participate in activities sponsored by the schools.

If we were to re-enforce those energies that make community, we should build onto whatever exists as the unifying force that the schools provide. We should find the means for attracting parents and the older adults to this focal point.

From a practical standpoint, we could more readily bring about these intergenerational interactions by encouraging older adults to take part in activities at these same points and integrating some functions with the younger students.

If we are going to accomplish both development of community and integration of older adults within this structure, we must develop the engine that will drive and give vitality to this entity.

There are other areas for neighborhood development and for extending services, but I believe that the main energy for developing community will come through an integration of older citizens with the school children of all ages in many of their daily activities.

We are fortunate to have the assistance of SHOREWOOD'S CARING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS to help us energize those elements that show the most potential and practicality in beginning to bring life into the building blocks of what someone has described as a new culture.

SCCP is on a bit-by-bit basis actually involved in building a new culture here in Shorewood.

Those involved in what they believe to be in the best interest of our community should take notice and seek involvement in, what for the moment, is not a fully visible movement.

The clan is able to incorporate both its power of religion and government within its organic-self, functioning as one, an unitary organism.

Some tribes or clans, more often decedents of a common ancestry, sometimes separate their group religion from their war functions or common governance. In most cases the clan integrates these functions as one.

Communities like Shorewood have no common ancestry, except perhaps for race, which seems to have become somewhat more elastic than in the past and therefore not so purely white and has residents pretty much from lower to highly-paid professionals or middle to upper class-type commonality.

As we begin to describe the makeup of our community, we find its elements to be far from unifying nor as socially unifying as functions of clans or tribes.

Yet there is a certain adhesiveness to our group that requires a high degree of explanation at another writing. For the time being let's accept that there is something that seems to hold us together in spite of some small unravellings here and there.

Religions are too numerous to be compared with the religion of the clan. And suburban government is not meant to wage war but more to maintain a quite order within the community.

This quietness and order seems most easily achieved by a determinedly sought consensus—a rather vague but apparent agreement settled by the vote of usually everyone on the Village Board, at least by more than a mere majority. Although we use the term village, we have none of the elements of organic-type villages.

As elected and appointed officials do not represent any group or district, they tend to govern by formality and in the abstract or by law rather than exemplify the desires of specific groups.

Then Shorewood is far from a clan in appearance, in substance or in function. We are just a group of residents living in proximity to each other and within the boundary of something called Shorewood. We certainly do not have any of the features of a village let alone those of a clan

Physical scientist work to give logic to our hard physical world.

Yet this logic found in the most brilliant of minds stems from the organic, the softest form of reality.

The marvelous thing is that these features, never-the-less can be applied to understanding the logic of the universe, never meant to be understood by mere organisms.

It is the confidence with which human beings go about placing universal logic on what previously appeared and still appears without logic, that is to be admired by the rest of us.

The least stable form of human reality is also practiced by a few, those who pretend to know what our collective purpose is and apply a political logic to our everyday lives.

This activity is ruled by the logic of the clan. The clan operates in the most non-logical manner and is the least stable element of reality, sometimes referred to as reason.

The most disastrous nature of clannish behavior is exhibited in bursts of war, the attempt of one clan to destroy another.

This activity seems to give great human satisfaction to those stimulated by clannish emotion and to those who tend to rise to the top of what is now referred to as the political ladder.

Those on top, our leaders give logic to war-making and to the destruction of other clans.

In a world of nations, clannish emotions rise to the top of a large unification of similar-type clans where the reason of nations becomes the most dangerous, especially to those who experience the outfall of this sort of activity.

Political emotions begin with the smallest collection of human beings, beginning at village level or with the clan and then rise to the top. Entry point can be at any level.

We can observe the absence of that steady logic that is applied within the physical sciences even when we observe local politics, the ready breeding place of clannish logic. Here we can see what tends to give energy to those inclined toward rising to the top.

The most non-logical activity of all, is mine, both in observation and in thinking that whatever the slightest of clannish characteristic of even local politics and politicians that may exist can be reversed and also given some universal logic, when all reality points in another direction.  Therefore, my reality is the most unreal. 

Rain water is pretty much well-drained from the streets and public places of Shorewood, except for some basement backups which could also be corrected.

On the other hand, Shorewood Village Hall seems to be at a loss when natural moisture falls on the Village in the form of snow or when conditions turn that moisture into ice.

Rain water is drained almost immediately but snow is not as easily removed. We've chosen to merely push it out of the main area of the street and to push much of it in between public sidewalk and street, restricting access to the street.  

City design that placed garages and garbage collection on narrow alleys doesn't make the pilling up of snow against garages and access points to garbage carts all that convenient and therefore not acceptable for modern living.

We as Americans who are so proud of our innovative characteristics should be able to come up with some solutions and I'm sure if others have not, that we could come up with our own.

I am not an expert in these matters, but it seems that there are only two basic methods available to us at the present time; hauling the snow away or melting it down and draining it away as we do drain water.

Apparently, the hauling and storing away of snow has been the most feasible where it has be tried.

I've lived in communities where snow has be be hauled away and in some places dumped into water bodies. Obviously, we have water bodies but the hauling of snow seems to be the problem because of the cost. Maybe we should look to Minnesota and Michigan for some solutions.

Perhaps hauling snow away is going to be one of the costs of living here in snow country, at least until we find an economic means for melting it down. We can't wait for global warming to do that job.

I don't suppose most people who moved to Shorewood and living here do so because of the excellent government that we have here.

They would probably be more concerned with our excellent school system.

I'm sure that the greater majority couldn't name one Village Board member. Nor would they know when the Village Board meets or how often.

Most of us expect average services of our local government and that's about it.

We used to have a local newspaper which focused greater attention on what was happening locally. Even the Milwaukee paper reported on some things that were happening here.

Now we may occasionally see one or two reports on what our government has done or is doing in the North Shore Herald, a weekly section of the Journal/Sentinel.

Newspapers all over the country are declining as to broadness and depth of reporting as they experience financial stress. I don't think that we can expect the situation to improve.

General citizen apathy and a decline in newspaper coverage of local governmental activities, along with a system of locally elected officials without defined constituencies, tends to operate against transparent and representative government.

Although local governments seek citizen participation and often boast about it, the form in which it exists usually leaves much to be desired, although citizens who do participate should be recognized for their contributions.

Now that the problem of declining interest in local government is being discussed and somewhat recognized to be a weakness in our democratic system, the question becomes one of what to do about it.

I think that here ind Shorewood, the Village Board should expand the Village “Manager's Memo” and rename it, perhaps, “The Shorewood Tribune,” and assign several staff members to write weekly reports on various subjects and significant activities. Citizens should be encouraged to write opinion pieces.

What do Board members think about this? I know you're out there. Let's give this some thought. What do you think and what are you going to do? Let's hear from you. Especially, those of you re-running for office.

Shouldn't we have an improved information vehicle and basis for expanding our review of government?

In a memo emanating from Shorewood Village Hall, residents are being wished happy holidays and best wishes for the new year.

We are also being reminded of a snow code that involves imprisonment up to 90 days.

There seems to be a bit of tyranny in a reminder that public sidewalks must be cleared of snow and ice within 24 hours of the end of the snowfall.

What is going to happen after the first 24 hours that didn't or wouldn't happen during the first 24 hours.

First of all, I've been clearing the snow from the public sidewalk in front of my house for about thirty-five years, sometimes while it was still snowing.

And I didn't know of any of these laws and their penalties. It seems almost cultural to remove the snow. So why are the laws on the books.

Although I have been clearing sidewalks of snow all the time that I've lived in the United States and continue to do this, I often wonder as to why the homeowner should be mandated this outmoded public responsibility.

If the village can't afford to do this, why doesn't it do this for those who do not want to do it and charge the homeowner for it, like property tax?

I hardly use my sidewalk in front of my home, except for little more than for clearing the snow off it, so joggers and dog-walkers from Whitefish Bay can use it.

If I want Shorewood to clear off my sidewalk and charge me for it as a direct expense for living here, why can't I do that, especially when we begin reaching certain age levels and can't get anyone else to do it?

Snow clearing, it is said can causes heart attacks. Everyone seems to know that.

Why should any of us on top of that be threatened with 90 days of imprisonment in order to clear the snow? That or heart attack? Neither is fun to contemplate during this joyous season.

Seems a bit unfriendly, especially now, with a “best wishes for the holiday season” greeting, don't you think, Jolly ol' Saint Nick?

“Robert Runyon had lived in his home for 30 years, but he really didn't know many of his neighbors.”

This was the way an article titled “Welcome to the neighborhood” begam in an alumni journal.

And how true this is of many neighborhoods.

"Because so many of the people he met expressed a shared desire to better know their neighbors, Runyon, who was a retired dean emeritus of libraries at the University of Nebraska – Omaha decided it would be good to know his neighbors”.

He eventually contacted a Neighborhood Center agency operated by the University.

There are many here in Shorewood who would want to be involved in this type of neighborhood building. At the present time Shorewood's Caring Communities Partnership is our contact and has begun to perform that function.

It is doing this in relation to the needs of older adults. We shall soon find out that all age groups in neighborhood settings are going to be involved if the older adults are truly going to be integrated into neighborhoods.

The whole neighborhood must function as a sort of extended family, if community partnerships are going to work.  In Omaha the whole neighborhood became involved.

Here we are beginning with the seniors. But it is going to take all of us. And as we all become vital members of neighborhoods, Shorewood shall eventually becomes an unique community.

Runyon began by knocking on peoples' doors and introducing himself, asking “won't you be my neighbor?” Sounds corny, but perhaps all of us need to become kind-of “Mr. Rodgers.”

Maybe as we progress, we shall have a “Mr. Rodgers day” every couple of months when we introduce and re-introduce ourselves to our neighbors.

I suppose that at least two of the three incumbents will re-run for office here in Shorewood for the same reasons that they  ran before.

Their main reason is to serve the citizens of Shorewood and do things for “our own good.” But in that same interest we may not be told about “our own good” nor should it perhaps be explained as events turn.

I think too, perhaps it is in “our own good” that we don't know. But I'm a little silly at times, if not at most times when I feel there are somethings I should know at the end of the mystery. I feel it best when there's a solution in the mystery story.

But I'm willing to accept that those who are there to serve know most of these things but for good reason do not want to make public their answers to questions. Perhaps many of these questions are without answers.

I believe that where most policies, solutions and answers come about by consensus that one individual can not speak for the others.

Therefore one Shorewood Trustee would be presumptuous to speak.  And as there's no way they can speak in unison, it is best that no one speak. One solution is to develop a “master plan” derived by consensus and there it is, just read it and there are the combined answers.  Like a juice mix. 

The reaching of a consensus is like mixing various fruit juices in a mixing bowl, although each juice has its own flavor, mixed together we produce a combined flavor and would one person be able to explain that combined taste? I understand.

It is I, that am being a bit unreasonable in trying to determine which juices were combined to make the mixture. I suppose all the Board members giggle when I try to guess.

It is fun for all of us, because I too enjoy playing guessing games and I too giggle at times.

So whomever is running for office, we know that whatever the juice mix or the consensus, it will be for “our own good,” so not to mind. Perhaps not to mind voting as it can't help but be for “our own good,” so what's the point?

Why make a big issue. If no one knows, or if some don't know that there's going to be an election, it's no big deal. It's for “our own good.” We all know that.

But if one of the incumbents knows, I'd like to ask at a forum, who NOW owns the property on which the Riverbrook restaurant was once located and what are the conditions of ownership? 

It seems that three Shorewood Village Board members' offices will expire in 2009.

I haven't heard nor seen anything in the news about this. It seems that we need a couple of candidates for each seat so that the citizens might get a choice in who will represent us.

How about a big trumpet blow announcing the need for candidates?

Shorewood become my private place.

We are not so communal here, occasionally acting social, looking together,

Yet our minds,. Remaining very private places and there creating very intimate spaces..

My mind hardly ever flings open its doors although at times somewhat.

Inside. Alone inside.

Words seem the only access but they are not keys to doors and inner cells.

Nor can words describe the thoughts within, within . . . within.

But again,

Returning here to my physical space, here in Shorewood.

From here where I face east, there is no east, only one horizontal view.

For over 190 degrees, viewing the east, this is my Shorewood, my own private sphere.

From here only the curvature of the earth for all the distance of my view.

But behind me, the movement of community and Motorized motion.

This is my Shorewood too:

Children Walking to school, privately enclosed in their own Minds, yet the children appear on display.

Now a look at Shorewood, at its Heart:

Book store,

Drug store

Grocery store..

Tthe core of the Public forum, otherwise Private Place.

Here,Children, growing thoughts within Gray buildings.

Thoughts that may never be Revealed,

Perhaps never Again to themselves.

In the mind, here we Also find a Private storage Space.

Only rarely and Slightly viewed from Outside, but not for long..

Private places and private spaces, significant and with worth, but here no commonality.

Private, privately private, Mind and Place

I was sitting in Shorewood's imaginary town square on an imaginary bench, of course with my imaginary friend and my imaginary dog at my side.

So far, I'm the only one who's not imaginary, because I'm doing all the imagining. But what happens if I too become imaginary? A subject for discussion at another time.

But for the time being, my friend and I were talking. My friend's name is Adam. Adam said, “we should have reduced the presidential transition time period to about a week or ten days after the election, especially during these crucial times in history.”

“How could we do that,” I said.

“I don't know but we should have. But now we've had a ceremonial president for over a month and he shall remain ceremonial,” Adam said.

“There's no constitutional way to do this and besides we are an over-legalist society when it comes to constitutional matters”

“Yes, but there is a way. President Bush could have set a precedent during these crucial times. He could have called in President-elect Obama and told him how this could be done and after an agreement go ahead and do it,” Adam said.

“You must have been thinking of this for awhile, how would you have done it?”

“About a week or ten days after the election, the Vice-President would announce his resignation, and President Bush would appoint Obama to succeed him, then Bush would resign and Obama would become President..

And with an announcement of the cabinet members, we'd have a new administration,” Adam said with a certain finality.

I asked, “do you think the the people would have accepted that?”

“Why not? They voted for him. And we've been in need of a real president and not a ceremonial one all of this time,” Adam responded.

Well, I'm glad that all of this stuff is imaginary, otherwise I think we might be in some real political trouble if this had come up as a real suggestion.

Economics and the architectural character of cities, with political philosophy as an accompanying sideline have been at the heart of my intellectual and professional life.

Perhaps now, in the village square of Shorewood, I should sit here on one of the benches, contemplating past and future and waiting for a friend to pass by, and perhaps he may join me and we could turn to more village square matters, that is if I can find the village square. There I go again.

Let's assume there is a place where I can do this in Shorewood. Sometime ago, I acquired a list of some cities where one could sit in the town square, even in the winter.

Some years back, I found underground squares in a couple of cities in Canada. They were well-lit by sky lights and with electrical lighting as well. One could sit at benches and talk with friends, even though it was cold and snowing at street level above.

So, I'm going to imagine that we have one of those village squares here in Shorewood. And here is a bench where I can get a good view of what is going on and here I shall sit.

Along comes a coffee cart and someone to sell me coffee and rolls. Fine. Now I have a reason to sit here. I'm drinking coffee. Here comes a friend. Join me.

Yes, he says, I've come to do some shopping but stores won't open for a little while and we can talk.

Perhaps we can meet for lunch later over there at the sidewalk cafe across the square. That sounds pretty good.

 What have you been doing since you retired? 

 Well, that's the way it is at first, but before long, it won't be that you haven't too much to do. Once you adjust, you'll find that time goes too fast to do all the things you really want to do.

Now that the shops are open, more people are coming onto the square. I've got a few things to do, so now I shall be on my way. I'm coming back later for lunch with my friend.

Someone, wiser than I am, pointed out that I've been making a terribly huge mistake for the past number of years.

And now I have to admit to it.

The mistake, as has been pointed out, is that I have expected politicians to behave with a certain amount of reasonableness.

This person impressed on me that the higher a politician is or the more power he/she has, the less reasonable that person is going to be in making political decisions.

Therefore, in expecting politicians to be reasonable, I have been the most unreasonable of all. Now imagine, I have to live with that.

At least at the local level, if this is the case, I've be less unreasonable because local politicians are expected to be less unreasonable, but unreasonable never-the-less.

So I suppose it is unreasonable of me to try to speak reasonably with unreasonable people, especially as I am one of those unreasonables. Well, where do we go from here?

If I didn't try to speak reasonably then it would be a reasonable thing to do. How does one set out to be unreasonable in order to be reasonable?

Can one be reasonable and unreasonable at the same time? “Aye, there's rub.”

What a situation. The best thing is to become a politician who can't be reasonable and then all of use being unreasonable together would at least appear reasonable. But in reality. . . . ?

A few hours ago I removed the snow on the sidewalk in front of my property and cleared it down to the pavement.

About half an hour ago, Shorewood's snow plowers replaced more snow and gunk on the sidewalk than I blew away An area between the sidewalk and the curb now contains snow about four to five-foot high.

My sidewalk which had about 6 inches of lovely white snow that had fallen has now in some places snow and gunk about two feet high. What happened? The Village blew the snow and gunk from the street onto the sidewalk Maybe that's where the Village wants it. .

I'm responsible for the snow that falls from heaven but not the gunk that Shorewood plows onto the sidewalk. Shorewood does this for the State, because the State gives Shorewood a rebate for keeping two lanes open, both ways on Lake Drive. They should now remove the gunk.

What about my rebate. I'm not going back to clear the gunk off the sidewalk. Let Shorewood or the State do it, They put it there.

They want a car in-movement community not a “walkable community.”  They also want the rebate.  What about me?  What do I get?  Everyone knows what me and my dog get. 

Congratulations to David Tatarowicz, you got through to Shorewood Village Hall.

They finally let the Department of Public Works do the practical thing. DPW understands that the removal of the snow in the business district is the solution, not moving snow aside.

The plowing technique works on the the highways, where they've made room on the side of the road. And after a number of passages, they have pushed all the snow off the pavement, where it is to be stored until it melts.

In urbanized areas the clearing of the pavement requires carrying the snow to storage places away from the central activity areas.

Snow plowing gives preference to car movement. In our business district in Shorewood, what is required is space for car parking and the movement of shoppers on accessible and cleared sidewalks.

If we are going to devote a lot of time, money and effort in upgrading our business district, then we must be prepared for removing snow properly so that people can shop there.

That's what a business district is for. It's not only to move the cars through so they can go to another community and shop.

If we want to improve our commercial district so we can improve the tax base, then we must be prepared to pay the price and keep a shopping environment, cleared of snow.

David Tatarowicz has been making a great effort in this direction and Village Hall seems to have got the message.

Let's remember what Dave is calling for and let's improve our methods for keeping the functional side of our business district a place for shopping. We live in snow country and we must deal with it.

Thanks to you Dave and to the people of Shorewood's Department of Public Works. Let's hope for a happy season and for good business returns to our commercial friends.

Self-sustaining to me means NOT living beyond your means.

From a natural resource point of view, living beyond one's means is the depletion of resources that cannot be replenished.

In a sense, we've been fortunate when it comes to petroleum to be forewarned as to the scarcity of this resource reflected in the high price that we experienced earlier this year.

Price of gasoline became a symbol of living beyond our means in other ways as well.

The most sophisticated of financial people got sucked into a collective psychological bubble of their own making. They began lending money against anticipated collateral that didn't materialize in accordance with their projections, in other words, within their speculation scope.

They depleted a resource that became only an illusion, a permanent rise in the value of real estate. They then spent what wasn't there. If we continue to develop our infrastructure based on disappearing resources, the infrastructure itself will eventually be of no worth and then we''ll really be broke.

We've achieved regional economies throughout the world that function on the use of energy. Most of the production of that energy is based on these disappearing resources.

What we need to do first of all is to begin converting our energy resources into what is replenishable and to convert our infrastructure to these new energies.

At the present time, solar and wind energies are our best opportunities, with such resources as natural gas to carry us over. There are other possibilities that need to be researched further as well.

We must begin weening ourselves from the present depleting resources to replenishable resources and we must work toward improving the technology that will provide us with more efficient infrastructures.

The use of replenishable resources will provided a self-sustaining economy and will make it possible for us to live within our means. This is the main lesson of the recession that we are living through.

Even the process of changing over to new means of energy production will help bring us out of this recession. It will help put money, the blood supply of our system back into circulation.

Can we take advantage of this new knowledge?

It has become quite apparent to me that Shorewood can become the model suburb when it comes to supplying our own energy.

To do this we should make our principle goal that of becoming an energy independent community. I believe that we could within a decade become 80 to 90 percent energy-self-sustaining, providing for most of our energy needs.

We are now in a period when our national government will support innovations of this type and we should be prepared to take advantage of this socio-political atmosphere and possible Federal funding.

Wind power was once quite important to our small farms in this country for pumping water and for providing a minimum supply of electricity.

Today, we have advanced methods for making use of the wind to generate electricity.

Just as we are involved in improving electrical batteries for electrical storage, we are also advancing in the improvement of solar energy collection cells.

Thin-filmed light weight cells have been developed and are being improved to provide more personalized electric current producing devices.

Therefore, the distributing of the energy collection points will also progress and we should be there as these new developments take place.

And we should also be on the ground and involved in the progress leading to local community energy independence.

This is realistically enough so that Shorewood could establish a commission or agency that will investigate the manner by which we can develop methods for small communities and for Shorewood especially to become energy independent.

Meanwhile, it seems wise that we commit ourselves to a goal for becoming energy independent.

I'd like to hear from any Shorewood trustee as to why we shouldn't do this and do it now.

Today, I have this feeling of waiting.

Waiting for what, for more snow, for the auto industry to revive, for something great to happen?

I'm waiting for the newspapers to announce that two multi-billionaires have denounced their wealth and are putting it together to provide children without homes and parents, two parents for each of them, to love them and to educate them.

I'm waiting for another billionaire to provide many loaves of bread and fish for the multitude at Christmas time.

Is there any other reason to accumulate even one billion dollars or to be permitted to do that, if it weren't for the children of the world and for the needy? How many religions advocate that wealth is good in its cumulative form in the hands of one or one family?

I'm not waiting for anyone to justify a billion dollars in one package, in one person's hand if it were not for helping the children and the poor.

Religion teaches that in our desires that we are all equal and worthwhile, that God wants us to love each other as He does us. I'm waiting. Perhaps this Christmas.

But perhaps I'm also waiting for a President with intellect, with knowledge and authority. One who will lead us in the spirit of what some early Americans believed to be equality. I'm waiting for someone who intends to raise us above flood waters.

Like Diogenes, looking for the honest man, I'm waiting for a man of reason to help us find purpose in democracy and in the belief that humanity has purpose. Diogenes never believed that he'd find the honest man, but I'm hoping and wondering whether we shall ever, in our waiting, learn of a reasonable man?

Today, I have this feeling of waiting. Waiting.

We now know, and it must be clearly announced, that modern civilizations are dependent on the best education that can be attained by every member of society.  

The best among those educated then become the leading innovators. This has been clearly proven in the past 50 years and also as we examine the centuries.

In modern terms, education is an investment in the immediate future as well as in our long term civilization.

Those countries and perhaps those associated countries with similar cultures who succeed in broadening the influence of education throughout most, if not all of their citizenry, will be best equipped to confront today, tomorrow and the more distant future.

The question is that now, that we know what is to be done, how to do it?

It seems that we must see to it that the multitude is not only to be feed but also to be educated. It is through our innovations that all will be educated. Today we have all become education-dependent.

It is not enough to feed a hungry child, we must also give it the means to become educated.

Equally as without food, we shall also intellectually starve without education. The only difference is that education feeds and grows on itself without deprivation and this is the underlying magic of civilization.

Education awakens unknown human powers and therefore we must wake up to the need for its broadest distribution

In today's terms, “it pays off”.