A Few Minutes with the Mayor – September 2014

Now there’s a word that can strike fear into the hearts and minds of otherwise stout-hearted men and women. How many times have we all heard someone say, “I wish they’d stop changing things all the time,” or “Why do we need to change… I like things the way they are.” The implication is that the change they fear will make things worse, not better. Sometimes that’s true, of course; all one has to do is look in a mirror to prove that point. But, true or not, change is as inevitable as the spreading light of dawn at a morning sunrise.

This truism doesn’t apply to all things human… hate, for instance. It is an evil emotion as powerful and timeless as its opposite—love. Our President didn’t seem to understand that. When recently asked about the prospect of Russia invading Ukraine, he said, “We’ve grown beyond that… nations don’t behave that way anymore.” Really?

They don’t? Of course they do… and so do people.

The other day, a group of Hamas supporters went parading through Manhattan shouting anti-Jewish slogans incited by hatred of all things “Israel.” They were unprepared for a spontaneous counter-demonstration which dwarfed their own, forcing them to retreat in confusion. It isn’t often that one sees that and evidently, it wasn’t important enough to make the network news… but it was on YouTube.

Hatred has a cousin… negativity… and it is equally destructive when left unchallenged. It is a force that saps the vitality and energy of proposals whose adoption would necessitate change, even when that change was obviously beneficial. Often operating without any parameters of reason or logic, negativity, like hatred, rejects any attempt to prove it wrong. Such proof would destroy it, thereby rendering it ineffectual and without merit.

History is replete with men and women who overcame horrendously-negative public opinion about their efforts. Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat which revolutionized transportation on the water, was described as a “hack” and his invention derided as “Fulton’s Folly.” Madam Curie not only survived an incredible onslaught of negativity arrayed against women in scientific research, but went on to win a Nobel Prize for her work. And Winston Churchill fought against those in his own government who were ready to surrender to the Germans at the height of the London blitz, urging his people to hold on, for he knew surrender would only bring death and slavery to his people, and perhaps the world. In each of these cases, negativity was trumped by determination and a drive to succeed.

Here in Jacksonville, we are not immune to negativity. (Say, “oh, no! I’m shocked, shocked to see negativity going on here!”) There’s a handful of people, albeit, a noisy handful, who would move heaven and earth to prevent the City from moving into the Courthouse. (Oh no! Not CHANGE!) Their method consists of denouncing the use of the Urban Renewal program as the financial platform to accomplish the steps necessary to make that move. Their arguments are based on an apparent ignorance of how Urban Renewal works… in other words, their arguments are based on false data. When offered the opportunity to come to City Hall to learn how Urban Renewal works and how it would apply in this case, the answer was “NO”… the loudest voice not interested. And lo and behold, the person shouting “NO” the loudest wants a seat on the Council next year. How sad! Aren’t council members supposed to be open-minded when any issue is introduced, regardless of personal resistance to any form of change? I can’t speak for others, but I’m tired of elected officials who refuse to work in a spirit of co-operation and good-will with each other and the public. We see enough of that in Washington D.C. every day, don’t we?