Poor choice of words on my part. I don't mean 'move past' this blog in the sense of 'discard it and go on to something else'. I can see why that choice of words might lead to that conclusion though - my bad.
What I mean is, this blog is incredibly valuable as a place to inform people and inspire action. Thank you too DIA, layman, champlain and others for that.
But it has to do both to be effective. If all we do is inform each other, without acting, this place can become an echo chamber. We can all congratulate ourselves on how clever we are or how we've exposed yet another albany folly (important work - I'm NOT minimizing that by any means) but what counts is power. The people of this city get screwed daily because those who want it that way have more power than those who want simple, honest, well-managed, democratic (small 'd') local government. That's the bottom line.
So I am saying we need to continue what we do here but we need to unplug from the matrix too, and work together to change this city in ways that can't happen on a blog. They can happen because of a blog, but not on the blog.
Maybe we all show up for the next common council meeting, each of us with well-prepared remarks, and we'll all say we're DIA. Kind of like the end of 'Spartacus'. ;) Or was that 'The Life of Brian'? You can see the headline "Democracy In Albany Is Everywhere" ;)
Let's get creative. Let's put together a slate of CC candidates for next year, as well as a mayoral candidate. Pick one color to run with on the lawn signs. Most of the candidates will lose. But if you make the thugs defend everywhere, some of the good guys will win.
Crazy talk ? Yes, that's why it might work. Gandhi didn't have a chance either.
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