Monday, February 9, 2009

$1,000,000 Challenge

Its relatively simple. Gather all the ingredients necessary to bake a cake, mix the batter and pour into a pan. Bake accordingly...and now the challenge...extract the two eggs you used to make the cake.

This impossibility is significant with regard to the upcoming election. On February 25th, campaign offices will close, consoling words will be passed around, and congratulatory/concession phone calls will be made. But throughout this process, during this cycle, feelings have been hurt, trusts have been torn, relationships have been damaged, households have been split (politically)...eggs have been broken, and there is no way possible to put the egg back in the shell.

Now in an ideal world, these transgressions would be carelessly forgiven as a part of the political process and things will return to the way they were, but we don't live in an ideal world. We live in a world where people have short memories, where bitterness is held on to longer than grandma's luggage, where payback is a...well you know. But the losers will not be the candidates that didn't make the cut, the losers will be the programs associated with their names. You might think that people would put high quality programs ahead of petty differences, but expect to see that programs associated with the losing side to suffer as a result of campaign passion.

My second challenge carries no prize. If you are the elected, forgive and move on beginning February 25th. Be the bigger person, show that you are more than the names you were called on a blog, or the person who was maligned during a forum. Actually there is a prize here as well. It is honor, a word seldom used anymore in the civilian world, and a word long overdue for greater use on Staten Island

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