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 December 16, 2000 |
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Editorial: Taking Cues It's rare to see a train wreck, as the Presidential election was often called, end with all the cars upright and still moving along down the track. But by Thursday morning, Al Gore and George W. Bush seemed to have pulled it off. Whatever you might think of the Florida contest and the national outcome, there was something riveting about the way the whole matter found its final moments, with statesmen rising above themselves, putting the country first, calling a halt to the legal maneuvering and partisan bickering. "Just as we fight hard when the stakes are high," said the Vice President, "we close ranks and come together when the contest is done." All of this has a familiar feel here on Roosevelt Island. Last week, the newly-elected Common Council of the Roosevelt Island Residents Association met for the first time, under the gavel of its new President, Matthew Katz. Throughout the meeting, there was the bump and parry of committed people expressing their beliefs intelligently and forthrightly. But when the meeting ended and those remaining gathered for a "class photo" (see page 3), there was a kind of tentative renewing of the camaraderie that once was, and could again be, a virtual trademark of Roosevelt Island. There is reason to come together. The ideals on which this Island community was built are in danger of being cast aside with a new direction on the RIOC Board – a direction that seems, as best we can tell, to put expansive faith in those who hold money and make decisions about what to do, and not to do, with it. But there are values above mass and market and capital. They are values alive and well on Roosevelt Island, among the people who live here. And today's danger is that the enormous power of the marketplace to do both good things – and blundering bad things – may be loosed to ravage those values as greed can. The contest is over. We should close ranks. We should celebrate and stand upon the values that we have so long nurtured here. And we should fight hard, together, to preserve those values and find a structure in which they will be protected.
Giving Thanks The WIRE has had a good year, thanks to the work of over a hundred volunteers who make common cause of getting out the Island's news. Many are listed below, though there are occasional lapses when we find that someone who has been steadfast has also been unacknowledged. From this point of view, there's one mandatory word, inadequate as it may be to the purpose of praising those who put forth the effort each issue: Thanks.
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