Nothing like saving the best for last, and raising the bar to a level his successor has little hope of clearing.
You may not like or agree with President Barack Obama and his actions over the past eight years, but you’d have to have a heart like a 10-minute egg not to have been at least a little bit moved by his farewell address. Despite being a bit heavy on the self-congratulations, Obama struck a number of what I’d call very “American” themes, chief among them the need for people to recognize that democracy is not be a spectator sport. For it to survive, we all need to stay involved — a message that badly needed to be sent to a citizenry bereft of political engagement.
Contrast that with what we saw the next morning at President-elect Donald Trump’s pre-inaugural press conference, which swiftly devolved into an episode of his latest reality show, “Media Shaming 101.” I’m sure there were those who cheered when Trump dismissed CNN and other media outlets as “fake news” and refused to take their questions, but all it really did was make him look petty and reinforce concerns that he will be more concerned with settling scores than managing affairs when he assumes power.
It also served as a colossal distraction from the infinitely more important story of the day, which is how he plans to separate himself from his business interests once he takes the oath — the explanation of which likely raised more questions than it answered.
Like most people, I have absolutely no idea what to expect when the clock strikes noon a week from today. The only thing I know is that our country is in for a major political change, which I suspect will either end very well or very badly for our increasingly divided nation.
I feel like I should try to write something profound about this recent debate over the rezoning of the French King overlay district, but I’m having a tough time — probably because there is little here that could even remotely be considered new ground.
This is the same debate Greenfield has had for 25 years. Certain people want to allow certain types of growth on the edge of Greenfield’s eastern economic gateway, while others are opposed, many of whom are the same people who have been resisting the idea of a big-box retail store on that end of town. It’s entirely possible that a final court decision on that project could be handed down this year, which is probably why this is coming up now.
The theory being that if a store does come in, businesses might be able to benefit from the increased traffic — which can’t happen as long as that zoning overlay is in place.
The only difference this time is that the votes may be there on the Town Council to change it. I say “may” because there are no guarantees when it comes to this particular issue. But one thing this vote is likely to reveal is just how much sway Council Vice President Isaac Mass has over his colleagues. After all, this is his baby, and he helped get a lot of these people elected. So, in a way, it’s payback time.
Will they follow his lead? Tune in Wednesday to find out. You know I’ll be watching.
Last week’s rant over the ongoing problems at the Railroad Salvage building proved fodder for an interesting conversation with a reader equally frustrated by the relative powerlessness of towns to deal with absentee landlords.
“What’s happened there is a disgrace,” the reader said, “but are you telling me the state can’t do something to protect towns from this kind of nonsense? They could save these towns millions of dollars lost to this kind of irresponsible behavior.”
That makes sense, but the question is, how? As stated before, our current laws are largely skewed in favor of the property owners, but there has to be a way to lessen the burden on towns without infringing on the rights of the individual. I very much look forward to posing that question in my next interview with members of our delegation, as soon as they are able to pry themselves away from the other burning issues of the day, like how many pot plants we will able to legally grow in our homes.
Chris Collins, who worked in local radio in a number of capacities, has observed political life in Franklin County for years. He also is a former staff reporter for The Recorder and a Greenfield native.