Condensed into a 2-minute comment, and delivered at a special streetcar hearing in Cincinnati Council Chamber today:
50 years ago, John F Kennedy praised the accomplishments of post-war Germany, saying that “the true German miracle has been your rejection of the past for the future–your reconciliation with France, your participation in the building of Europe, your leading role in NATO, and your growing support for constructive undertakings throughout the world.”
JFK also offered a warning… “And our liberty, too, is endangered if we pause for the passing moment, if we rest on our achievements, if we resist the pace of progress. For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.”
At that time, the Berlin Wall was little more than a fence that Soviet-controlled East Germany had built to prevent the movement of young, talented and intellectual people fleeing narrow-minded East Germany in droves for a better life in the West.
Today Cincinnati feels like a divided city, but not East and West as many think. In our city, the narrative of division sounds like this: “those people seek to take your money and build a frivolous toy for themselves, while your police, fire and sanitation services are bankrupted by its exorbitant cost.” That divisive and completely false narrative is spun by outside interests, just as the Soviet narrative of East Germany was spun in Moscow. It does not represent the interests of Cincinnati it only seeks to influence the affairs of this city and to maintain that influence in the future.
Do not give away that future. Do not terminate this important project. Do not rest on the achievements of Cincinnati. Do not say that we have done enough. Demand that we do more. Demand that we join those cities who are building the future. You have an opportunity today that may never be presented again: You have a sound project, fully funded and with good public support as you can see here. You have numbers as of today that corroborate what was given before. You have benefactors federally and locally who are eager to partner with you. You have competent people waiting to resume this important work. And if that is not enough for you to say yes, then nothing ever will be, and that bright future, now firmly in hand, will slip through our fingers because you could not just say yes to it.