Sometimes a map, sometimes a souvenir book

Tuesday's Norwich City Council meeting may actually be more informative for what happens BEFORE the meeting itself at 7 PM than for anything on the agenda.

There will be an informational session with the City Council offered by the Norwich Semiseptcentennial Committee on their plans (so far) for the 350th anniversary in 2009 of the settling of the city of Norwich. I enjoy the idea of patting myself on the back as much as the next guy, perhaps even more so (which explains the frequency of my shoulder dislocations) so I'm more than a bit interested in how some of us think we should celebrate all of us. But what I'm really interested in learning is how all of this gets paid for.
Last week, the first installment of 200K from the Mohegans for the Sachem Fund (a five year development fund, funded equally by the City of Norwich and the Mohegan tribe at 200K a year) was delivered via press conference in City Hall. Prior to that event, the Mayor had already nominated residents to sit on the Sachem Fund Advisory Board.
I wonder how many tall ships in the harbor shouting "Happy Semiseptcentennial!" you can rent for some portion of 400 thousand dollars (the hours of rehearsal needed to say semiseptcentennial in unison could prove to be quite costly). So, all in all, Tuesday's informational meeting should be, well, informational.

At the previous City Council meeting was a resolution proposed by the city manager to hire a lobbyist that sparked a fair amount of comment, within Council chambers and without. I find it interesting that with the legislative session slated to begin in (now) less than three weeks, there's nothing on Tuesday's agenda to follow up on the request for proposal the Council approved the night of the 7th. Perhaps my sense of irony has overwhelmed my sense of urgency, or perhaps the urgency was synthetic to begin with.

Tomorrow is the legal observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. We have come a long way in our lifetimes, and his, in how we live with one another, but we have a long way to go. As it turned out, he wasn't able to be with us at the mountain, as he had feared for very probably the reasons he knew, but he helps underscore how important each of our lives is to all of us and one another so don't ever say you can't do something, because you're only one person. Because, you see, you are one person--and while you may feel you can't do everything, you can do something. Be the change you want to see in the world.
-bill kenny