Look Around, You Find the Ground

At the end of each year, we have a tendency to take inventory-to grab a snapshot of where we are and compare it to where we hoped we'd be. Or maybe that's just me. Another year where the goal was to be six feet tall by Christmas, fluent in a half dozen languages and promoted to a Captain of Industry. All epic fail. Again. It's okay to have our reach exceed our grasp, or what's a world for? I'd be more concerned if we stopped reaching, if not for a dream then for one another. As it is, that you try at all means you have succeeded, and, because you need to try again, should not mean you have failed.

As the days of this year dwindle to none, the meetings here in Norwich of citizen volunteers are pared to nearly the same number, which may be just as well as clearing snow from sidewalks, passageways and streets might well be the larger order of the day in the days to come.

Today's scheduled meeting of the Redevelopment Agency was shifted to two weeks ago, so I guess the take-away here is that the roof on the Reid and Hughes building is still in whatever shape it was in previously (private joke, please forgive me) . Meanwhile the minutes of that special meeting held on the 15th have yet to be posted to the city's website in accordance with state law, so perhaps the joke isn't so private after all. Especially now.

The only meeting, says the city's website, that's actually taking place this week is Tuesday's Harbor Management Commission meeting at five. According to the October meeting agenda (the last item posted to the city's website in connection with these volunteers), the meeting is in the City Manager's office.

If you're looking for light reading (with some serious themes)to tide you over until the new year and hoped to read "handouts from the 12/17/10 Legislative Breakfast" with the City Council and the Board of Education held at the Rose City Senior Center, thanks to some patience from Josh P (who was kind enough to point me in the right direction), you'll find them at the above link. Sounds like a quibble I know, but they could be easier to find; but in fairness, they are easier to find than the notes from the weekly Mayor's meetings which have yet to make an appearance on the website.

We elected people a year or so ago whom I understood were committed to maintaining transparency in our municipal government. It's not too early to start thinking about who made that promise and who kept it, and deciding accordingly November next. Maybe we should all look to learn more from, and about, people who seem to enjoy playing keep away with information needed to make informed decisions.

That might make a nice New Year's resolution: be a light instead of a horn. Don't just make a difference, be the difference on your street, around your neighborhood and in your city. This time next week, the year has run and a new one has begun. Don't dwell on deeds that may not be done and the things behind the sun.

-bill kenny