There are a lot of indicators Andrew Cuomo will not be a very progressive Governor of New York, but I must say he did an excellent job with his Inaugural Address today.
I really related to a section of the speech where he spoke of how the beautiful governmental buildings of the past reflected a faith in and engagement with Democracy that is too sadly lacking amongst current-day Americans.
As neo-cons and their corporate media lackeys work to erode public engagement with the government, trying to turn it into an enemy 'other' as opposed to literally BEING us - I thought Cuomo's use of the 'nearly empty' State Capital building (on whose steps I presume he was speaking from) as a metaphor for public disengagement with democracy was brilliant and very moving.
Here is the section of his speech I'm referring to - as it was a public speech I presume it is OK to quote from it at length:
I was walking in the hallways of this Capitol a few months ago and I was a few steps behind a
mother and apparently her daughter and they were walking through the hallways and the
daughter was obviously taken by the majesty of the building and the daughter turned to her
mother and said, ³Mom, where are all the people?"….
(snip)
Where are the people? Where are the people in Albany? Where are the people in the Capitol? That is the profound absence in this system. The people aren't engaged. And that is what is going to have to change. If there is a silver bullet in the battle to recapture Albany, it is the reengagement of our citizens.
This Capitol has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people. In the name of heightened security, they have erected barriers and barricades all around this Capitol…
(snip)
This is a beautiful monument to democracy, this building. This is the people's meeting place and they should be invited in.
And today my friends, we will reopen the Capitol, literally and figuratively. We will remove the barriers on State Street so the tour buses can return once again…so the members of the public will once again have access to their government.
It is a symbol of a new approach: to reconnect with people, to build back trust, to defeat the power of the special interests with the power of the people.
My friends, look at this Capitol that you are in today. I am sure you noticed on the way in, notice on the way out, look at the magnificent building that they built…look at the granite, marble, carved mahogany, the carved oak in this building. The million-dollar staircase, the most expensive building to build at the time, $25 million.It took them 30 years.
Look at the statement that they were making. Look at the commitment, look at the resources. They could have built a building in one-tenth of the time, with one-tenth of the expense and one-tenth of the effort. That's not what they wanted. They wanted to make a statement when they built this institution of government. They wanted to say: we believe in government; we respect government; we are committed to government; we want the government to succeed.
Why? Because they believed when the government succeeds, they succeed. Because the government is them. It is not an alien force, it is the organizing force for people. And if the government is successful at organizing and mobilizing, then society is going to be successful.
So they invested in the government and it was theirs and they were proud of it. That is what this building is all about. That is what the Court of Appeals is all about. People believing in the institutions of New York State and believing in themselves and believing in the State and investing in that belief
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