I am helping to raise a toddler, so I am adept at breaking down stories to their basic elements. In that spirit, here is a complicated political failure translated into a simple tale of stick-figure politics.
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Once upon a time, a good man wanted to be mayor.
The man said he was not a politician and would not play petty politics.
The man promised he would emphasize local development and help local businesses.
One day, some local businessmen said they had an idea to make the airport a happier place. They hoped the mayor would listen to their plan.
But the bad guys in the city said the plan to make the airport a happier place was a bad plan, even though they had not seen it.
They said the mayor should not listen to the plan.
So the mayor did not listen.
One of the men on the city’s Council said he would listen to the airport plan.
But the new mayor said, “No, you will not.”
So the councilman did not.
The businessmen were laughed at by the bad guys.
The new mayor was revealed to be just another politician who would play petty politics. He broke his promise to emphasize local development and help local businesses, at least in this story.
And while it remains to be seen if anyone in this story will live happily ever after, when it comes to the business community’s hope that the new mayor would be a wise and independent ruler, it is …
The end.
Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.
