Dear Editor,
The parking meter saga disgrace, really-is about some of the things that this country should no longer represent and exhibit. Yet they persist before all exposure, condemnation, and increasing disgust.
The parking meter scandal is about the same old self-serving, shabby paternalism: “we know wah good fuh yuh all, and dah is dah…” Or as is so characteristic of leadership here, “to hell wit aal ah yuh, we gun duh as we pleeze.” And they do. If Municipal Government was a family business, sharp ruptures would already have occurred and lasting bad blood the legacy all around. There might have been some fisticuffs, too.
The parking meter soap opera is about officials over their heads, past their prime, and beyond reprieve, who stick it once again to citizens without any semblance of shame, or any regret. They have learned nothing from either the years in the wilderness, or the egregious failures of an earlier time. From all appearances, they seek to repeat them at every opportunity presented and to extend the political massa damnata of this beleaguered society.
The parking meter dumbness is about those committed and practiced to a form of public service that would make chronic incompetents and the serially capricious cringe; and that reeks of the tawdry and the ugly, if not the bizarre, too. Clearly, citizens are terribly served by those lacking in calibre, character, and much sought after competence. In view of the significant presence of ancient bureaucratic recidivists in pivotal places at City Hall and other places, déjà vu is both commonplace and already the increasing cry. The word is of old dogs returning to old ways and old tricks. Thus, this society returns to old places and old history.
The parking meter insult is about so-called stewards of the public good who have failed to realize that there are angry watchful citizens who are further enraged by both the actions and demeanor of their elected and selected officials. There has to be immediate recognition that what was the norm, such as “becaaz we seh suh” and “ah yuh can duh wah ah yuh want” only contributes to further deterioration of a deplorable situation. It leads to second guessing and great distrust. On this much needed project, poorly managed and more appallingly presented, considerable damage has been done, and only serves to intensify scrutiny going forward on everything.
The parking meter ignorance is about these same stewards refusing to acknowledge that times have changed and that official secrecy, official dissembling, and official maladministration will incur the widely broadcast clamor of castigation, because of technology and a watchful media. These besotted bureaucrat dotards insisting upon mandarinate absolutism must be forced to come to terms with the realization that the world, as they once knew it, no longer exists. Now whatever merits the project did have has dissipated and now entangles in deepening darkness. There is no goodwill, no credibility, only suspicion. And this arises because of the plantation mastery arrogated onto self by the self-pampered and the self-deceiving.Last, the parking meter betrayal should warn City Hall (and other agencies) that it might get away with the usual when the victims are individual citizens seeking succor. When, however, the issue is one that impacts the multitude, then alarm and outrage and volume are sure to follow. Even the public cheerleaders of what has unfolded do so out of obligation, and not from conviction. Overall, it is indicative of the tenor of the times.
I can only hope that there will be some learning and growing and true serving when this shoddy experience is finally over. Secrecy and disingenuousness are no longer durable viable options.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
