Big Praise for a Big Thinker with the Courage to Think Short-Term

Editor,

David Williamson is a great Alamedan. His letter about trees got right to the root of the problem. Who else in our community has the courage to reject long-term plans for "improvements" that won't benefit anyone right now. We need more big thinkers like him! It's that sort of bold, short-term thinking that has made our great country what it is today.

When I look around me at all of the things people spent tax money on long ago, I realize what complete idiots they must have been. What do we need all those bridges across the bay for? No-one who was so gung ho to build them is alive today, especially not the yo-yos who thought the Golden Gate bridge was such a good idea even though it comes nowhere near Alameda. It would have been a lot simpler if they had just floated some logs out across that stretch, if it was so important for them to get from one side to the other.

And then there's the Hoover Dam, our Interstate Highway System, and, on a grander scale, Alameda City Hall. What's the point of any of those things for the people who paid hard-earned tax money to finance them? Take Alameda City Hall, please. Why did those boneheaded citizens back in 1896 bother to build a structure substantial enough to outlive them all? They could have pitched a tent, passed Alameda's Tartan-limiting "Measure Angus," and called it a day, but no, they had to waste precious taxpayer dollars on frivolously permanent things like stone and brick!

It's only through constant complaining, backed up by the finest facts we can devise, that we can prevent this kind of flagrant misuse of public funds. Thank goodness for the intrepid Mr. Williamson, and thank goodness for the Alameda Daily Noose and you, Mr. Editor!

Sincerely ticked off,
Karl Kurzfristig