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| My token of appreciation to Mayor Ken Wright |
Tonight the City of Dunwoody presented our first Mayor Ken Wright the Key to the City as he and his lovely bride downsize to a place with ocean breezes and endless tennis matches. Ken mentioned to me several months ago that he might be moving away and when I saw the special presentation listed on the agenda, I correctly guessed it might be about him.
It reminded me that I had a copy of the speech Ken gave on September 24th, 2008 at our initial council swearing in, that I never published but reading it today I believe is still is pertinent and meaningful for those who were sworn in but also for the citizens of Dunwoody as we move forward and continue into self governance.
Ken Wright speech prior to being sworn in for Mayor of Dunwoody. - September 24, 2008
"Thank you very much Gordon, and Bev, and Don for putting all of tbs together tonight. We certainly appreciate all the efforts to do what it takes. I do not consider myself a speech maker. I would like to point out a couple of things.
I am a member of Dunwoody United Methodist Church up the street and a few weeks ago Dr. Wiley Stevens, who is our senior pastor was preaching to the congregation about stepping out of the boat and into the water. What I took away from that, which may not have been what I was supposed to take away from that, was to step out of your comfort zone and do some things that you wouldn't ordinarily do in your day-to-day lives. I think we all know it would be much easier to be sitting at home on the couch watching TV or reading a book but for everybody showing up tonight, you certainly stepped out of the boat and did something a little bit different; maybe a little inconvenient.
I would like to thank our Council for stepping out of the boat and putting themselves and their families up for public consumption. I would also like to thank the candidates that ran that were not elected. Again, it took a lot of time, and we had such a high caliber array of candidates to choose from. I think we can all be honored by what they did and putting themselves in the same situation as the Council in stepping out of their boat; hats off to those folks as well.
Certainly, for the hundreds if not thousands of volunteers during this whole process. It involved so many people from within and outside this community do different things on different days. It took a whole lot of work and was non-stop. Thank you to all the volunteers no matter what group you were in.
Certainly, the leadership down under the Gold Dome, Senator Weber and Representative Miller, it could not have been done without those folks. Thank those folks when you see them for stepping out of their boats and into the water.
I read about good leadership and the qualities of good leadership. One of the books stories requires someone to listen to diverse opinions and have open ears and sit down and talk. At the end of the conversation, with good back and forth with the person you are speaking with, no one should fear retaliation for sharing their thoughts and opinions. I am extremely confident that with this Council, we have elected a bunch of good leaders that are open to different things, open to you, the community, and open to the task at hand. I appreciate your leadership. At the end of the day, life takes a lot of twists and turns, and we don't know what we are going to face from one day to the next. Not just in what we are doing from a civic service perspective, but also from a personal perspective, a health perspective and everything in between.
With that in mind, I think the Council shares my philosophy that it is imperative that we treat each other with mutual respect and admiration. That's not just among ourselves, but back to the community and the community back to us. I look forward to this new City and that kind of cooperation and I think you should look forward to that as well.
The past few weeks, you have heard a lot of people talk about history and the historical perspective of what we have been going through in the past years. It's hard for me and it may be hard for some of you to think of the present day being something historical. If you have problems doing that, I brought with me documents given to me by Herb Sprigg. These documents show the forward-thinking things that the DHA got involved with and really planted a lot of the seeds that we see in Dunwoody today from the architecture to the way things are laid out.
I saw Herb not too long ago and he gave me a yellow folder and told me to take a look at it. I sat down that evening and within that folder there were a lot of neat pieces of history. I brought the folder with me so if any of you are interested in seeing it. This particular piece is about a huge group of citizens in Dunwoody holding a public meeting in February 1972. That meeting was to talk about the City of Dunwoody. Coincidentally enough, I was two years old at the time but we had a lot of leaders in this community that were gathering and trying to formulate how Dunwoody could form a city.
I just wanted to point out a couple of issues in this pamphlet. They talk about what is to be gained. A community say in land use planning and zoning. A community boundary which can not be overrun for rezoning or other purposes. It goes on and on but if you read this, it could have been written five months ago. What's most intriguing to me on the back, it says "Rather than risk defeat, should the city question go to the people for determination. The group which does not want to see local control is concentrating on stopping the Charter in the legislature." It goes on to talk about what happened.
Where we are today, in large measure, is to the folks back in 1972 who really got the ball rolling for us. It took 38 years. I thought that was an interesting piece to share with you. One of the last things I'd like to state is this is going to be a difficult process, and I can guarantee there is nobody sitting on this stage that expects nothing but blood, sweat, and tears. If you look at what we are doing, we're starting something from scratch. If any of you have ever started anything from scratch, it is a lot of work and ends up being about a thousand times more work than you initially expected. Make no mistake, we are prepared and up for the challenge. We will represent you in a way that you can be proud of who you elected.
Independence is never an easy thing. I think back and think of analogies. When you graduate from college and get that first job, many times you couldn't be more excited about the opportunity. It's a wonderful thing. Then a lot of reality starts to set in. You get the big bills coming in. You have to pay for insurance and $5.00 per gallon gas. Independence is not going to be easy. We are prepared for the task.
The other thing I would like to point out as I probably have this last opportunity in a semi-public forum to make a speech; make no mistake, there are people within this community and outside the community that want this city to fail. They are just grasping at pieces to see that we fail. There are people that have their letters pinned to the AJC and the Crier ready to go regarding our city. Believe me again when I say, we are up to the challenge.
As I read some of these things in other cities, I find it interesting. Sometimes a negative is not a negative. I read articles regarding Milton's sewer wars or Sandy Springs zoning wars. On initial thought, you think, look at the mess that city is in. But when you step back and look at what is happening in that process, you have local elected officials debating and discussing with local electorate these critical issues. At the end of the day, does that mean there is no debate? No it doesn't. Does that mean we are going to be 100% on the same page? No it doesn't. What it does mean is that you are going to have a voice within your city and within your Council. It doesn't guarantee that whatever the issue is, you are going to be on the side that you hoped you were in. But you are going to be there and you are going to have the opportunity to be there and you will be involved should you choose to be. That is a whole lot better than it just happening and you not having a single word in it. I hope everybody takes that to heart and remembers that as we face our challenges ahead.
With that I would just ask everybody to remember that we never lose sight of what brought us here. That we never forget to teach younger generations about the hard work and the struggles it took for this community to come together; for this community to get a right to vote; and ultimately for this community to decide their destination. So please keep that in your heart and keep that wisdom going for future generations. With that, thank you very much for allowing us to serve you."
