I’m watching HBO’s “John Adams” series. I’m not sure of its historical accuracy but there is some really some good stuff in there. The lines that Ben Franklin delivers are really good. When Ben Franklin is asked “do you not believe in saying what you think? He replies “No, I’m very much against it. Thinking aloud is a habit responsible for much of mankind’s misery”. I am interested to do a little bit of research on the side to confirm that Adams was the near firebrand he appears to be in this series.

One other thing the movie does very well is to reflect the impact on his family. In one scene, his small boy is watching him head off towards Philadelphia and says “I hate the Congress”. I wouldn’t be so dim as to compare the travails of the founders to small-town politics but my family identifies with that sentiment (at the Council level of course) from time to time.

The Council held its first public work session on Manassas Next tonight. In attendance were several citizens, many members of the Manassas Business Council, several City staff members and Mark Wolfe – the republican nominee for Council. I had a presentation that was about 10 slides that went over the pieces of MN and estimated a budget for the first year. I will put that presentation up on the web tomorrow.The presentation and the costs were well recieved. The Vice Mayor suggested that the way to advance MN is to go ahead and insert the costs for MN into the budget for consideration this year. I will do that at the next budget meeting. The strategic planning aspects will have to be taken up by the City Council that is seated in early July.

All of this might seem a bit anti-climatic but I assure you that this is terribly exciting. For the first time in two years, we’re going to start strategic planning. We’re going to start a new public agenda and dialog. I can’t wait. Please do remember that the Council can’t do this without the citizens. We need your help and your input as we are just getting started.

Before I sign off, I’d like to thank all of those who helped. Beyond my family, some would prefer to remain anonymous so I’ll just leave it at that. If you helped, you know who you are and Manassas is better for your involvement. Thanks again and stay close as I know I’ll need everyone’s help before this is over in order to get it all done.

Update:  Here is a link to the presentation I made last night.