Lake Worth's Challenge:

While surfing around the Internet, I stumbled upon this graphic. In thinking it through, I believe that we could learn something about ourselves as a City by studying it. For those interested, this graphic is part of the public domain - a truth.

It seems to me that there is a war going on in our City against knowledge and the truth. There are those that think acting solely on beliefs will make something so or that a desired end can be achieved. This can be effective in the short term and particularly effective in political campaigns. But, over the long term, one cannot run away from the facts, or the truth. The eventual "day of reckoning" dawns. Many times it presents itself as a bitter pill that we all must swallow.

It is no accident that truth is one of the first causalities of an authoritarian regime. It is also no coincidence that those with "knowledge" are persecuted under such a political system as they might be sources of the "truth" that counter the accepted and prevailing "belief" structure perpetrated by the regime. There is no truth other than the belief structure or world view of that regime - anything else is considered blasphemy.

How far down this dangerous path is Lake Worth city government and its political atmosphere, generated by our elected and appointed leaders? I have my own set of examples which I will share, but am sensitive about not becoming too "preachy" about this topic. So, rather than lay it all out here and now, I encourage you to offer your views on the subject and I will respond with some of my examples along the way. What I hope to get to is at least a realization that knowledge is indeed power and that we need to find ways to preserve that in our deliberative process - hoping that will allow us a better opportunity to address the REALITIES that we face as a city, instead of furthering the "beliefs" of those that represent us.

Discuss.