How To

Here's a little "How-to" for Mayors of medium-sized Southern cities.

How to dismiss a citizens' initiative outright, because it's not what you would do:

"They've never convinced me or others that this needed to be examined," Mayor Keith Holliday said. "The TRC project is being used as an alternate way to create what never happened, and that is a major investigation."

(Bonus points: Assert that a divisive issue in your community is not a problem.)

How to tell the rest of the world that your city has screwed-up priorities:

Greensboro does not need this kind of publicity, Holliday said. He worries that the city's past will turn away the businesses it is trying to recruit.

(Bonus points: Ignore potential for good publicity in historic human relations endeavor.)

How to "Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way":

That is why the project is moving forward, supporters said, and the mayor accepts that. "While I don't encourage it," Holliday said, "there's nothing I can do to stop it."

(Bonus points: Set precedent of city progress doing an end run around you.)

The rest of the country is reading it today, so we here in Greensboro probably should too.