MinnPost has my piece about the history of stimulus projects, the WPA and the history of Lilac Way.
Today, there's little evidence in this sound-wall-to-sound-wall carscape of a connection to the Great Depression and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). But a restored Lilac Park, dedicated [last] week near Highways 7 and 100, offers a modest reminder of what public investment can accomplish — and what may be lacking in today's attempts to stimulate an ailing economy.
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Wege says, "The fact that a 59-year-old man is leading the British Open is pretty much all the proof anyone would ever need that golf is a game, like billiards or darts, and not a sport."
I think he's making a meaningless distinction. Most sports are games as played by average people.
What Tom Watson showed — including when he short-armed his potentially Open-winning putt on the 72nd hole — is that golf demands a combination of physical skill, judgment and self-control, plus a measure of luck beyond what occurs on standardized playing fields.
One only has to compare the physically gifted Carlos Gomez and Joe Mauer at bat for the Twins to see how much self-control and judgment matter in sports. There are many more older golfers playing at a high level than older baseball players, football players and hoopsters, because in golf, strength and endurance are rewarded proportionately less.
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Also via Wege, homeless people are standing in line to hold places for lobbyists in Congressional hearings.
Yes, it's possible the man without a home or health care could be standing in for someone who will lobby against his interests. But it's not always that simple, as this clip illustrates. Sometimes, it takes just a little help to put someone on a better path.
