Here's the question: If eliminating the Davenport City Council's Thursday-afternoon standing-committee meetings is a positive change for Davenport citizens, then why all the hush and rush?

There are three significant positions to be filled in Davenport's economic development in the near-future: City Director for Economic and Community Director, Director for DavenportOne, and Director for Quad Cities Development Group.

Talk about the opportunity of a lifetime! Here is a chance to enact real change in Davenport, considered by some to be the flagship of the Quad Cities. Those who will influence our new hires will either see the path or they won't - the path being to hire individuals with genuine leadership skills that are foundationally inclusive, versus the exclusive policy that has dominated economic development in Davenport for so long.

At the end of the day, you either have your self-respect or not. The degree of one's own self-respect will inevitably dictate the level of respect given by others. This holds true for a lot of things, including city leaderships.

Elected officials learn the hard way that by failing their constituents by acquiescing to special interests while in office, they are less respected by the very special interests benefiting from that failure. Most of these politicians eventually find themselves out of office and out of favor with everyone, including the people for whom they abdicated their integrity.

Due Vigilance

The November elections demonstrated that the real power in politics still belongs to America's citizenship - the voting citizenship, that is. Republicans were unseated not because Democrats could or would provide better leadership, but because the people believed that Republicans categorically failed in this mission on their watch.

Click here to vote. The deadline is January 15, and we'll be conducting weekly drawings from valid ballots for great prizes.

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Remember: You must provide valid answers for at least half the categories for your ballot to be counted.

Due to a production error, an incorrect version of page 19 was printed in the November 29 issue. A short calendar article and several listings -- particularly in the theatre category -- were omitted as a result.

To download or view a .pdf file of the correct page, click here

Casino Karma

Last week, Isle of Capri (IOC) notified the City of Davenport that it was putting its 11-story casino hotel, to be located on the downtown riverfront, on hold while it studies alternatives to the current riverboat-casino model.

The screeching citizens are hearing is IOC's brakes slamming as it hits the predicted financial wall. During September and October, both properties (Isle of Capri in Bettendorf and Rhythm City Casino in Davenport) lost 12 percent of their combined revenues to the newly opened Riverside Casino & Golf Resort in Riverside, Iowa.

IOC is finally getting serious competition not only from Riverside, but also Jumer's Casino Rock Island, which is currently constructing a facility on Interstate 280 on the outskirts of Rock Island.

How many times have you watched some movie or TV show depicting the villain as extreme governmental control, with severe abuse of innocents as the cause of rebellion? We sit through these horrors, reassuring ourselves that this would never happen in America. Why? Because, we tell ourselves, we would never allow things to deteriorate to such a degree that the level of control and abuse we are witnessing could occur.

Well don't be so sure. How do you think those film scenarios were conceived? Certainly from lively imaginations, but also from history; mankind has a long tradition of cruel, suppressive conduct toward his fellow human beings.

This week's article by Jeff Ignatius, "Rock the Vote Boat," underscores the enormous weight of each American's vote. Ignatius concludes with a quote from The Broken Branch: "Citizens at the polls are the most powerful agents of change."

Thus begins my traditional election-time mantra: Get out and vote! Do it because (1) it's your civic duty as an American; (2) it's your constitutional right and privilege as an American; or how about (3) because it's the last thing the politicians want you to do. There's a reason for this.

The two major political parties, Democrats and Republicans, make it their political mission to encourage voters to stay home. Historical poll data clearly shows a consistent percentage of voters who cast ballots in every election. Sadly this percentage is less than half of all eligible voters, which means that the majority of voters consistently don't vote. And that is the percentage political strategists work the hardest to maintain.

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, "justice" is defined as "maintenance of legal, social, or moral principles by the exercise of authority or power; assignment of deserved reward or punishment," "the quality or fact of being just; (the principle of) just dealing or conduct; integrity; impartiality, fairness," and "conformity (of an action or thing) to moral right or to reason, truth, or fact."

The above definitions are foundational to our democracy. When these principles fail on any level, whether in our national arena, district courts, or local civil-rights commissions, this failure contributes to the overall erosion of our system.

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