Welcome Back, Kotter!

Why am I welcoming back Gabe Kotter? Because it seems as if the 1970's retro hysteria has made its way back to Albany, not only in the form of a 70's era recession, but in the form of restyled disco-era license plates!


A revitalized "blue and gold" New York license plate (left), while the original 70's plate served as a muse (right).

Now, I understand that we're in the middle of a state budget shortfall, but forcing millions of car owners to fork over $25 for this new plate seems a little ridiculous, since they last changed the plate design less than a decade ago.

I wasn't in love with the new plate design in 2001, but it combined some classical elements like adding in "The Empire State" motto and reverting to a nice navy blue styling for numbers and letters. But they kept the background white, making sure drivers were not to be confused with our yellow-plated friends to the west of the Hudson.

While New York's colors historically are navy blue and gold, it'll be harder to distinguish a NY and NJ plate once this hits the streets in April 2010.


The classic "Liberty" license plate in use from 1986-2001.

Regardless, it's time to say goodbye to the Gov. Pataki-era Niagara Falls / Empire plate. We hardly knew ya. Now if they could just bring back something like 80's era "Liberty" plate (above), we'd again have the most iconic license plate in the world.

Time to wake up, America - Are the jobs coming back?

As someone who has directly experienced the wrath of this economy, I've been anxiously wondering: when will the jobs come back?

With this morning's news that the national unemployment rate is now over 10%, its time for something a little more drastic than extending unemployment benefits another fourteen weeks. In this modern area, unfortunately, our leaders think applying band-aids to major economic wounds is politically easier than a depression era approach to this problem (Works Progress Administration, anyone?)

As a resident of New York, we know all about infrastructure. Our highways, bridges and Subways are decades old, and were built specifically with a foregone era in mind. Can these roads and Subways take another 100 years of abuse without consistent failure and maintenance? Does an elevated Gowanus /Brooklyn-Queens Expressway make sense, or should we put it underground? Should we be proactive or reactive about that possibility?

Thankfully, history can teach us a lesson or two. Almost 80 years ago, FDR was in a similar (if not worse) situation. He knew with millions of Americans unemployed that he should do something bold, and that those results would benefit everyone. So he did something never done before -- he put millions of Americans on the payroll and told them to create art, build buildings and bridges to put as back on the path of prosperity.

But here we are, a year into a very similar economic situation. Perhaps too jaded to see a real opportunity, or too afraid to be bold, our leaders gave us a small attempt at a stimulus and extended unemployment benefits. Why not take this opportunity to do something greater, as we may never have an opportunity like this again to work on our aging infrastructure?

Anyone with me on this? FDR understood he'd be called a socialist, but he had the courage to do what was right. Our current president, (who I feel and hope is just as capable as FDR) needs to follow in his footsteps. When history gave FDR his lemons, he made lemonade. There's no one questioning that President Obama inherited a field full of lemons, but how you deal with such challenges is the difference between greatness and mediocrity.

It's time for a call to greatness.

Welcome to Thoughts on Reality!

After completely missing the wagon on blogging, I've jumped on it -- and I'm ready to go full speed ahead.

I've decided to start Thoughts on Reality as a place to offer my unique prospective on life, politics, sports and anything else that happens in popular culture. Although blogging is very new to me, journalism and writing are not. Many eons ago (OK, maybe just a few years), I was a student-journalist at Syracuse University, where I wrote opinion columns and covered local politics.

Although I have a profession other than writing now, I figured today is as good a time as ever to get back into the writing game. I hope you'll enjoy my prospective and what I have to offer, and in the future I hope we can expand to include guest columnists and bloggers to offer their own experiences and opinions as well. Welcome to the "New Journalism" of the 21st century!

Enjoy,

Brian
thoughtsonreality@gmail.com