To A Great '08

Primary season is upon us, and the candidates are threatening that, come November, we may all be served one oversize helping of CHANGE. Their "threat" appears exceedingly promising, at least to this serial optimist. Quite remarkably, the leading candidates, left and right, seem to be speeding full-throttle toward a meeting smack in the middle. The word unity has become a superhot commodity. (Please use Uncle Sam's good ole Merriam-Webster dictionary for reference, not the George W. Bush definition.) It doesn't take an Evel Knievel mental stunt to reach the same conclusion: that a government promoting change will need to invest substantially in the public trust—at the federal level first and then surely locally.

If I am allowed a bit of kitchen economics. . .for our industry, politics will translate into square footage. And, no, I don't mean redesigning prisons. But certainly the institutional, educational, and health-care sectors, followed by all the others, should be standing at the ready for a rehab because, simply put, repairs to our current infrastructure are, at this point, long overdue. Anyhoo, that's where you guys come in. That kind of change I look forward to.