WHAT LEXINGTON NEEDS, by Stephen Peplaski
August 1991 Ace
Lexington needs a poll to discover just what Lexington really needs. But, instead of waiting for the wheels of bureaucracy to get around to it, I handled this monstrous job myself. I called up all of my friends and said, “What does Lexington need?” The responses I received ranged from a) a Good Dose of Reality, to b) a Bevy of Bulldozers, or c) a Return to the Past. One fringe dweller even suggested d) a 50 kiloton atomic blast. Which just goes to show that you can ask your friends about all manner of meaningful trivia, like UK Basketball or the latest trend in political money-mongering, but you must never, ever discuss needs.
The one thing I did notice about all of these answers was their lack of vision, you know, that particular quality of seeing. The ability to perceive, to know, and to imagine. It isn’t hard, this quality of vision. You do it all the time, when you imagine that chocolate shake you’ll have with lunch, your next vacation, or winning the lottery. Or, try this: Visualize World Peace. But we’re so easily distracted… we live in a world of instant gratification. Let’s just get past this job, this crisis, this election, this paycheck, and leave that other stuff for tomorrow… with no thought for that tomorrow. We have no means of determining if what we do is good, if it’s something our children can live with. We have blindly driven ourselves to the brink of political, social, economic, and environmental destruction. Isn’t it about time we stopped, and looked to see where we are, and where we’re going? Who’s driving this rig anyway?
