Ode to the Mayor for Life...

Washington DC was previously known as the "murder capital of the world". Even its basketball team was previously named the Washington Bullets. To stop crime in DC, they changed the name of the basketball team from the Bullets to now the Washington Wizards and viola the killings have stopped (sarcasm, but the name change thing is true). Washington has received renewed attention recently as as there have been 14 killings in the first 10 days of July.

I think in light of having DC's ailments back in the spotlight, it would be worthwhile to take a trip down memory lane and pay homage to the annointed Mayor for Life, Marion Barry.

For those of you who don't know, while in the DC council, Marion Barry was shot by terrorists in the DC district building probably giving his name a rise to fame in DC which he wisely parlayed into a run and victory into the Mayor's Office. Marion Barry was the 2nd Mayor of DC ever, and held the position for 12 years from 1979 to 1991, until he was arrested for cocaine usage in a sting operation orchestrated with the help of his girlfriend (caught on video tape and shown around the world).

But that only sidelined our hero for 2 yrs, as he returned to politics and sought to be re-elected to the Mayor's office. Did he succeed? Absolutely. He campaigned for a council member position and, of course, won under the slogan "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C." (i love it) Only to buy time until he could run for mayor again, which he did, winning 65% of the vote, and staying in office from 1995-1999. He's currently a council member in DC, even though he was caught with cocaine (yet again!) last year. To do Marion Barry full justice, we only have to revisit his quotes in history to get a insight into his legacy. So we will begin a series of quotes of the day in honor of Marion Barry.