39) Ride, boldly, ride........................

"Over the mountains of the moon, down through the valley of shadow, ride boldly ride, ' the shade replied, ' if you seek for El Dorado"  Edgar Allen Poe.

The signature drive for the petition to restore the Original Municipal Building is entering its final push, and it is appropriate now to discuss what this is truly all about.  The previous post talked of Continuity, but there is something even more............................

Restoring the Muni is not about restoring the past, for that was never what the Municipal Building was ever about.  The architecture and materials were not reminicsent of the War Years, nor of the Post-War, nor even were they reflective of the Cold War.  Throughout its 40 years the building was unique in the town.  And for a reason: steel and glass was held to be a construct of the Future. 

The future is what the Muni was about, what it stood for, that was the intent in its planning and design.  The Muni was to be a symbol of a belief in the future of Los Alamos -- that come what may, ir-respective of what might transpire with The Lab, Los Alamos would endure throughout the generations.  It was a symbol of Optimistic Hope erected by a founding generation which had witnessed too much deprivation in the Depression, too much destruction in WWII, and too much doubt lingering like gathering storm clouds in the new era of the Cold War.  It was a statement that against such darknesses there yet remained a future worth building for.

To restore the Muni is not to restore a dying past, nor is it to look longingly backwards to "simpler times" (if, indeed, there has ever been a time which could concievably be thus described with any accuracy).  To restore the Muni is to restore Optimism in an age of angst. It is to restore Vision in an era of narcisstic entitlement. Against the backdrop of our own doubts in doubtful times, it is to re-new a Faith in The Future -- the simple proposition that, come what may, Los Alamos, as an independent, self-governing, self-actuallizing entity, will endure throughout the generations.



This is not about the past.  This is truly about the future.