Nattering Nabobs Of Negativism

Twenty years to life: That could be how much time lapses before the Destiny Penitentiary, er, USA signs its first tenant.

MICHAEL DAVIS PHOTO

So I’m getting a head start by trying to see the glass half full, where
my colleagues insist on seeing only the negative. Christmas Day brought
the perfect example of what I mean. The airwaves were filled with the
story of a young Nigerian air traveler with chemically altered jockey
shorts who tried to ignite an explosive device on a plane that was
about to land in Detroit. News reports focused on the danger the
terrorist posed to the 278 people on board.

Not one journalist or broadcaster managed to see beyond the failed
attack and note the positive news: 278 people chose to go to Detroit—on
a single day. For struggling post-industrial cities like ours, the news
that nearly 300 people would abandon Amsterdam (the Dutch one, not the
upstate one) in favor of a Rust Belt metropolis—surely there is a
kernel of hope in this story that the mainstream media seem to have
completely missed.

If we tool down the Thruway just a few hours, we run into another case
of unrelenting media negativity in Albany. Just because the Republican
who once ran the New York state Senate has been convicted of
corruption, and the Senate is having difficulty deciding whether a
Democrat convicted of dragging his girlfriend through the lobby of his
apartment building is still worthy of being a member of that erstwhile
deliberative body, the media keep relentlessly pounding away, casting
aspersions on the state Legislature.

So I resolve to point out to anyone who will listen that the
overwhelming majority of state senators did not resign in disgrace in
2009, nor were they convicted of a violent crime, unless you count the
crime committed against gay New Yorkers when the Senate voted last
month to deny them the option of marrying. But I will not go there:
This year, it’s all about accentuating the positive. Gay people, like
women who object to being dragged through lobbies, just need a little
attitude adjustment.

My positive attitude gets put to the test each time I drive up
Interstate 81 and cast a glance at the aging Carousel Center. I smile
cheerfully at the bulging cement rectangle engulfing the parking lot. I
force my mind not to focus on the resemblance between the tumor growing
on the south end of the building and a state correctional facility. I
remind myself that such comparisons are not fair to state correctional
facilities, which actually create jobs.

Instead I will think of Destiny USA as a blank canvas, a multiplex
screen upon which I can project my fantasies. Instead of being a
taxpayer footing the bill, we should each think of ourselves as
Destiny’s Children, grateful to Destiny’s Father for the chance to
participate in this once-in-a-lifetime venture. One day as I drive by I
can imagine that it contains an indoor golf course, the next day a
recreation of Venice, complete with canals. Every day I can dream of
this vast expanse of commercial space as the vanguard of
self-sustainable construction, a veritable green building, only gray.

Did you ever think that in these times of tight credit, Destiny might
just be a beacon to the finance-starved consumers and small businesses,
leading the way out of the recession? When things get tight, we could
follow the Destiny example and send our lawyers to court to force
bankers to disperse new loans to us. If you hadn’t thought of that,
it’s probably because you’ve been reading those cheerless negative
media reports.

I vow to do what I can. When winter gloom threatens to cloud my
perspective, I can replay the hilarious scenes of Destiny’s
groundbreaking, complete with hard hats, hot dogs, rented cranes and
politicians wielding shovels (no bad jokes, please). I can always get a
chuckle out of rereading the stories of Destiny building a
tax-subsidized hotel to house the (local) workers coming to build the
mall. Yes, enough negativity about Destiny, a place dedicated, no
doubt, to sheltering the homeless.

Let the naysayers’ voices be stilled. Someday planes full of people
will fly here from as far away as Amsterdam to admire our Destiny. I’m
positive.