Burnin’

I tuned in tonight to MSNBC for the entire 90-minute Democratic Presidential debate from Greenville, South Carolina. Dennis Kucinich, a congressman from Cleveland, Ohio (and the city’s former mayor) is my new candidate. I was for Howard Dean six months ago, although my support lacked true conviction. After Iowa, I began to believe a Kerry-Edwards ticket can deliver the much needed knock out blow come November. I still believe that combination is the country’s best bet for change at the executive level. Yet, tonight after paying close attention to all the candidates, I have new found respect for the free-speaking Rev. Al Sharpton of New York City and Dennis Kucinich.

Of course, Kucinich’s progressive views will not attract enough market share to put him in the Oval Office. I recognize that, but it bothers me not. I prefer to support and vote for the candidate I want to win, not the one I think has the best chance to win. After all, it’s an election, not a horse race.

During the last Presidential election, many progressives voted for Green Party nominee and consumer advocate, Ralph Nader. This outraged many liberal Democrats, as they accused Mr. Nader of stealing votes from their pal Al, which sadly led to the reign of George the Horrible. No. Al Gore lost the White House on his own accord. If more people wanted Gore to be President, they would have voted for him. It’s really that simple.

MW: I understand that last week, in all seriousness, you said: “If I had another 15 years to work, I could rebuild this entire country. I could change the nation.”

FLW: I did say it and it’s true. Having had now the experience building (going on) 769 buildings, it’s quite easy for me to shake them out of my sleeve. It’s amazing what I could do for this country.

–from the Mike Wallace interviews, care of PBS

We spent some time today in Frank Lloyd Wright’s “great space.” Unity Temple, home to a Unitarian Universalist congregation still active in Oak Park today, allows for self-guided tours of their world famous modernist gem on weekdays and guided/narrated tours on Saturday and Sunday.

Wright lived and worked only blocks from this location, a corner lot on Lake Street in downtown Oak Park. At the time, 1905 when construction began to 1908 when the church was finished, very few reinforced concrete buildings had ever been built, and none built as an artistic masterpiece in service to an active public use.

Wright was shockingly bold/great in his time and place. Post-Victorian Oak Park was a proper and conventional place at the turn of the century while Wright’s work, though grounded in nature, was provoking, new, and scandalous–an interesting parallel to developments about to erupt in the architect’s personal life, events which eventually led him to Europe and the construction of Taliesen in south central Wisconsin.