A Day That Will Live In...?

We'll see.

As a true believer in the "power to the people" philosophy, I am thoroughly excited by the renewed - and possibly successful - autonomy of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

I am a fan of the whole devolution process.

[In the early aughts, you could distinguish the motives of any politician or UK citizen by the way they pronounced that word. Long "e", to rhyme with Evolution (Brit pronunciation)? Or short "e" to rhyme with REvolution?]

On a related topic: I had a fascinating conversation with a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat recently. This person was questioning my deeply held belief in state's rights (don't be alarmed, that's just for lack of a more rational system of local and regional management/public access), and marveling at the potential for - egads! - conservative or - even worse! - unequal priorities reflected in the various institutions of government if this system was not supervised by the federal government.

HA!

I love when liberals get all nervous about everyone not being equal. Wake up! The last time I saw equal in action was...
That's funny. I don't remember a time when any individual or group, religion or geographic location, Democrat or Republican or Soclialist, race, class, age or gender was ever treated "the same" as any other individual, group, religion, etc.
Just like "democracy" or "freedom", "equality" is a concept, not a reality.

But I digress...

In the case of Northern Ireland (as with Wales and Scotland), the danger is being treated the same as the English, even though the culture, region and politics demand different treatment.

What the United Kingdom is attempting here is actually quite radical. What they're saying is: dare to be different, dare to address the more specific and specialized needs of your people, dare to lobby and aim to influence the huge, archaic and stodgy organization of your national government. And if you can do it on our dime, then good luck to you!

Every organization has its moment of promise, and from that point on it is either a success or a failure. Or, more realistically, it tries to meet the needs of its constituents while retaining access to its resources.

The Northern Ireland Assembly is on that verge. What will it be?