Sometimes the city needs a little boost of self confidence. Is Mike Duggan the guy to do it? Sure why not? I'm not saying the guy's a savior by any means nor is he far superior to other mayors of this city [[time will tell) but in his short tenure so far he seems to have gotten out there the most, been most visible where he needed to be, and has actually provided the citizens of the city some form of visible leadership.

Personally I dug his speech and nearly teared up when he spoke about our City's chess champs. It might be small potatoes to some but as someone who has won some small awards as a kid that age, that sort of recognition sticks with you for a long time. You're telling me that the parents of those kids weren't busting out their DVRs and just about beaming with pride? They should be and to be mentioned by the Mayor? Bonus. But I think it's little moments like this that we should be proud of our accomplishments.

For far too long we tend to look at the negative aspects of this city [[and they're out there). Maybe it takes a guy like Duggan to remind us why we're still here. We're not cast off idiots who can't leave. We do have things in this region we're fiercely proud of and those things need to be celebrated. We self loathe far too much and should take a slice out of this speech and remind ourselves that while we still have a sh!tload to do, we do still have some things to be damned proud about.