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Presidents Viewpoint

This is the end…The distinction between dusk and dawn is relative to where one is standing.  I am hopeful that this dusk is also a dawn.  I am deeply honored to have served you this past year.  I think that the Board of Directors and I have brought many interesting programs to the chapter and have made every effort to represent architects by lobbying in Washington and Albany; it is a responsibility that we accept with pleasure and humility. Thank you for the opportunities.

There is a second dusk for me in that I am leaving government service.  During the almost eighteen years that I worked in government, I have met some of the most talented and hardworking individuals I’ve ever known.  These servants of the people continue in spite of salaries that are historically lower than in private industry and frequent abuse by their customers.  They do because they believe in the good that government can do that the individual cannot.  I chose to go on to other things because, for me, peoples’ expectations for government have changed from a desire for equal protection to a desire for entitlement.  Not the form of entitlement that feeds the hungry or protects the infirm but the entitlement that says, “Me first.”   As long as people fail to understand the operation of a representative democracy, the me-firsters will have their way – too bad.  Be kind to a civil servant once in a while.

I wish you all blessed holidays and success for the New Year.

Respectfully,
Adolph M. Orlando, AIA

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