Never Say Die

After reviewing Dunwoody's proposal to relocate the Georgia Music Hall of Fame to a recently closed women's shoe outlet at Perimeter Mall, the GMHF board has spoken: Dunwoody scored a well deserved dead last and barely scored half of the top score. And even the top proposal was rejected.

Normally that would be considered quite a setback, even "game over". That would be to underestimate what makes Dunwoody such a Smart Choice. Ego alone prevents the realization that a proposal beginning and ending with repeated résumés might have been off-putting if not outright arrogantly self-aggrandizing. Perhaps worse was inserting the peculiar notions that preservation is not the mission of a museum and that a retail outlet is somehow an ideal location for priceless artifacts. The latter is allegedly based on the assertion that a mall is where children want to go and the revenue stream is largely based on laundering parent and taxpayer money through students via school field trips. It is unlikely that any teacher was consulted on the desirability of chaperoning 5th grade field trips at a major shopping center.

None of this will deter the power(s) that be behind this rather queer effort to whitewash Dunwoody as a music mecca and Georgia music as perhaps not indigenous, but somehow aligned with Dunwoody. Their take-away from the Board's vote is simple: we need payola--taxes, and preferably from folks who cannot vote in Dunwoody elections.

Hence, the proposal being advanced is to increase the hotel tax and spend the money subsidizing the Sid and Marty Kroft version of the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. We are left to wait with bated breath to see if the Dunwoody Docents can commit enough of Other People's Money by the April 30 deadline to move from worst to first.