[Beethoven]

Millenium Park in Chicago just opened. It's large, it's beautiful, it has fantastic buildings and artworks. People love it, children play in the fountains, adults listen to music, teenagers smooch. It's just an incredible enrichment of an already beautiful city.
It cost roughly half a billion dollars. Half of that was privately raised. The rest comes from our tax dollars. Well spent, I say. No private initiative could have pulled something like this off. And it's open to everybody.
My tax dollars at work--or rather at play. I know some of you think taxes are the devil incarnate. I hate paying them too. But something like this park reconciles me with the idea. We put our money together--those with lot more, those with little (me) less-- and we're a community.
If we could next agree on a plan to do something similar with our schools, I'd happily pay a few dollars more...