"Interesting choice of words."
"I speak honestly. People only say I have charisma because they agree with what I say," McCaffery replied with a smile.
The press conference slash ceremony began, with most of the speeches being made by the Spartans. They were the celebrities after all, and the local media ate it up. The crowd was especially loud when some of the Spartan cheerleaders came out to lead the assembled group in a few cheers and put on a short little dance performance. The biggest applause of all was for McCaffery however, who was called to the microphone by the Spartans' MVP quarterback.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not here today as a City Councilman," he said, starting his speech. "I'm not even here as a Spartan fan, even though I've been cheering for these guys since I was five. I'm here as that five year old, who was born in Mercy General not two miles from where we stand today, and grew up not in a loving home, but in a series of foster homes and orphanages. I stand here as the kid who did a lot more than just sneak into Municipal Stadium as Gene fondly recalls. I stand here as the one percent. Not the one percent that a lot of people associate with the term, but the one percent of kids who somehow claw and scratch and climb their way out of places like where I started. I'm proud today, not just of our team the Spartans, but people like who I'm going to call up here in just a minute. People who know that there is more to making money than just seeing how large you can make your bank account.”
"When I first thought of running for city council, I was inspired to make a difference. I saw that by getting out there and putting your money where your mouth is, you can turn things around. Sadly, he's not here today, but his shoes have been more than adequately filled by his protégé. Marcus Smiley may be gone, and I hope he's enjoying his retirement or whatever he's doing, since he cannot be here. But we have with him today the lady who is footing most of the bill for this wonderful project, Tabitha Williams of MJT Consolidated."
My reception was polite, but nowhere near as enthusiastic as that for the local celebrities. I was dressed more casually than I normally did for work, in jeans and a t-shirt that had come fresh from the printer's that morning with the logo for the new community centers superimposed over the Spartan logo and the rather simple logo we'd designed for MJT. "Thank you for the flattering introduction, Councilman McCaffery," I said, taking the microphone. "Honestly, I feel a bit nervous being up here after such a great speaker. It's kind of like being the act that follows Bruce Springsteen at our own Summer UltraSonic Festival."
"You look a hell of a lot better than Springsteen though!" someone in the crowd yelled, which got a few chuckles, doubled when I visibly blushed. The jokester got a some boos as well, which also got a laugh.
"Thanks, but I hope to be more than that," I replied, earning a few smiles from the ladies in attendance. "Councilman McCaffery is right, I'm no Marcus Smiley. I just hope that I can continue his dream of making this city into a city we can all be proud to live in again, a place where everyone has the opportunity to make the most of themselves. We've shaken off some of the shackles of crime and corruption temporarily, and now we are faced with a tremendous choice. We could do the easy thing and drift back towards the way things were. We've done it before, after all. The path is so easy, all it takes is stabbing a few friends in the back, turning away when we see evil acts being done for our short term safety or profit. Sadly, as a city, that path of clean up and then a new generation of corruption seems to be cynically cyclical.”
"That's the one path we have before us. Or, we can take another path, a path that is going to be harder, one that takes a lot of risk. That’s the path of fighting out of the darkness we've been in back into the light, into a new future. It's somewhat ironic that we have with us today members of the Spartans, a group known most famously for actually losing a battle. But you know what happened less than a year later? The Spartans forces won, and led a rejuvenated Greece into a new renaissance. I say, our own losing battle is over, and we're coming into the new battle, the one we can win, and the one that will lead this city, our city, into a new era. Thank you."
The applause that greeted my comments was a lot louder than when I came on, and I had to smile when I saw Patrick McCaffery applauding when I stepped away from the microphone. "Nice speech," he said in my ear as the Spartans General Manager stepped back up to wrap up the conference. "Next time I need someone to speak with me, I'll give you a call."