Take that, Apollo Creed!

Excerpt from my mayor's speech announcing he won't seek another term:

''I responded with great sadness as our local and state elected officials neglected, year after year, the crucial issues of poor air quality, automobile dependence, political corruption, sprawl development, destruction of open spaces, global warming, and dependence on foreign oil, which has led us to a tragic, unconscionable war and self-destructive foreign policy. I was frustrated by the neglect of opportunities for a safer, healthier, more sustainable local community, nation, and world by those who were more concerned with short-term profits than with people and our planet.

''Most fundamentally tragic, I witnessed a dangerous culture of obedience, where change, differences, and dissent are disparaged as being divisive -- a culture where hypocrisy so often prevails, as purported religious and family values are recited as if by rote, while in daily lives -- in the real world -- inhumanity has prevailed, including complacency -- and hence complicity and culpability -- in connection with the killing of innocents, the degradation of our planet, the stupendous disparity of wealth, the undermining of life-enhancing education, and a mind-numbing condescension toward and discrimination against those who do not share certain religious beliefs, who do not have the correct sexual orientation, and who do not enjoy, through the accident of birth, the perks of status, inheritance, or citizenship.

''I wanted to do more -- to have a greater impact -- so I ran for mayor.''