I'm at a stage in my preparations for Action Speaks that I return to every year; too many ideas about where to take each discussion. Each topic stares at me like a Maurice Sendak monster, daring me to pull it apart. I can't even really look at Nixon in China yet. In spite of this sense of dread, or maybe to avoid facing this issue's complexity, yesterday, I had the thought of inviting John Adams, the composer, who wrote the opera based on Nixon's trip. I'm trying to get in touch with some folks at Brown who might be able to both entice him to come and help pay him. Fat chance. But, it is worth some effort. Where do you take this enormous topic? US-China's economic relationship? Foreign policy and human? How about China usurping over the US' role as 'exemplar of the future'?

How about the birth of Levittown? Thought our discussion about 'retrofitting the suburbs' should include demographic changes as well, so I asked Elaine Gross of Eraseracism NY to be part of our discussion. Her organization looks at diversity issues in the suburbs and is located near Levittown. I got her name from Dr. Lawrence Levy who is the head of the new National Center for Suburban studies at Hofstra on Long Island. It turns out that they are having an international conference on diversity in the suburbs the weekend before our panel. I've also been thinking that the discussion should include a talk about how the housing industry fueled and then help fell the economy. But then again, maybe we should have taken on urban revialization instead and the 'SoHo/Creative Cities model. Oh, yea, that's another 'occupational hazard' I'm suffering from. In real estate they call it 'buyer's remorse'. In radio show planning they call it 'Topic Doubt'.

Marc Levitt