Phil Goldsmith has held senior positions in a broad spectrum of fields including law, journalism, business and government. Most recently he was managing director of the City of Philadelphia.
He is now a columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News, writing every other Wednesday and is a principal in GoldsmithKahn Associates, a public issues management consulting firm.
They were all gathered in the Mayor's office on Monday--the city's power elite or dare I say warlords--to discuss the violence epidemic sweeping Philadelphia as well as other cities throughout the nation. They were brought together by Congressman Bob Brady, who also serves as the chief of the city's Democratic Party.
Imagine sitting in the same room were Mayor John Street, U.S. Attorney Pat Meehan, Speaker of the House John Perzel, Senator Vince Fumo and, yes, Cardinal Rigalli.
It is the sort of gathering I called for in two Daily News columns--one urging the Cardinal to take a more public view so we could elevate the discussion of violence from a political to a moral realm, and the other urging the city's most powerful politicians to sit down together to put their collective heads together to seek common ground in trying to find solutions to the violence, particulary kids killing kids with guns.
I see no causual connection between my columns and the gathering but it is nice to see anyway. The trick now will be to sustain the dialogue in order to seek a "sustained cease fire."
