Williams: 'I was wrong'

Columnists routinely remind their readers of when they were right. Sometimes they come right out and say, "I told you so." Other times they disguise their reminders by draping them with clever phrases, turned just so.

When a columnist says "I was wrong," it is unusual, but that's exactly what Michael Paul Williams did in Thursday's Richmond Times-Dispatch.

In hindsight, my frustration at inaction on the ballpark issue had clouded my reason. Shockoe Bottom has proven itself to be an impractical location for a ballpark. Too many people think baseball there is a poor fit.

Click here to read the entire column.

Williams went on to tout the slavery museum concept as most appropriate for Shockoe Bottom. And, in wrapping it up he referred to a feud between former Mayor Doug Wilder and state Sen. Henry Marsh. This is a battle that has had quite a bit of effect on all sorts of happenings political.

That it still matters today is both sad and silly. But with Wilder grudges seem to matter more than anything else.

Last summer Wilder blew off the splendid unveiling ceremony at Capitol Square for the Virginia Civil Rights Memorial, a magnificent sculpture by Stanley Bleifeld. He couldn't bring himself sit on the platform with certain other Democrats. Afterward, he refused to even say why he missed the event.