As I read Sunday’s Journal Star editorial, “Our View: Too late to turn back now on museum project,” I couldn’t help but think of that old Cornelius Bros and Sister Rose song — perhaps that was the intention of the headline writer:

The Journal Star has fallen in love with the museum project. And you know what they say about love: it’s blind. Those in love overlook all the flaws (even major ones) in the object of their desire. Such is the case with the Journal Star overlooking the major problems with the museum project, apologizing for them, justifying them, or just plain refusing to believe them in some cases. One can almost see them gazing at a framed picture of the museum rendering with a dreamy, far-away look in their eyes, wrapping their Caterpillar class ring with angora.

The starry-eyed Journal Star editors are wrong. In fact, it’s not too late to stop the madness. Not a spade of dirt has been turned yet. The museum plans only exist on paper. Yes, a lot of money has been expended, but that’s no justification for spending millions more on a flawed, doomed-to-fail plan that has gone from bad to worse since the referendum. As C. S. Lewis famously said, “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”

The City Council should send the museum folks back to the drawing board Tuesday night by voting against the design concepts and the redevelopment agreement.