Or as I call them, Career Criminals. Folks for whom reality stopped a long time ago, when they started to believe they were as good as people told them they were. Some of them have rightly come by the accolades, but a good number believe their own hype.
Time will tell if our new president is one of those. But I'm looking more locally - specifically Rupert Cutler.
I had just moved here when he finished out his term on the City Council. I heard little about the man, other than his long resume... repeated endlessly.
From all outward appearances, it did not seem like his credentials benefitted the city much. During his term (2000 - 2006), the greenways got under way - we landed a few more businesses, but no great projects came out of it. And I know, that's as much the fault of the entire Council (and that erected - not elected monument known as Darlene) but beyond the cop-out of "one councilman cannot change anything on his own" a loud councilman certainly can. But we have another Council member who has not run a business, owned a business, or got down with the people in the streets.
Another Career (expert) Criminal, who will do nothing but keep the city in stasis for a while. Appearing to go everywhere, but standing still the whole time.
The other wannabe Career Criminal is Gwen Mason. Gwen, who adopted Nelson Harris' "Clean and Green" campaign as her own when it was apparent that Emperor Harris was not going to win re-election, has yet to shine as a councilwoman. A grantwriter and worker at the Dept. of the Interior, who focused her entire college years on being in the Government, she seems to be a natural for the post. But wait, what's her experience again? What has she done for the City?
Maybe I am asking too much from our Council members - maybe they are supposed to be a passive body rather than a proactive one.
Frankly, I think we have had enough of the whole elected officials who have worked towards becoming elected officials. They go from being people who want to be part of the dynamic system that is American Government, people with ideals, to people who take those same ideals for granted - and become so steeped in policy and procedure they lose focus of why they are doing it in the first place. They studied each inch of it, worked in the menial details of it - and now have become assimilated to it.
And to what end? Even the Roanoke Times admits Fralin was not like the rest. He worked for his constituents, his people - not just his party. He worked in his community to get things done. Anyone seen Mason out there cleaning up Bullit and Jamison when the Neighborhood Group that adopted the corridor is cleaning (and possibly greening) the area?
Has Cutler been down walking around downtown, talking to people and brainstorming ways to make the city better?
Career Criminals, stealing time from a city that needs progress.
5 comments:
Interesting assessment... and I agree totally.
Cutler is just there to get a restaurant on the mountain.
Gotta stay anonymous on this one. Gwen Mason once asked workers downtown to collect all the cigarette butts and gumwads found on downtown sidewalks and count them, because she had a "bet with a friend" that there were more ciggies than gumwads. That's real effective use of resources. The workers refused to participate in the illegal gambling scheme. Cutler is the one driving the conservation easement at Carvins Cove on land that the City already owns, is almost entirely made up of mountains that are impossible to build on, and is part of the watershed for our reservoir. ummmm...unecessary waste of money, anyone?
The appointment of Rupert Cutler is a joke.... Been there done that. What was accomplished in his prior terms? As with everything else in Roanoke we need new ideas and leaders in Roanoke. How can we expect different results when we keep doing the same things and making the same mistakes over and over again.
Regarding the use of the label "Career Criminals", as applied to Cutler and Mason's public service trajectories, doesn't intellectual honesty then compel us to find an even more condemning phrase to describe the political career of Bob Goodlatte? Regardless of one's views of Cutler's efficacy on council, most of his career was in non-electoral jobs, and Mason's electoral forays are all relatively recent.
But the local epitome for pursuing a paycheck and perks from the public purse is Goodlatte, and what lowers him to that status was his cynical "pledge" to self-limit his terms when first running for Congress. That was in 1992, but knowing that he would have the incumbency advantage, his word, as the saying goes, was more quickly broken than a toddler's teacup. Of course, it was obviously never his intention, so his supposed conscience had no problem. His adequate district service-which he's elected and paid handsomely to do and therefore is not deserving of special praise-was even learned on the public payroll. While positioning himself for an eventual move through the revolving door into a lobbyist role, he has been part of the career political class in Congress that even exempts itself from many of the very regulations they impose on the private sector! As for real term limits, serious campaign finance reform, health coverage for the working class that is a fraction of Congressional coverage-these badly needed issues haven't carried any personal career benefit for Goodlatte, so he has chosen to ignore them. This careerist mentality has hurt both our area and all of America, much more deeply and in longer lasting ways than any two council members records. To be sure, though, Bob doesn't care, he's making the status quo work for himself just fine.
Point taken they all need to go and indeed resemble "Career Criminals"
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