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Politician's Diary Click a link to the year on the left
A little History on my Diary For nine month's in the year 2000 I kept an irregular "Diary" of my work as a Duluth School Board member. For a time I tried keeping another "Diary" of my then quirky campaign for the State Senate. There was simply too much to write to keep two journals simultaneously. Besides, I'm one man. My School Board responsibilities, my political aspirations, and my personal life can only be separated in print. They are all intimately bound together. So from now on I'll keep them all together as discreetly as possible. (That may be a challenge for me) I abandoned my original diary in part because it made some of my fellow board members unhappy. I explained my experiences and my point of view, you see, not theirs. Moreover, a school board campaign was coming up and, while I devoutly wished to elect a friend, Mary Cameron, I was reluctant to employ my diary as a weapon. That was politic of me. I am an elected official, albeit a school board member, and being politic is one of the ingredients for success. It was Pete McCloskey who left me a new definition of politics. He described it as "not giving offense." What a job description! How ironic that a job, thus defined, should be the target for so much public contempt. And here's another irony. This is so true that Minnesota's own Jesse Ventura rode the contempt for "politicians" and their platitudinous speech all the way to the Governor's mansion by being completely impolitic. "Telling it like it is" has been a breath of fresh air. I predict however, that it will soon grow stale. The public will eventually discover that truth requires honesty more than it does testosterone. I have always described myself as a politician even though most school board members shrink from that description. I have tried hard not to offend people but I've also tried to tell the truth, at least as it appears to me. Those who do this well are often elevated to the status of "statesman." Usually not until they are safely dead of course." So, here I come again. politician, free spirit, truth teller, gad fly, compromiser, roadblock. My story continues....
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