I had two elected members in Harrisburg yesterday taking the oath of office for whom I did political work in 2016- newly-elected Rep. Maureen Madden of Monroe County, and veteran Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski of Luzerne County. It was really a great time to get to see them both, and to get to celebrate their victories with them. Both are fun people, and people who really want to help the good people of Northeastern Pennsylvania have better lives. Aside from the fact that I agree with them on policy, I think they're both really great people. As shocking as this may sound (particularly for what a huge hole my party is in with both houses in Harrisburg), I think that the overwhelming majority of the 253 members of Pennsylvania's General Assembly are good, decent, hard-working people, who want to make the Commonwealth a better place. I don't think that all of them are right on the issues, or that all of them are particularly bright (which is true for a few on both sides), but I think that the overwhelming majority are there to make their communities better. I give them the benefit of the doubt on their motives, if not their methods.
One of the fun parts of inauguration days is watching the families and friends of the members, especially the new ones, as they celebrate. House members only got four tickets inside the chamber, per member, so there were television sets all around the capitol complex where you could watch the proceedings, and almost all of the seats by each of those TV's was full. People were happy. The mood was festive. It wasn't even that super partisan (of course not, Democrats are down a generation's worth of seats). About the only negative on the day was the rambling, sometimes ridiculous speech by the Speaker of the House, which was mostly comedic relief.
When I left Harrisburg, I came home and got to the Palmer Township Board of Auditors meeting, where I was re-elected Vice-President of the board for another year. Our meeting each year (yes, one) is always kind of funny in it's own way, because our duties prescribed by law are minor. If our township's Supervisors board had members who were also working for the township, on say the road crew, we would have to set their salaries. None of our supervisors are plowing the roads though. We had to prescribe the amount of bond for the township to purchase ($3 million) on the behalf of the Palmer Township Treasurer, elect our officers (there are three members and three positions), and keep our minutes and get them to the township staff (done by this morning). The actual audit is performed externally, and we just have to stay out of the way. The whole thing took us fifteen minutes. The other two guys are nice guys though, and it's fun to see them and joke about our huge "duties" to the public each year.
Inauguration day makes me happy I chose to spend my life in politics, happier than I feel the other 364 days in a year. While I will not take part in the festivities in Washington on the 20th in any way at all (including watching on TV), I genuinely enjoy these days, and they do make me consider wanting to run for bigger things- someday. The opportunity to do more for the people of your community is most plentiful in elected office, and while it will disappoint you sometimes, it also does offer a chance for reward beyond most means. There still is a good role for public servants in our society to do good things for the public.
Pennsylvanians who have not seen their capitol, I urge you to go do so, particularly around the holidays, as it is a beautiful building inside, as you can see above.
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