🚀 go-pugleaf

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This could be entitled, "How Whoremastering Begins in Politics."
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However, I'd prefer to call it, "The Only Truly Honest Politician I
Have Ever Known."
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       SHENANDOAH, Pa. -- There must've been a choir of angels at the
bedside of Francis "Jimmy" Arant when the Good Lord
took him a few years ago.
       After all, he was the ONLY TRULY HONEST POLITICIAN I have ever
known.
       See, Jimmy Arant was a direct contrast to all those corrupt,
fill-my-pockets politicians of both parties who have only one thing
in common: Do what's best for ME, not you.
       But Jimmy, a former U.S. Marine who fought in the bloody South
Pacific during WWII, was different than the vast, vast majority of
other politicians.
       He didn't play ball with the "special interests." Instead, he
represented the people who had elected him.
     The former coal miner, steam shovel operator and auto mechanic
displayed his integrity vividly just days after he won
a seat on Shenandoah borough council for the first time.
       Jimmy walked into the office of Shen-Heights TV on Main Street
to pay his monthly television cable bill.
       He smiled and said hello to the woman behind the counter, then
pushed his exact payment and the bill to her.
       However, Jimmy was surprised when she returned his smile and
hello, then promptly pushed his money and his TV bill
right back to him.
      "Oh, Mr. Arant." she told him. "I see that you've been elected
to council, so from  now on your TV service is free.
      "In fact, " she continued, "our technicians will be down to
your
home in a few days to hook you up with HBO and the other
pay channels -- without charge, of course."
       Jimmy, somewhat stunned, promptly pushed the bill and the
money
back to her.
      "Look, we're friends now and we've always gotten along well,"
he
told her, very politely. "But now, that I'm on council, my job is
to represent the people.
      "If something ever came up and I had to side with the people
against Shen-Heights TV, I'll have to do it. I want nothing to
influence my decisions."
      Jimmy Arant, who was re-elected to council for two more terms,
was one of my very best friends. It is indeed a privlege
and an honor to call him that.
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Ed Conrad
http://www.edconrad.com
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