"People Deserve The Government That They Get"

What we have here, is a failure to communicate. I take some blame for that. It seems that I have failed to properly communicate the facts to folks about the antics of our elected officials, because if everybody knew about their antics, they would never get reelected. So I shoulder some blame for this obvious failure in communication, because as we all know by now, they got elected again.

Before I start on the individual races, I would like to thank everybody for the unbelievable outpouring of comments for myself. What? They are not nice comments? Yikes, maybe I should read more of them before I go thanking everybody, but at least it is nice to know that I have managed to spend some quality time in folk's minds, even if they don't exactly like me.

Anyway, on to the races.

Mr. Richard Reaume, our dapper and fearless leader, cleaned himself off after his dumpster dive, and won in a landslide, even though he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and exposed on Channel 7 Action News. Actually, his hand wasn't so much in a cookie jar, but rather, was wrapped around Rita White's campaign signs, which apparently in Plymouth Township earns you some sort of political merit badge. Richard will be compensated somewhere in the neighborhood of a half million dollars if you include bennies over the duration of his next term.

Then there is Ron "The Don" Edwards, whose biggest fan today is, well, himself, if you read the comments from "Ocelot Madness" (I promise more on that another day.) Big Ronnie won his race 9394 to 6299, which was considerably closer than Richie's race, but a very comfortable margin just the same. It had to feel much better for him than the 400 vote nail biter he had against Ed Schulz in the primary.

Big Ronnie of course, is our resident YouTube sensation, well known by the folks at Channel 7, and also at Channel 4. While King Ritchie is catching up in the YouTube department, I have a strong feeling that our very own Teflon Ron, being the competitive guy that he is, will not let Ritchie take away his crown.

Another roughly half million tater tots from the taxpayers for Big Ronnie's salary and benefits over the course of his term. *This dollar amount of course is contingent on the FBI not showing up and perp walking Ron out of the Township Hall at some point in the next four years.

As far as the Trustees race went, Kay Arnold ran the table on everybody, and it is my guess that she will sit on the board for as long as she chooses. I will say this about her. She is smart, and ran a quietly efficient campaign. She didn't have to really get into the verbal fray, and to her credit, she didn't. She probably ran the most cost effective campaign of any of the winners if sign count is any measure.

Michael Kelly was returned to the Board of Trustees, finishing in the final spot, and this was a bit of a surprise to me. I am not sure why folks bother voting for the guy, as he never has, and I suspect never will, express an opinion on anything. Seriously, I have seen more expression from a corpse.

Maybe in his next four years Mr. Kelly will actually say something other than "yay" or "nay." I seriously doubt it, but one can hope for change right? I know, a lot of us hoped for change in the Presidential election and didn't get it, but I digress.

I won't lie, I wonder how the members of this Board of Trustees voted in the Presidential race? Again, I digress.

Bumbling Bobby Doroshewitz (Door-shev-its) returns for another term, and I won't lie, this one is not really killing me. This man is a wealth of blogging fun, and although we don't exactly like each other, and he lies and cheats, and picks on girls at debates, it will at least be worth having him around for comedic relief. He can't really hurt anything, because nobody actually listens to him anyway. Congrats Bobby Esq.

So Steve Mann is replaced by Chuck Curmi. This shall be interesting for me. Chuck is making a return engagement to the Board of Trustees, and all of my conservative friends give him very high marks. I have actually seen Mr. Curmi significantly raise the blood pressure of King Richard, and Boss Hogg Edwards at a public meeting, so I have high hopes for the gentleman.

I found it interesting that Mr. Curmi got more votes than Mr. Doroshewitz, and Mr. Kelly, so right out of the gate, he rises above those two on the Trustee Food Chain. Don't think for one minute that was not noticed by the rest of the clique either.

This brings me to my favorite candidate of the whole race, and that is Alanna Maguire. She didn't win, but she worked as hard as humanly possible. It has been a wonderful experience meeting this young lady, as well as her mom, Mary. Plymouth Township residents deserved to have a voice like Alanna's represent them. Plymouth Township residents lost far more than Ms. Maguire with the results of this race.

I can assure you that there was nobody that worked harder than Alanna in this race. In my opinion, she wanted it more than any of the Trustee candidates, and she wanted it for all the right reasons.

If Alanna Maguire is a true representative of our next generation, I have great hope for our nation's future. She may be affiliated with a different political party than I, but that is ok, she is a good and decent person, and I have no doubt that she will do great things in the future. Alanna is the kind of girl that every parent wants their son to marry. That is the best way I can describe Alanna Maguire. It is truly an honor for me to be able to call her a friend.

I would also like to congratulate Mary Maguire (Alanna's Mom) on her win for the Plymouth District Library Board. I promise that $1.40 we talked about, the $1.40 I owe for late fees will be paid before the end of the week! Mary Maguire will suffer no library scofflaws!  All kidding aside, Mary is another good and decent American who I had the pleasure of meeting, and who I hope to become lifelong friends with.

I was also blessed to meet a great conservative Republican in Mr. Richard Sharland. He was the only lifelong Republican in the Supervisor race. Mr. Sharland is a true gentleman, and a man from the days of our Greatest Generation. He is a guy who can sit and tell you fascinating stories about Plymouth's history, as well as America's history. I consider it an honor to call Mr. Sharland a friend.

In the end, the results of the election are what they are. I can't say that I am happy about them, but they turned out pretty much the way I thought they would. I stood by my principles, and fought the fight I felt I should fight. As long as one does that, they have no reason for a long face. I go back to the famous quote. "The people get the government they deserve."

For those who are out there gloating, and hoping that I somehow need to be talked off the 275 bridge, I hate to disappoint you, but no, I am just fine. Finer than frog's hair to put a point on it.

You see, I made some great friendships that I never would have made had I not started writing a blog about the Board Of Trustees, and that is a great thing. Those folks may have won their seats on the board, but I feel like I was the big winner. I was the one who got to meet so many good and decent people.

So it's on to other things for me, and like most folks, I have many other things to worry about. I have a date with my back surgeon coming soon, and I'll be honest here, that is taking up way more space in my brain today than the likes of Big Ron or King Richard. I will make it a point to pass on my room number at the U of M Hospital in case Ocelot, Don, Peter Cottontail, Nuffsaid, or any of my many other fans want to send flowers or gift baskets. :)

Folks will most likely see a lot less of me now, unless Doro spits out something too priceless to ignore, and in closing, to those who have said kind things to me about my blogs, I would like to thank you, and for those who have said, and will soon say unkind things to me about my blog, I would like to thank you as well...