Politician Morning

Groundbreaking Tools Assembled

Last night I watched what may be the absolutely worst movie ever made, Black Six, a gag gift from my friend (see movie blog for review).  This morning I had an equally onerous task which was to spend the morning with a bunch of politicians gathered for the groundbreaking ceremony on a new transit hub that starts construction soon in the middle of Worcester.  I’ve never been good at the political glad handing.  It probably cost me some, just a little, in my military career because I was never one of the guys to rush over at social events and tell the generals how brilliant they were.  This morning we had a US congressman, the Lieutenant Governor, several state senators and representatives, the Worcester City Manager, and most of the city council.  It was a bright sunny, but very cold day to be sitting in a tent listening to the ten speeches delivered but this was a good news story so it was interesting to see the mileage each of the politicians was trying to get out of their participation.  I’d met all of them several times before and I’m always amazed at the career politician’s ability to remember names.  I spoke a little bit with the congressman, who views are about as different as mine as could be imagined.  He’s one of the radical, liberal firebrands that Massachusetts seems to produce in such abundance.  In person he’s a very nice guy and most of all I was struck by his commitment to helping his constituents.  I always like to sit back at these events and watch the favor seekers gravitate towards the people who can help them.  I was gratified to hear many of the speech givers recognize the hard work of my boss, the guy I came back to this place to work for.   If anything good is happening at this place you can usually trace it back to his desk and I was heartened to see that recognized.  It was the proverbial herding of cats to get everyone back on the bus after the ceremony. My boss and I were waiting on the overall boss, the agency head. The agency head wanted to see every politician off and he was just about finished when I reminded him that no work was getting done back at the office because he had the entire staff waiting for him to get on the bus. My boss thanked me as we finally pulled out.  Overall it was not the horror show that I expected and I actually enjoyed talking with the politicians that I did speak with, maybe I’m finally growing up.

Speeches

The Assembled Politicians Breaking Some Ground

Co-workers at Ceremony - My Great Boss on the Right