Something of a metaphor

The LA Times carried a story this morning on the abandoned house of US Rep Laura Richardson. The Congresswoman was elected to the Assembly but when a congressional seat came open quickly switched jobs to Washington.

Even during her brief time in Sacramento neighbors said she neglected to keep her house up. The house in question is in a neighborhood called Curtis Park. We lived in the neighborhood when our kids were small. It is an eclectic neighborhood that includes a lot of political types as well as a wide variety of other professions. For example, when the neighborhood wanted to revamp a deactivated school into a community center (my wife was a board member in that effort) the neighborhood could supply everything from talented carpenters to lawyers to negotiate leases.

Neighbors helped Rep Richardson out by mowing her lawn and doing other maintenance and Rep Richardson returned the favor by allowing her (now) abandoned house to become a breeding ground for a colony of rats.

Richarson's home page tells a lot about her. "At the age of six, living through the civil rights movement and having picked her first profession of public service." She served in the California Assembly for nine months. (Wow what dedication) "Speaker Pelosi has referred to Representative Richardson as bright, energetic, intelligent, and an asset to the committee chairs, caucuses and her constituents." (Evidently there is a big difference in Pelosi and Richardson's mind between constituents and neighbors.)

Perhaps a fitting compliment to Richardson's Marie Antoinette like community spirit would be to finance a brochure for Rep Richardson's next run for office which shows pictures of the house. Part of the public business should be the maintenance of the fabric of community - evidently Rep Richardson did not get that as part of her job as a citizen; she was just too busy bolstering her resume as a political job hopper.