Waiting for my flight back home......

As I sit at NWA Gate #A-6 at the Ronald Reagan airport waiting for my flight home, I can't help but think about the days events. Sometimes it's hard to believe that I am the Mayor of my hometown, much less sitting at in Washington D. C., the capital of our nation, just having spent the day with Congressmen and Senators. I actually caught myself sitting here with a goofy smile on my face thinking, "is this a great country or what?"

Now I realize that being the Mayor of a rural Indiana town isn't the same thing as being the President of the United States, or the King of England but it sure feels like it as I sit here waiting for my flight back to a place I truly love, Connersville. I know that may sound hokey, but I realize it even more when I'm away.

Having been born in Connersville and raised by my grandparents, growing up in Offutt's Park, looking back it was a pretty great time in my life. Everybody who wanted a job had one, and they made decent money. At least enough money to raise their kids and make a better life for them then perhaps many of them had themselves as kids growing up. I could have never fathomed back then that someday I would actually be the "Mayor" of the City of Connersville. It's just something that a kid doesn't think about. We were all too busy playing kick ball, baseball and riding our bikes to think about where the city's trash went and who it was that cut the grass in the Offutt's Park playground that we played on everyday, much less who it was that managed the city's services. Even as a young father working at Roots, at the same time my wife and I trying to get our own business off the ground, I wasn't interested in local municipal politics. I was like most of the people in Connersville, I was to busy making a living and trying to raise a family as best I could.

Even after our business was well established, the only time I thought about local government was at election time. Did I personally know the individual running for City Council or Mayor? Who I thought was the best choice was based mostly upon my personal knowledge of the candidates or what I read in the evening paper. And now here I am, Mayor. As my kids used to say "who'd a thunk it?"


So here I sit in our nations capital with a couple of hours on my hands thinking about the upcoming city elections and all the things I need to do in preperation for the campaign. As I sit here with that goofy grin on my face waiting for my flight home, I realize I've already done the most important thing I could ever do to prove that I should be Mayor for the next 4 years. I have done what my grandparents taught me to do all those years ago. To be a person of character, to be honest and to always do the very best I can. As your Mayor I feel have done that.

In the final analysis, it will be the voters that will determine whether or not I keep the job you elected me to do alomst 4 years ago. And that is exactly as it should be. Whatever the outcome is I will always be proud of the fact that for a awhile I was the Mayor of Connersville, and to me that's something to be very proud of!