Paragraphs by Paul Miller
I would rather be a pro bono tax lawyer or a summer roofer in Death Valley than a politician in Marin, or any other county. Most local politicians receive little glory and few perks for what is an uncomfortable job a substantial part of the time. What pleasure or satisfaction is there going to even two block parties or fund raising cocktail parties, let alone 48? Any citizen who has suffered a 7 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. city council meeting where the words were vile, the energy suffocating, and the chairs hard (if you could find one) has to agree to the job's discomfort. But a democracy cannot operate without politicians. The job is an honorable one.
So why is the word "politician" most often used pejoratively? Because politicians with integrity, such as Marin Supervisors Hal Brown and Charles McGlashan and San Anselmo Mayor Peter Breen, for example, are in the same movie that somebody like Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut stinks up.
If any of the Marin politicians I have mentioned say they are going to do something, they deliver: Brown advocates fire protection and has a concrete record of delivering it in any form he can. Breen says he will try his best to fix town streets in a broken economy, and a depleted staff of workers have been out there doing what they can with what little coin they have. McGlashan declares he is a dedicated protector of Marin wetlands and hills and open country and air and water and, consequently, also a protector of Marinites' great, great grandchildren who are not yet even born. Anyone who deals with McGlashan knows he delivers to the tenth power on that declaration.
But high profile Lieberman, who blows around about what he is doing for America's health, and then tries to kill health care reform that includes the kind of care he gets; committee chairman Lieberman who mouths that he cares so much about America and the Democratic Party, but who then speaks at the GOP convention—the GOP convention!—to attack the Democratic Party's nominee. This is the kind of politician--the one whose campaign war chest is full of money from health care insurance companies--this is the kind of no-integrity politician that turns the word "politician", into a swear word.
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Long time Marinite Paul Miller
was editorial cartoonist for the Marin IJ, sports cartoonist for the
Novato Advance, a cover cartoonist for the Pacific Sun, and is
currently a cartoonist illustrator for The Ark. He's had cartoons
published in the San Francisco Chronicle and his surf paintings have
been published on the Surfriders Foundation website. He joins MoreMarin
as a contributing editorial cartoonist.
Miller, a former Marine
and UCLA graduate, taught a cartooning course in the art department at
the College of Marin. His paintings and drawings are in private
collections in California, Arizona, Washington, Hawaii, Texas, Florida
and Provence, France. Miller's book, A Cartoonist's Guide to Prostate Cancer, was described by Dr. Dean Edell as "a must for any man facing prostate cancer!"
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