It was widely reported yesterday that former Lackawanna County commissioner Robert Cordaro and current commissioner Mike Munchak have been indicted on various federal charges. Story link HERE. If you total all the potential jail time up, you get a number that must be close to 500 years. Astounding stuff.
You know what? The real crime here isn't just money laundering, kick-backs and assorted other things, no it's one of INSTITUTIONAL ARROGANCE. The whole notion of public service, the idea that working for the public was supposed to be personally (not financially) enriching, has been nearly eliminated from view these days. It hasn't just been money that's been stolen, but it's the very notion of a public that places trust and has faith in elected officials that has been absconded over these past few years. It's been a theft on the grandest of scales.
Maybe we've needed this kind of clean sweep in order to truly chance the definition of what it means to be a public servant.
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