GaryOsberg.com

In the winter of 1971, I attended a Coon Rapids City Council meeting to complain about the snowmobiles that were running up and down the streets in my neighborhood. I was not impressed with my representation, so that fall I decided to run for the Third Ward Council seat. I had met a few folks at a caucus in 1970, so with their help, we managed to pull off an upset victory. The fellow that we beat was a Vice President of a large insurance company and he was going for his third three year term. I think what did him in was his decision to distribute a legal document with all of his qualifications on one side, filling up the whole sheet, and my qualifications on the other side, taking up not even half of the page.  Things like: “Attended college”.  After all, I was 27 years old when we started the campaign.  It was kind of mean spirited.

One of the guys that helped me get elected was Gene Merriam. We had spent a lot of hours collecting rummage for a garage sale fundraiser, so we got to know each other quite well. The next year Gene ran for Council at Large and he won that seat. Rick Reiter ran for the first ward seat and he won.  In late 1973, we filled a vacancy in Ward 2 by appointing Dave Therkelsen. We served together in the year 1974. It is hard to believe that 45 years have gone by.

A couple of years ago we met for a 43 year reunion. We decided that we were all too long in the tooth to solve the world’s problems, so someone else is going to have to do it. We simply spent two hours sharing stories and laughing.

Live from Here this week is a rebroadcast of an older show.  The new season starts September 7^th from New York.  Check it out at www.livefromhere.org 

“Aside from the strictly moral standpoint, honesty is not only the best policy, but the only possible policy from the standpoint of business relations. The fulfillment of the pledged word is of equal necessity to the conduct of all business. If we expect and demand virtue and honor in others, the flame of both must burn brightly within ourselves…honesty begets honesty; trust, trust; and so on through the whole category of desirable practices that govern and control the world’s affairs.”

James F. Bell