Know Your Limits

Public service.
It's one of the most thankless careers in this country.
And that's the problem.
The fact that it is in fact a career.
Here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate can hold their seats for life if they so desire.
And collect a very attractive pension if they have enough time in.
Unfortunately, in the political world, the more time you put in, the more corrupt you become.
One of many examples have recently been made in Harrisburg, as Pennsylvania's Office of the Attorney General has been cracking down on many capitol cash-grabbers using their taxpayer-paid resources to perform  duties for their own benefit, most namely, staying in office.
Most legislators enter office with the best intentions in mind...to help people.  But after awhile, and after being presented with bankroll offers from corrupt organizations, the fine line that separates black and white begins to blur into shades of gray.
It stops being about helping others and becomes more about getting re-elected.
As they say, the ends justify the means.
Virtue stopped being its own reward.  After all, virtue doesn't pay the bills now, does it?
Perhaps not in the short term.  And maybe that's one of society's problems...we don't think about the future often enough.
Several members of Pennsylvania's House of Representatives are learning the values of virtue over the corruption of cash.  And a few Senate members as well.
Many of our elected leaders in Harrisburg have been carted off to jail, with their legacies of the good they did do now being overshadowed by their corrupt acts.
It's a shame when a legislator fights hard for their constituents, but the legacy they struggle to build, often taking years, can be gone in a matter of mere seconds.
Next month, Senator Jane Clare Orie will end her 15-year career in the legislature, first in the House and then in the Senate, as she is sentenced on criminal charges of which she was recently convicted, in a second trial after her first one last year ended in a mistrial over doctored defense documents.
An attorney by education, her felony convictions cost her her license to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Ms. Orie was convicted of using her state-paid staff to perform political work on state time, and at the request of her older sister, to perform political work on behalf of another sister who holds a spot on the bench for Pennsylvania's Supreme Court.
My mind goes back to the courtroom of Judge Gregory Olson of Indiana County.
Above his bench, in large letters, reads the following:
"No man is above the law, and no man is beneath it."
No woman, either.
Despite Orie's conviction, she has had an exemplary record with veterans and senior citizens, and had brought funding to her district to create good-paying, family-sustaining jobs.  She also co-chaired a committee dedicated to preventing child and elder abuse.
This record made her one of Pennsylvania's most powerful, and until recently, most respected lawmakers.
I hope that Ms. Orie will use her time in prison to reflect on what got her into trouble, and what she can do to repair her soiled reputation and rebuild her life.
Some good can still come out of this.
Perhaps another lawmaker not yet caught will think twice the next time he or she bends the rules.
At least we can only hope so.


NEXT WEEK:  Cruisin'