First Annual Awards

Recent reading brought me to the partial contents of a letter
written  by Supreme Court Justice Miller to his brother-in-
law in August of 1869:

"It is not to be denied, that the leaders of the radical party
in the Gulf states since the Rebellion have many of them
been men of bad character, and without principle, and
that still more of them have been ignorant, and unused to
the exercise of political power."[1]

In Iron County, Michigan, we have a plethora of that type,
with many seeking and holding local political office.

However, in selecting individual for awards for the year
2012, we have been forced to ignore Miller's observation,
with which we strongly concur, and stick to some single
characteristic deserving of the awards we have found it
prudent, and necessary, to award. I feel certain that were
I to have the time and energy necessary to read more ancient
texts, perhaps from Greeks and Romans contemporary with
the heights of those civilizations, I might find many similar
sentiments vocalized in those ages. In short, Iron County is
only special in the context of what is promised to us by the
form of governance we allude to have in the United States,
and the model demonstrated for all to see by less corrupt
communities.

That being said, the awards for 2012 number three in total
as follows:

Lump of Coal Award to John Alan Archocosky

Lump of Coal Award to Alfred James Perlongo

Meritorious Service Award to Wayne John Wales

We will not here explain the Lump of Coal awards as they
were obvious enough. Mr. Wales Meritorious Service
Award does deserve a bit of additional comment however.

Wayne demonstrated that a single individual, with the help
of a few friends, can break the stranglehold of machine
politics on a community like Iron County, Michigan. That
doesn't mean that Iron County Doings, or any individual,
agrees with each and every decision rendered by Wayne
during his tenure on the Iron County Board. The important
feature of his membership on that board is that the county
took desirable new directions not previously possible.

We hasten to add that other local government boards are
not free from the stranglehold of the local political machine.
We need strong individuals to run for office and take their
place on the various commissions in order to achieve the
same goal. All this takes time.

We hope that this year, or perhaps at some time in the
future, we can eliminate the Lump of Coal Award
entirely.

Bill Vajk


[1] American Constitutional Decisions, Charles Fairman,
Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1948