Thursday, December 13, 2012

Into the 21st Century

One of my favorite books is "Things Fall Apart" by the African author, Chinua Achebe.  I won't share much more than that because it might begin to skew what I mean to share with this picture.  

Seeing this picture reminds me of a point that comes up repeatedly in the book.  The idea that things change is one of the few constants in life.  We change as we grow older, we change as we live with others, we change as the world around us changes. 

This last Sunday at the Paseo, City of Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard watched as our new Assembly menber Chris Holden was sworn in by our representative in Congress, the Honorable Judy Chu.  I can't help but wonder what folks who were in Pasadena in the mid-twentieth century would have thought of all this.

City of Pasadena Mayor, Bill Bogaard; 21st District Asseblymember, Chris Holden;
  44th District Congresswoman, Judy Chu

How would they have filtered who these people are and how they have come to be in leadership in our area.  Would they find most noteworthy - ethnicity or race?  Would they have found gender to be thing that caught their eye?  Would it be the fact that there are three Democrats in the picture?

I don't know, but I know they would have seen change in ways unimagined.

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