A Picture Is Worth AThousand Words

There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran:

ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL

BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS

Animal Farm
George Orwell

We're continually amazed at the awesome sense of entitlement the Claremont 400 possesses, collectively and individually. It's as if the laws of our town apply to everyone other than our ruling elite, who see themselves as a sort of aristocracy.

Former mayors, councilpeople, and commissioners behave as scofflaws. One such former mayor we know built an eight-foot wall on her property when only six-foot walls were permitted in the Claremont Village. When a neighbor complained, the person said not to worry about it and implied she had friends in City Hall.

And, lest you think such things are isolated examples, don't forget the time former mayor Ellen Taylor drove the wrong way down an alley in the Village.

From time to time we receive emails from skeptical readers who find it hard to believe that these paragons of community virtue would behave so boorishly. Well, now comes photo documentation, courtesy of the Insider's local spies.

At the City Council's March 6 budget meeting, town historian and former mayor Judy Wright had a special parking spot reserved for her car--license 4 JDY JDY. We assume that this must be Judy's regular parking place when she visits her subjects at City Hall. Judy certainly has no fear of the Claremont PD's parking enforcement officers (though they may quite rightly fear her):

Seen outside City Hall,
March 6, 2010

When we first received the photo, we weren't sure that it was really Judy's ride, so we asked a friend of the Insider to drive by Judy's digs near Tenth and Berkeley. Sure enough, there was the same wagon--hers--parked at the curb:

* * * * *

We note that 4 JDY JDY appears to have a handicapped tag hanging from it's mirror, and we don't begrudge the differently abled their little regulatory conveniences. But the lot at City Hall was striped "NO PARKING."

Anyway, readers, don't bother yourselves to get worked up about little things like fairness or rule of law. Judy (pictured, left) will just have a good laugh at your expense.

The best thing you can do is remember these photos during the next city council or school board election. When you see the name "Judy Wright" next this or that candidate's name, vote for another person.


That is the only way we'll ever move away from the Claremont 400's arbitrary governance and towards a more rational, fair, and respectful relationship between city officials and the average citizens in town.