Reaffirming commitment to public service

As a local news reporter one of the things that I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to do is see local elected officials being sworn into office.
Usually for people being sworn into local office this takes place during regularly scheduled government meetings but last week I got to see it done a little differently.
For Dodge County Elected Officials they held a semi formal cer- emony where Judge Williamson swore in four elected officials.
Although the ceremony wasn’t to the magnitude that President Trump’s was when I had to leave my hotel at 7 a.m. to make it in time, it still was a big deal.
While some may think something like this is unnecessary I believe that it’s extremely important because as a elected official you are recommitting  yourself  to serving the people you represent. By hav- ing it as a somewhat big ceremony and making it a big deal is a way to show how important the oath of office is.
On Monday I watched the Inau- guration of Governor Walz and other Constitutional  Elected Officials while at the office.
Truthfully and as you can imagine I have never seen a Minnesota Inauguration  before.
During his speech Governor Walz said something that stuck with me.
He said “This Inaugural Ceremony is a public acceptance of our legal and moral responsibility  for this great state. A clear recognition that we have been given by the great people of Minnesota to do our very best to further our states magnificent legacy.”
When I was studying Political Science I would examine a lot of differ- ent speeches and this line stuck out to me a lot.
To me what the Governor is doing is making it clear that the people on stage with him who were elected, were elected by the people and that they should take their obligations very seriously.
I did get some goose bumps throughout the speech and that was just one moment where it hap- pened.
In general I love being able to cover the different swearing in cer- emonies for local elected officials and I am proud to be able to do so.
For those who took the oath of office recently or those returning to their position in 2019 I wish you nothing but the best of luck on your journey of representing  your com- munity to the best of your abilities.