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Councilmember Holman: Thank You and Goodbye

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I came into the office today to take the memorabilia off the walls of my office. I want to leave a clean office for the next Auburn City Councilmember who will work here. I am departing exactly as I said I would in my first campaign: two terms for a total of eight years. Now it is the next person’s turn to serve Auburn. Change is inevitable, so instead of fighting it, I have always looked to make good of it. This has not always been a popular performance standard to those who remember the “good old days” and want to return to how they remember it. 

One of my most treasured possessions has hung on this office wall for eight years. It has a long family history. It is a quote by Abraham Lincoln. My father first ran across it in the local newspaper of Colorado City, Texas sometime during the early 1930s. It was the height of The Great Depression and my father had just become the Superintendent of Schools in this small West Texas town. The article was clipped and taped to the back of the wall hanging. The clipping is yellow, fragile and somewhat fragmented. He had someone pen the Lincoln quote in beautiful calligraphy and had it framed. It hung on every office he occupied since then. Moreover, it has hung in every office I have occupied since my Father’s passing.

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“If I were to try to read much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how ~ the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end.

If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.” 

  1. Lincoln

Another treasured wall hanging has a little more modern story associated with it. One of my associates from my past career read the autobiography Hammer by the wealthy industrialist and philanthropist, Armand Hammer. (Occidental Petroleum not Arm & Hammer baking soda) My friend loaned me his copy to read. If you like autobiographies written by billionaires toward the end of their lives, I recommend it. I warn you though; the book has been criticized for being a bit self-serving. Nonetheless, it is a great read with wonderful insights on public service and philanthropy. One of my favorite quotes from Hammer is found on page 468 and my artistic friend; a skilled calligrapher presented me with a wall hanging. If I have a guiding philosophy this comes pretty close to it:

“I can’t think of anything better to do with a life than to wear it out in efforts to be useful to the world.”

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Armand Hammer

As I end my career as an Auburn City Councilmember, I would be negligent if I did not thank my fellow Auburn friends and neighbors for making these eight years possible. I step aside because City Councilmember is not a career. It is an opportunity to serve your community and is a responsibility best shared amongst a broad spectrum of the best among us. God bless us all.

John Hayes Holman

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