Supper

Frieda was the plain sort for whom clothing was strictly utilitarian. She wore big glasses and dressed herself like a 70s Jeopardy contestant. This did not stop her from having a successful career on the county school board. Under her stewdardship the board averted catastrophe in the 92 bus driver's strike, a move that the kept the big city unions from gaining a foothold in Carlton County.

Ten years later she stepped down as superintendent under rigorous protests to helm the Concerned Citizen's Airport Expansion Committee (CCAEC). The state was pressuring the local and county governments to construct a new runway at the airport. On the most desirable spot sat a couple of subdivisions, only six years old and within the bounds of a highly rated school district. The state urged citing emminent domain to acquire the land, and Frieda was tapped to lead the residents against it. They wanted their homes, and Frieda was ready for some big press.

While you can't fight city hall, you can get noticed by it. The CCAEC lost and the residents had to move, but not before they generated enough camera time to cost the developers millions more in delays. The following autumn Frieda won her district's seat in the state house. She was re-elected two times more by always voting the interests of the state over those of the individuals, and then using rhetoric to convince them of her choices after the fact. She was a politician, which is to say a person with a narrow-mindedness of direction, a healthy ego, and thumbs-up charm.