Desiree Rogers says So Long!

Well this is definitely turning into Black History month. Gov. Patterson of New York is hanging up his plans to run for another term. Charles Rangel looks to be in a mounting pile of trouble and now Desiree Rogers is riding off into the sunset. She formally announced today that at the beginning of March she will resign as White House Social Secretary. It appears she feels the time is right to return to the private Corporate sector.

In her announcement, which has shown up in the Washington Post, The Huffington Post, WWD and a number of other news publications, Desiree stated that the job she set out to do, to make the White House the People's House, had been successfully achieved and it was time to move on to new challenges. I love how the news and reality is spun. Reality is a key word in all of this. It's the Salahis and their reality show aspirations that was her undoing. Making the White House the People's House was perhaps a little too much of a success. It looked as though anyone could go there whether for a State Dinner or to just hang out in the Lincoln bedroom. No invitation seemed to be necessary to gain entrance. Desiree was too busy being a personage to be bothered with details like national security or checking guest lists.

I took some heat for being critical of a girl with a dream but her dreams at times took on nightmarish proportions. Many believe that the reflecting pool was just not big enough or deep enough for her aspirations. Why stand behind the President and First Lady when you can stand next to them, or even better, in front? Besides stellar collections missing from New York Fashion Week, the most noticeable absence was Ms. D. I asked myself where she'd gone. Overexposure, like all the celebs who were conspicuously missing from the front rows, was my thought. Desiree is a celebrity like Lindsay, Paris and the Kardashian Collective, so I just assumed she was laying low in a very public way. Not for a moment did I think she'd cut up her titanium metro card that comes complete with full access to any front row at any show and preferred seating at the Maybelline counter in the Tent's holding pen.

Well, Desiree will be missed. The irony of this being Black History month and her resignation was not lost on me or probably many others. It's unfortunate that she took on a job that was so historic for a Black woman and then treated it like a launching pad. Patience and pacing one's ambition is a virtue. Her legacy would have been fantastic. Some people just have to have it all now, or preferably, last week. My hope is that the person who takes her place will also take on the responsibility of such an important position with grace, selflessness and maturity. Humility goes a long way, too.