Shame on us

For those of you who do not know, I will put on record that I enjoy my job and one of my greatest joys is writing a weekly opinion piece. Buckle up readers, this week is a doozie.

As I said, I truly enjoy my job, I feel that I’m somewhat good at it and no one has threatened to fire me as of yet, although I have ruffled a few feathers (something I will continue to do as long as the powers that be will allow me).  However, I do not love my job, this is not my soul work nor do I believe it is what I’ve been put on this earth to do.  

I have a close friend who LOVED her job, it was actually was her soul path and she was by far the best person for the job; Kimball literally blossomed under her care. Today, she is unemployed, choosing voluntarily to leave an organization that will never-ever be the same without her.

We all know what a hot bed of gossip Kimball can be and that rumors often grow into completely inaccurate tales because of wild guesses and assumptions of the uninformed.

For over a year now, my friend has absorbed the brunt of some quite disgraceful (I’m being overly nice) treatment from our local government, locals and even the board of volunteers that were supposedly in place to back her up.

Let’s face it, if someone actually ran for office or sat on a board for the right reason, that reason being selfless concern over the welfare of community, you would like to believe that their integrity would prevent them from overtly throwing their power around. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. It is not unheard of that an elected official loses perspective of the larger picture and ends up betraying his/her community and the very values they thought they were supporting. I won’t bother pretending to understand why this happens to some people in power and as I hate to assume anything, I’ll just leave the question as it stands, walking away in bewilderment.

Many of you know that my friend and the organization she worked for was mistreated by a local government group and although not unheard of it is still quite reprehensible that it happened at such a level and in such a small community. I’m all for being true to yourself, and if necessary taking back promises in order to keep your personal truth or sanity in tack, but for a group of elected officials to pretend to forget/ignore/take back a promise of funding... well, disappointment doesn’t begin to describe many people’s feelings about the issue.

Even that hideous nightmare was not enough to cause my friend to leave an organization that she truly believed in and so she continued to fight, not just for Kimball but for our planet’s health and wellbeing. That is truly who my friend is and what every ounce of her soul believes she is here to do.

Unfortunately the “old guard” of Kimball still has its grips on, not just the government, but on many of its people and the seed of doubt was heavily fertilized by verbal cow manure. This is how, in my opinion, an entire community eventually allowed themselves to be swayed/overcome/beaten down by the attitude of a few egotistical people.

Even a strong, selfless and devoted person such as my friend could not withstand the constant verbal attacks, duplicity and deceit, not just from our local government, but from her own board members as I was once present to witness in her office.  

However, as much as I want to blame a limited number of people for their appalling treatment of my friend, I have to be the first to say, I am just as guilty.  We are, in fact, all equally guilty of treason-against my friend, Kimball County and the planet. We allowed a person, who has devoted nearly her entire life toward sustaining us, to feel wholly unsupported, condemned and thrown away without the thought of recycling... which goes to prove just how much we still need her.  

Kimball, shame on ALL of us.