Budgets Smudgets
Any of you folks as sick of budget talks as I am? I mean I have to use the term "talks" with a bit of a smirk on my face. I didn't see much in the line of talking in any of this. Accusation this and that was all I heard. And several of those accusations were hurled by myself. Once, I hurled one in a meeting where I got gaveled down.
Now I know which side I chose in this. Yes, I did choose sides and anyone who says they didn't is not being totally truthful. Anyone who said they were "only" looking out for the kids was not being truthful either. You can't take an accusation being hurled against you without reacting as a human. Maybe it only effects your thoughts about a specific individual.
My name was even mentioned at a Court Meeting wanting to know if I still worked for the schools. I guess I was the target of someone. I understand that, I sign my name to every opinion I write. But I doubt this person was watching out for the "children" when they asked about me.
Where does this leave us? With a bunch of ruffled feathers and another budget coming due in about seven months.
Are we going to go through this again?
No. I predict for you the schools will have a balanced budget on the table in April. Will it be one everyone likes? Nope, because there simply is not enough money to run the schools. There will be hard cuts made that make this year look like a play date.
This is the time for statesmen, if there are any left. This is the time to quit calling for resignations and pointing fingers. This is the time to not get so hung up on a letter it stops our local government in gridlock.
The people wanting to get their kids on a bus don't give a crap about a letter or who wrote it. The wife of the deputy who doesn't have a Kevlar vest doesn't give a crap about any letter. If we spent as much time on solving problems as we did on letters and personal grudges we would get something done.
I am predjeudiced because I have many friends on County Court. Went to school with Doyle Welch and he is a good guy. I can give him grief and he gives it back and we move on. Dean Hill has been a personal friend of mine for years. We have pulled practical jokes together. R.L. Jones has been with me at many meetings related to many subjects. Gary England is a close friend and someone I can talk to. He avoids my urgings for him to run for Mayor and has for years. Joyce Meltabarger is my neighbor and knows she has my vote any time she wants to run. We don't always agree but she is straight up with me always.
But I am also a fan of Wayne Goforth. I am predjudiced. I am a fan of the school system. We have gone from the bottom to the top 10% in the state in three years. Newsweek featured us in an article and we are the ONLY revenue generating public school in the state of Tennessee.I can toss out my feelings on the whole budget issue. I admire the man for how he carried himself throughout all of this. If I had been accused of lying I would have attacked back. I would have probably said something that made the whole deal a bit worse. But he carried himself in such a way as to bring honor to himself.
He took full responsibility for the letter incident, saying, "I am the Director and whether I was aware or not the blame is mine alone."
Then some guy wants to know why he would take the blame if he didn't do it (which we now know he didn't). Surely he must be covering for someone. There was no winning for him. He took the blame because it was leadership.
It is time we put all of this behind us and moved on.