Click Click Boom in BookThree: Flight Log 2016

This goddamned Board of Supervisors. I want to unleash a rabid wolverine into their mix, save them from it, then push them into a pit of venomous snakes.

Today started out as a nothing day of organization. I’m writing Year End Summaries of cases to make sure the incoming County Attorney knows what goes on/has been going on. Also to let him know in what areas we are behind (many) and what areas we are squared away in (few). But County Attorney was going to be on the Board’s Agenda; so after a solid 1.5 hours of work, I went over there. They agreed to hire a county attorney (took you long enough, mother fuckers! From Application deadline to today has been 10 Weeks.) But when he requested things like approving Computers and the like (you know, using the budget that exists FOR our department) he was denied. So… what? He’s going to come into the new office, sit at an empty desk and stare at his thumbs for a few hours a day? I know Boss never asked you for computer budgeting but… for God’s sake, children, we have the money… it is our money, budgeted TO us… let’s try to create a working office environment? Then the issue of Jude and Cecilia came up. Cecilia, as you may know, is my “secretary” in name only. She handles 100% of the collections in the office. Thus, she makes the county money through her labors. Jude is my boss’ secretary. The county has been paying her Social Security and Salary. The only thing the County has not been paying is her Insurance. If Jude were to work for Ran, the Board would need to approve it and begin to pay her insurance. They tried to argue that Jude wasn’t necessary! That isn’t “deciding not to hire someone to save money”… that is chopping off a limb because you see a financial windfall in it. Obviously, Boss, Cecilia and I spoke up. How are you going to have a County Attorney’s office with ZERO Administrative Assistants/Legal Assistants/Paralegals.... anything. Christ… most of the defense firms we’re up against have an Administrative Assistant and a Legal Assistant… and you want us to have NEITHER?! So the board tabled the issue. Said they would discuss it next year. Jude asked, “So… do I file unemployment until you make a decision?” The board said, “That’s your prerogative. You can if you want to.”

So you finally decided to allow us to get a County Attorney, part time mind you, but won’t let the County Attorney get a computer or any office supplies he would actually need; and won’t tell someone (who you are already paying) if she has a job next year or not?

I don’t even know what to do with myself here. CLEARLY… more proof that I need to get the fuck out of here. You have a county that is dying… dying… and a Board that won’t let the County Attorney do their job… but spends $10 million on Road Equipment that doesn’t get used; $1.7 million on a Sheriff’s Department that has been mired in scandal… not to mention the fact that the jail and courthouse are outdated, falling apart, or so small as to require open recurring monetary contracts with other counties just so we have a place to put our jailed individuals. Seriously… I have never before seen something like this. Because I cannot in good conscious call it malice. I see no malice. I see people who don’t want to do anything… and they get voted in, keep control, and are never required to do anything. So… it is laziness. It is stupidity. It is self-serving disguised as ignorance. Because they use the roads all the time… if the road crew says they need an expensive new toy that they think they might use once a year… dammit, we need to rubber stamp that expenditure! They see the Sheriff the way old Western Movies depict them. The Sheriff protects us from the brown people; so he needs as much money as we can give him… otherwise, we might lose our 98% White majority! But as to things like… Social Services? County Attorney? That’s “liberal bullshit.” Lawyers make the world worse and we’d be better off without ‘em. Social services coddle people that should either pick themselves up by their bootstraps or submit to an early death.

So.... yeah. Wife and I need to leave. We need to go back to Urban Society. Because Urban Society may have its problems, its racism, its bigotry, its ignorance, its malice. But it isn’t the same. Hell, if you want an example… there are a few counties in Iowa that did not go to Trump. Polk County is one and Story County is another. And it isn’t “I wish to flee the Trump Supporters” but it goes to the innumerable breakdown reports that have spread on the Internet. Rural Communities think one way and voted Trump. Urban Communities think another way and voted Clinton. I was raised in an Urban Community. I am not thriving in the Rural Community. The Trump/Clinton comparison is simply a shorthand way of explaining that.

So there we have it. Yet another entry that says the same thing. I’m becoming as formulaic and tedious as a prime time sitcom.
Act 1: Here’s what bothered me today. I’m pissed or sad or hollow or depressed.
Act 2: Lament! I must flee this foul land and return to my homeland.
Act 3: Woe as returning to my homeland contains a multitude of uncertainties and pleasantries.
(If we’re in a two part episode, then)
Act 4: Attempt to convince myself that I can hold on in this foreign land.
Act 5: Repeat again and again how there is still much to learn in this world.
Act 6: Lament! I must flee this foul land and return to my homeland.