Money is known to be the root of all evil, and it’s recently been confirmed as the truth to me. The greed that cash breeds led me to act in a way that goes against my nature A part of my dark side was exposed, unfortunately for all to see, or at least the dozens of people in attendance at the City Council Meeting and who watch it on KIT-TV.
I’m a very mild mannered individual, who strives to treat everyone with kindness and respect. My reputation is important to me, yet I was willing to disregard it, all in a fight for some money.
To protect myself from being accused…again, of launching a personal attack, I won’t name the individual responsible for my anger. Instead, I’ll call him President, in this case it’s not Obama. The President was part owner of the Tipp City Independent Voice, of which I was an employee, and am owed the final six months of pay dating approximately from February to July of 2009.
You might ask yourself, and rightfully so, why now? Why after three years are you seeking the money? Truth be told, it’s because I was being nice. I don’t like confrontation or placing hardships onto others. Yes, it makes me an idiot, and I’m fully aware that most people would not ignore the fact that they worked six months for nothing. I’m not most people. I’m too nice.
I knew that the President didn’t have the money, if so he’d pay me. He promised that he would. I believed him. I saw no sense in squeezing a rock, when I’d get nothing in return.
To further explain my idiocy, I continued working for those six months, without pay, because I really loved what I was doing. The pleasure of looking forward to going to work each day and the value of hearing from satisfied readers was worth more to me than any dollar amount on a paycheck. People often say, ‘I love my job so much that I’d do it for nothing’, I’m willing to bet (I probably should and make some money) that very few actually would, I did. It was the best years of my life, I was living a dream. It was never about the money, I didn’t make much anyway, but it was the joy of having a newspaper in which I wrote 90% of the content and was well received. I believed the tide would turn and the Independent Voice would be able to stay afloat, but I didn’t know how deep the debt really was.
Fast forward now to the present, it’s three years later, and as a writer I still haven’t found financial success. The lost wages from the six month period has drained my savings account. I try to plug it, but the hole is to deep. The money owed wouldn’t make me rich, or even middle class, but would make things a little easier. Now, I’m not asking for a pity party or anything, just stating that like the majority of all other Americans I’ve been having some hard times.
And it’s with such frustrations that I approached the President over the money at City Council. I didn’t want to be evil, but what has being nice gotten me? Nothing.
After the President was elected, and I heard accusations that he hadn’t paid all his taxes, I decided it was time to come out of hiding. If he was up to the responsibility of preceding over the cities finances that settling things with me would be child’s play. I figured it was worth being known that the President owes his employees money from three years ago. Guess I was wrong.
I no more than got the opening line out of my presentation before I was silenced by the President and Law Officer.
All of a sudden, after rambling through a number of proclamations, ordinances and resolutions the Council was concerned about time. They didn’t have time to hear from me, on an issue that doesn’t involve them. I surrendered quickly under the pressure of being faced with a line of politicians, my verbal ferocity can’t scare a cat away so I should have known better than to think I could stand up to Council. However, after giving the President more than three years of freedom from my debt, I hoped he could grant me just two minutes. Probably even less than that. Don’t pay someone else for six months work and see how much peace they give you. I’ve given him a free ride, literally.
To be fair, and honest, the Council had a somewhat valid point that it was a personal issue, rather than one that concerned them. They are right, in that my argument isn’t something Council needs to vote on, but I feel it represents a small piece in a larger puzzle of deceit that the President weaves. Indirectly, everything the President does reflects upon the Council as a whole.
I did feel a little evil for airing my grievances, and some sympathy for the President, as I truly don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings. However, I feel this is a fight worth fighting and I’m willing to get a little down and dirty if I have to.
