7:58 a.m. – We have had the first verbal outburst of anger. Profanity was used. It was not me. My mother raised me better. My father taught me better. If I had shouted out my profanity laced displeasure of a topic at a conference of elected officials, I would have been terrified to face my mother’s wrath once outside. Why would I go outside? My father would have pointed at the door and said “out” and I would have complied. My kids would have been mortified. Not embarrassed like when I’m goofy, but mortified. Maybe we should all act like our kids and parents are watching what we do.
8:27- second angry guy. He decided to shout out his displeasure at the speaker giving an update on legislative actions. His mistake was picking to yell at an attorney. This young attorney gave this guy a verbal beat down without raising his voice or losing his cool. We should all remember that raising your voice doesn’t raise the value of your words or opinion. But wearing your baseball cap backwards does make some folks skeptical .
8:57- the blame game. According to the comments and discussion here, all county governments are without fault it’s the other levels below and above that cause all the issues. I can explain this from personal experience. Thanksgiving of 2020. I had just become a county commissioner. My mother as a superintendent has over 40 years of experience in education, administration and budgeting. My father has 40 plus years in banking and local leadership and almost two decades in the state legislature. I have 45 minutes of experience as a county commissioner. So of course I have the all answers and should inform them where they went wrong . “If the schools and the cities would stop putting their hand out wanting more money and the state would give us the money we need, we wouldn’t have any more issues.” Then they laughed and laughed. Parents are fun like that.
Final thoughts of the day. Why does anyone think that “a leadership exercise” is a good idea at a conference? What happened is people led themselves out the door for some exercise. I saw a woman that was probably 75 take 15 free pens from vendor table and put them in her bag. Then stared down the vendor never saying a word. It was impressive. Also if you are ever in Hays, apparently the Popeyes chicken is the place to eat. From open until close non stop cars. Imagine a community that just goes crazy for fried chicken. Like waiting in line for chicken or having two chicken restaurants right next to each other. That would be so strange .
