Friday, April 6, 2018

Unlovely





We've had a few lovely spring days of late. Clear skies, sunshine, mild breezes, warm temps.


But it's spring on the High Plains, and only early April. Yeah, it was one of those spring days today...






Not a bad day at all, really. Oh, cold and blustery. The high was only 19 degrees and the north wind had a bite, but the air still felt springlike and the moisture in the snow is very welcome. Three inches of snow made for just over a quarter-inch of liquid water, and this time of the year it's all very welcome indeed.

Had some positive news regarding the family illness and we're feeling guardedly hopeful. I've certainly nothing to complain about.

Some people have much worse problems.

It was about 5:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning when the girl walked into the convenience store. It was frosty cold outside but she was wearing only shorts and a ratty old sweatshirt. Her feet were bare and dirty. She was probably in her mid-20’s and had short blond hair. Her face was marred by acne scars -- or perhaps meth scars. It was early morning on the day after St. Patrick’s Day, and if I had to guess I’d say that she’d been celebrating all night. And possibly for several consecutive nights. She wobbled more than a bit on her bare feet and she was surrounded by a cloud of booze stink. All in all she was a remarkably unlovely vision.

She had tears and snot and mascara running down her ravaged face. She was clearly in some kind of ugly predicament.

It took a bit of time and perseverance to make sense of her story. Her speech was slurred from intoxication and she was snuffling and crying and I wasn’t entirely convinced that she even knew what her whole story was. The best I could make out, though, was that she was from Cheyenne, had come to Kimball with friends to party on St. Paddy’s Day, and had been abandoned by her friends. In addition to having no shoes or coat, she had no purse or wallet or money or identification. She only knew the first names of the friends she’d been abandoned by. She didn’t know anyone in Kimball, and didn’t have anyone in Cheyenne she could call, except maybe her landlord, but she didn’t know his full name or number, and she’d lost her cell phone anyway.

Fortunately for the girl, Kimball is a small and generally caring town. I got the girl a cup of coffee and called the police, confident that they’d be able to provide assistance. Within a few minutes an officer arrived and spent some time piecing together the girl’s story. Then he arranged a motel room and meals for her. These things were paid for in part by Kimball’s Aid For Distressed Travelers Program, which is funded by the Ministerial Association and local government. With a safe place to stay, food, and a chance to sleep and sober up, the girl was able to provide better contact information in Cheyenne, and the next day she was able to return home.

How will things turn out for the girl? It’s hard to say. My guess is that she’s gotten herself into an ugly fix with drugs, booze, and unsavory friends. Young people can make astonishingly bad choices and follow incredibly bad paths. That said, she’s a human being, and in the land where all men are created equal and endowed with natural rights, her behavior doesn’t change her basic humanity.

I’m glad that Kimball is a caring town with a system and resources in place to offer a helping hand in situations like these. As a community our job isn’t -- and can’t be -- to “fix” people. But we do have a responsibility to help where we can, and to do so with kindness and caring that recognizes the fundamental humanity of even the most unlovely examples of our fellow man.

11 comments:

  1. Wow! Kimball does sound like a great place to live. Well Done PA and your fellow citizens.

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    1. Thanks Juvat. It's hard to get scented tofu here, but other than that, not a terrible place to live.

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  2. What Juvat said. A great town with caring people. Can't fix everybody but you can sure provide a helping hand.

    Bravo Zulu Kimball!

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    1. There are a lot of advantages to small town life. Much easier to help people when those in serious trouble are few and far between. Makes you wonder at and appreciate the guts and perseverance of those who do it for a living in a big city.

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  3. I like Kimball and contribute a few dollars to the economy in my travels.

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    1. And some of that money trickles into the aid program, so you've got a piece of this too! :)

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  4. I don't know if the town I live in has a similar program, but I intend to find out and if we don't, work on starting one. I think that Vernonia is smaller than Kimball, but that doesn't mean we can't help as much as we can.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

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    1. Let me know what you find out, I'd be interested to see how a small town in a more densely populated area handles such things.

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  5. Seen that sort of thing too many times. You Done Good, Shaun! No wonder you are Badger Approved. There are alas, too may youngsters that become victims. They get old enough that they feel that the world is like a wonderful reef, and they are big enough fish to explore it now. But they don't realize that there are sharks on the reef. I hope she get the help she needs.

    i used to make traffic stops at about 0430, and find I had stopped a car full of kids, 14-17 years of age. I would take them back to the Sheriff's Office, and call the parents, who didn't seeem to care that their offspring were out almost 6 hours past cerfew. I always felt like telling the kids, " I am so sorry your parents don't love you enough to care that you are out and about at this time." She probably has been one of those kids, in her jurisdiction.

    Again, BRAVO ZULU, Shaun!

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    1. Thanks Scott. Seeing someone in trouble kind of puts me in help mode, possibly because of my training and background. And of course as a member of the oppressive patriarchy seeing a girl in trouble is far different than seeing a young man in trouble. Funny, that. Some kind of instinctive, biological, species survival mechanism or something.

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  6. Odd, but true. We assume that the male got himself, into trouble, and should be able to find his way back out again. Of course, as a species, it is in our interest to protect our females, which probably has a lot to do with it.

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