Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A Lesson from P

When my kids were young, they were on the Red River Ski Team. Being the mom I am, I took an active role in the team as vice-president. During the busy ski season in a resort town many of the parents were very busy with tourists and running businesses. As a teacher and then stay-at-home mom, I was able to go to the all of the races and most of the practices. I carried a big backpack full of extra socks and gloves and sunscreen and lip balm, and snacks, etc. to take care of the Jr. racers. And sometimes I took care of the race coaches who were young, single guys who were like kids and not prepared.  Having grown up on the slopes, I was a better than average skier and could keep up with the kids and help out when needed even up on the mountain.  I even had a cowbell that I rang for the racers as they zipped past me on the racecourse. Other teams knew this, and other kids would come ask me to ring the bell as they went by. I just rang it for everyone :)

Most of the time being on the RR team was fun. Sometimes it was a pain in the butt. Of course, in a small town like RR, everyone knows everyone and their business - like a big dysfunctional family. At one point my friend P was the president of the club and I was vp. My friend, P, was in her 30's, beautiful, recently divorced, with two kids, and maybe not the sharpest knife in the drawer. It came to my attention that P went to a Jr ski race in Colorado with the young, handsome ski coach, and they only took one racer. P used ski team money to pay for all of their rooms, food, ski tickets, and entry fee. So I called her up and told her that what she had done was wrong. She didn't seem to understand. She thought that because she was the president and had the checkbook that she could just write checks as she deemed fit. I explained that the money belonged to all the kids. All the kids had helped raise the money to pay their way to races - not to pay for one kid to go to some special race. And certainly not for two coaches (rumored to be sleeping together - I didn't even go there with P) to go along for the heck of it, spending lots of extra money, and without asking the team first.

She still didn't understand. So I continued to explain that it was club money and only the club could decide how to use it and that she could not spend club money willy-nilly.  And then she got mad, "Are you saying that I am stealing money from the team?"  I didn't think P was stealing money; I thought she was being stupid. I probably said as much. I continued to try and explain club money, club decisions, accountability, being above reproach, etc. It fell on deaf ears, and P was mad at me for a long time.

Now, P and I are still good friends and the whole ski team scandal is forgotten. It was the Hillary Clinton email scandal that reminded me of P and the ski team.  My friend, P, was truly not very smart and maybe at a very selfish time in her life. But Hillary Clinton should know better. She has been around the block in politics. She knows about accountability and being above reproach. She is either very arrogant and purposefully chose to ignore protocol and assumed the public was not smart enough to catch on, or she is very stupid and has no business being in government business.

3 comments:

Okie Dokie said...

The only thing that really upsets me, is there wasn't someone who did what you did, tell her to stop.

Obviously she emailed a ton of people on that non-secure system. Not one of them offered to educate her.

She was only looking out for herself (and maybe a ski coach, or whatever the appropriate metaphor is for a politico). I'm not sure where her selfishness comes from, but she keeps getting checks, so I think she's figured out the system better than I ever will.

I think a law degree is mans first step into hell. The second step, Interest on loans, being a slide...

Did you know the USA pays $431 billion in Interest on the $18 trillion debt. That's $2100 for each working age American (204 Million). It would be more, but the economy crashed and the interest rates are very low right now. Anyway, that's 6 times the money spent on education, and 2 times the money spent on science and medical research.

Jo Castillo said...

I love your "old days" stories.

A few years ago the art club I belong to in Austin got a new treasurer. She got upset about something, closed the checking account (didn't take the money, just closed it to check writing), cancelled the non-profit status. It took almost 2 years to get that all straightened out. Recently she sent me a "friend" request and one on linkedin, too. Really? I didn't even know her.

As for Hillary, I think her people leaked that to the NY Times so that it will be "old news" by election time. They knew it would come out. By then she can just say she wants to talk about "today" that is all in the past. They have so many skeletons rattling around it is hard to keep track.





Bag Blog said...

Between the Clintons, their whole yard is a cemetery - what's a few more skeletons?