Today I'm putting on my advocate hat and writing an appeal for some friends. My mind goes back 7 years to when I first met them discussing the passage of the UDO in town. Through all those years I have watched them be verbally attacked, lied to, used, thrown away, lied about, and bullied...and through it all they kept soldiering on. They kept trying to make money to pay their bills. They kept trying to do a little everywhere that they could. They did not try and ignore the rules, they always tried to comply, even though people lied about them and said they didn't. Every time they started getting ahead another attack would come, both spiritual and worldly.

I don't understand the hatred that a few have for these people...and it is hatred, but I have seen the effects it has had on their physical and mental health, and it's not been positive. Through it all they still tried to lift up businesses in town and events in town, something I find amazing because all I want to do is bring them all down and make them SEE and FEEL what they have done to these people that I love. So, we will continue on and fight in the legal arena this time, something that we have never been given the opportunity to do before. A chance to set the record straight.

As I've been outlining my case and thinking, thinking, thinking, it has struck me that most of the problems come (from both sides) about the past: Hurts and betrayals (real or imagined) from the past. I'm hoping that this time, following the process, we can start to look to the future and put the past in the back. After all, what is the future? The future is what we do now. NOW is what needs to be focused on. Maybe if we all started focusing on the now instead of the past (not lessons learned but living there) great things could occur. Just my thoughts this morning. Let's all start focusing on the NOW. The past is gone, the future is not assured, what we do now and how we treat people now is what matters.