Final Thoughts on Willard Before Moving On

…not that mine particularly matter

Finding the off-ramp

In 2022, I decided to begin exploring potential careers that met with my interests for after I’m finished homeschooling my daughters. I settled on a couple of choices that were poles apart.

Investigative journalism seemed the less-scary of the two—the one much more aligned with my head than my heart—but if it held my interest for a year, I’d pursue a degree.

I began writing about Willard in July 2022, and it soon became obvious that pursuing a career in journalism was the wrong choice. But finding myself increasingly locked within and confounded by the City of Willard’s problems, I felt obligated to continue. Besides, I’d made a choice and a commitment and needed to stick by them—part of an ongoing effort to rid myself of the indecision and lack of persistence that had plagued so much of my earlier life.

My articles made some people happy and others angry. Of the latter, it seemed like many didn’t believe me. What I wrote caused a great deal of controversy, and I often wondered if I were doing Willard a service or the opposite. When July 2023 arrived, I gladly unhanded Willard’s ongoing struggles, told my head that our relationship was finished, and began following my heart.

But soon thereafter, in September 2023, everything I’d written about finally started coming to a head: The Board attempted to impeach the mayor. Not long after, the former-mayor-then-alderman resigned his aldermanship and pled guilty to embezzlement. Then, hours before the mayor was to be impeached, he resigned, too.

In the preceding weeks, many residents had unanswered questions. Some contacted me privately, asking if I would step back into the role that I’d abandoned. I was torn. I needed to move on, but what was happening in Willard worried me to the point where I couldn’t focus. Eventually, obligation and curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to temporarily jump back in.

I told my wife and kids that it wouldn’t be for long. But the days turned to weeks. A new mayor was appointed. Based on what I’d witnessed earlier, I felt his appointment was the least-best choice. The weeks turned to more weeks. I watched missteps turn to more missteps. But I needed to find an exit. I decided that if by the end of December the newly appointed mayor hadn’t registered to run in ‘24, then New Year’s Day I’d take the off-ramp.

Looking back at the highway

Prior to October 2023, Willard had long been stalled at a crossroads. A majority of its elected officials were at odds with one another—pulling in opposite directions and unable to focus on what the city should become. There was too much self-interest and too little service. A few members of a Board dead set against a mayor, and a mayor dead set against them—leaving Willard waiting alone in the middle of the road, wounded and bleeding.

The side that won was left to deal with the accumulating wounds. Newly appointed Mayor Sam Baird seemingly ignoring the role he played in causing them, while his predecessor who had assisted in the bloodletting—partner-opponent Mayor Sam Snider—narrowly avoided impeachment and announced he would run again in ‘24.

In some ways, the culture of Willard’s elected government has long been in a fallen state—with standard practices frequently ignored and laws too often unfollowed—and beware if you’re with the rabble who doesn’t like it. It’s a culture that has infected even some of the Board members elected in April ‘23. Yet I choose to believe they just don’t know the difference, that it’s simply what they’re familiar with, and what has been learned can be unlearned. But as to how and when it got that way, I have no idea.

Elected officials are just people. We’re all just people. Each of us is flawed. And that in and of itself is the biggest problem. One that necessitates that coercive government be regarded as a singularly dangerous animal that should always remain caged and untrusted even when overseen by “the best of the best” of friends.

The culture of Willard’s elected body needs to change, and that can only happen by making it observe better habits.

Driving on

In 2022, I chose to follow my head. I’m a curious person who enjoys asking and finding answers to questions that most don’t have time to ask, but I found little enjoyment in doing so. It’s difficult to find reward in pointing out the flaws and faults of others when you have so many of them yourself. It only leads to inner torment, and my efforts began to feel more like an ongoing illness than a choice for a career. Though I do believe someone needs to fill that role, it isn’t for me. I want to help people see and feel things that make them happy.

Even though my efforts never made a dime, I consider myself lucky for a couple of reasons. First, I made several new friends—including the “malcontented” moderators of City of Willard-Citizen Group. They’re two people I can’t say enough good things about, and I would run out of room if I tried. Second, I got to write about Willard—a place that more than any other holds so many of the keys that open up my fondest memories.

I’ll probably still write articles occasionally, just not those dealing with Willard’s government. And because I’m no longer focusing on that, I may have time to work on Willard behind the scenes. Or maybe not. We’ll see.

For too much of my life, I’ve let the fresh face of each new year become a blurry and unrecognizable image of what I originally set out to do. Yet, despite the sentiment of the final line of the poem below, I will do better in the one to come. And I hope that you do, too.

Happy New Year!

P.S. Here. I’ll even do the mayor a solid and share his latest greeting. Hopefully, he’ll get plenty of clicks.