Silence is Golden

...is golden

About 40 years ago I was music director of a pretty good sized youth orchestra.  The local city commission was about to give us about half the year's budget as we provided "a great and necessary service" to the community. Mostly it was because the concertmaster's father was on the commission and...well....

Just before our appropriation was to be announced, there was a floor fight led by some activists who were, and justifiably, up in arms over a service cut that affected only them..garbage from once a week to once every other, parks closing at 6pm, bus transit routes move...it was purely political and directly aimed at making life miserable for some who's life was miserable enough.

I was a liberal northerner in a southern border state and this didn't sit well with me so in my

subsequent "acceptance on behalf of....thankyouthankyouthankyou" speech, I let them have it about the targeted cutback thing. I told them I was and we were thankful for the money but in the grand scheme of things, if it meant several hundred dedicated kids had to live with a little less and some mother with two kids in tow didn't have to walk 10 blocks to get a bus, then this was money miss-directed. It caused quite a stir.  The poor community stood and applauded. That set off the city commission who were then about to withdraw the money to us. OMG. I overstepped. Boy, if I had just kept my trap shut.

I stroll down this memory lane as tomorrow I'm off to some volunteer (nearly) work I do and there was, over the weekend, a change of leadership....someone is out and there will be a hub-bub of a day of civil war. I'm going to help them with their message and marketing as that is what I'm good for.

I am also going to practice something I learned 40 years ago and that is  "silence is golden" and am going to keep my big mouth shut. No good will come out of any comment, yea or nay, and you'd think I'd have learned it over the years.

Fat chance.