The choice between truth and repose

I love the convenience of email.  It is immediate and direct.  There is no waiting for someone to answer the phone or wondering if voice messages have been heard.
Even better, with my gmail I can search the archives by subject or sender.
Best of all of course is that my gmail is all up in the cloud .. keeping it safe and snug and impervious to any hard drive woes.
This morning, I noticed that there is (finally) a 'new' provincial board meeting available online on the society's site.   It has been quite some time since the last one was posted and I was beginning to wonder all that newfound transparency was starting to circle the drain.
In the midst of all the interesting tidbits ... such as the need to stop thinking of the branches as independent units ... there is a very interesting bit in the governance section!   A request has been made by the ED to form a committee to address "lessons learned from the Cape Breton matter"
Well then!    When I was a young private at my first unit, workplace wisdom wasn't hampered by the need to be politically correct.   I have never forgotten a rude little story that my shift supervisor told me:
Once upon a time there was a little bird who flew through an ice storm so severe that his wings froze and he fell to the earth, landing in a barnyard.  As he was going through his last throes, a cow came by an dropped a patty on the little bird ... warming it up and bringing it back to life.    When the bird started chirping, a cat came by ... tenderly washed the little bird off .. and ate him.
The moral of the story of course is that not everyone who sh**s on you is your enemy ... and not everyone who seems to be helping you is your friend.
There is a lesson in there for the society.    If I was to rummage through my gmail archives, I could readily find numerous examples of times when I have been "there, there'd" and "dear, dear'd".  Am I the only one who has sent in complaints on a variety of subjects?  Who has been handed a pat, glib line?  Of course not!
Prior to the events leading to the "Cape Breton matter", the society received numerous complaints about the Cape Breton Branch!   If they were to search their own archives there would be so many that it would be needful to sort them by subject.  From the gas chamber ... to puppies crawling of garbage cans .. to dogs who died within days of being adopted  ... to substandard animal care ... and beyond.
Straight, sweet and simple .. there were no shortage of complaints.  If the society is sincere in its desire to avoid future 'matters',  recognition that not every complainant is an 'enemy' would be a wonderful first step.
It may be easier to listen to the ones who wash your face.  It may seem to be cleaner at the time.
But at the end of the day, your real friends are the ones who tell it like it is.
God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please - you can never have both.  Ralph Waldo Emerson