Today, I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on how business and politics generally set us up only to let us down.

It all started when I was going to find a place to sit and enjoy my lunch at the Panera in Anderson. The first three open seats I found were absolutely filthy. I finally settled on the least dirty area of the restaurant. Emily also commented on how filthy the place was and asked, “Should we even eat here?”

Now, they could not have even used the “we are really slammed and haven’t gotten around to cleaning the dining room” excuse, as they were not busy at all. To me, it was simply a sign of incompetent management and a lazy workforce. When I go to Panera, I have certain expectations. I generally believe it should be cleaner than Dill Street or the Chug. That simply wasn’t the case today. Instead, because of our bad experience with the cleanliness of this establishment (which equals bad service in my book) we will not return to the Anderson Panera.

All of this reminded me of the false hope that had been instilled in my mind by some of our local politicians. We have been going around in circles with the Delaware County Auditor and Treasurer. In January, we met with them…they stayed late…they helped us iron out some very important details. We thought things had been taken care of. In the meeting we had, the Auditor and Treasure ensured us that the latest our issue would be resolved was February 19th. When I left the meeting, I had a great sense of hope that maybe there are some honest and trustworthy politicians in Delaware County. But, reality has set in.

As of Friday, they have not resolved the issue. It’s an issue that could easily be resolved…which is why they had told us it would be easily taken care of in February. In our meeting, they basically told us what we wanted to hear…the things that would get us off their backs (which in turn would get two State Representatives and one US Senator off their backs). However, much like the rhetoric that is spilled out during campaign season, their promises were nothing more than empty statements that equal dirty politics as usual. The biggest issue to me is that the government continually refuses to make any kind of admission to making an error. They blame everyone else…they pass the buck, claim that, they too are victims…and simply don’t follow through with their promises.

To me, if their hands truly were tied and they couldn’t resolve the issue in a timely manner, than that is what they should have told us. Instead, they lied to us. It is sadly unfortunate that political figures are not trustworthy. I wanted to trust them…I wanted to believe them. But, they made me look like a fool. So, I guess that’s shame on me for trusting someone that was “working on my behalf.

It’s no wonder why people and businesses are leaving Muncie and Delaware County. So much for a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.”