And once again, it didn't rain!

 Boy, yesterday the Cornhuskers really turned out! (The newsletter listed them as the Hukers. I hope they didn't see that. Proofread, people!)) I had fun telling a few that I was half-Nebraskan, since my mother grew up there. Those 8 pm games are wonderful for us. I wish that happened every week in football season. Sadly, the market booths were very thin in number and one person I spoke with even had a zero day. Yes I bought something from them! No one should be having a zero day at our market. 

We uplift each other. People said this to me several times throughout the day. That's who we are, working together for the success of all of us. That takes many forms and we used to be able to count on it. Even all the effort it takes to smile all day and thank people for coming has a rippling effect that benefits us all.

I heard from the organization and got the response I should have expected. What no one said is "we're so sorry you don't feel safe at market and you don't deserve this treatment...no one does." Yeah, I didn't expect that, so not surprising. We don't have a whistleblower policy and I haven't filed official complaints that would lead to any kind of formal process, since all of the letters I have written to the org about the situation have not been responded to, except by spin going out to the members to deny or lie about what my letters referred to. So I have not been encouraged about the processes available to me.

I've asked for ethical choices and haven't received any assurance that those were being considered. Of course I hope that behind the closed doors of the closed meetings and email threads (which are also closed meetings, and not public) ethical choices are at least being suggested. We do have some volunteers who are trying hard to do the right things. It hasn't been easy for them, or so I have observed.

I'm not sure yet what my response will be to the official emailed letter that came on a Friday night, ten days after the incident that prompted it. Just a suggestion in the future: members generally do not want to get problematic issues put on their minds on Friday nights. It's not respectful. 

I can read that the org is having to walk on a very thin line, evaluating legal advice and their few options. Probably any organization would be on that same line. It's not really their job to offer comfort or reassurance, though they could each do that privately I suppose. No one did, at least so far. I'm sure it was not easy to craft a letter to me about the complex issue. And I do not have an easily crafted response.

For the record, they didn't punish me, for being the target of bullying. They basically requested that I punish myself, and disregard my own ethics, and solve this gigantic problem myself without discussing it here. Be quiet, please. 

Well, we all know being quiet does not fix problems. But there are enough problems that I can speak about a few others while I process their request and examine my own options.

It seems that in America your free speech and human rights are only as deep as your pockets and ability to spend money to defend them. But you knew that already, I'm sure. That's one reason why we all work so hard to make a living, in case our rights are put in jeopardy. Elder abuse is real, disabled folks have to fight every damn day, and it's easy to see how hard it is for any marginalized group. I witnessed a shocking episode yesterday where someone leaving my booth in a wheelchair was so ignored by a bystander that they had to push their way through. They seemed possibly nonverbal but they knew their rights and observed that my booth was accessible, so they accessed it. But this person, who was oblivious, was obnoxious. It was disturbing. I try hard to make my booth accessible, and in an 8x8 space that is not easy. One reason the city wanted to remodel the Park Blocks was to improve accessibility and I learned that if they fixed one thing in that area, they would be required to fix all the things. That's why we aren't seeing partial fixes, though there was an effort to improve the sidewalks. But that's a long post for another time. I learned so much in that two years that we worked on the redesign. 

Yesterday I did work hard, and connected with my joy and all that, and it was a lovely fall day. A friend who used to work for market volunteered to set up the Kareng Fund booth as a nonprofit to amplify our work and collect donations. She did a fabulous job and we had fun discussing our lives, history and all of the things we love about the market. By the way, if any others of you who have the time and energy want to do that, we at the Kareng Fund would love the help. Most of us are actively selling and we can't run two booths. It makes a big difference when a human is there to speak about the fund and our important work. There will also be opportunities for that at the Holiday Market. My friend will be there on Oct. 31st also, so come say hi. You can also easily donate on our website, www.karengfund.org

So I got my HM invoice, and it shows I owe $25 which is an error, but I have been trying for an hour to access my portal to check on that, and despite the automatic systems, I can't get in. It doesn't show on my receipt issued Oct. 6th. It says for Oct. 7th, which you might remember was a Wednesday, so whatever it is, it's not correct. It happens to be the day I got the certified letters, though. Was I billed for that? That would be amusing. 

My invoice also shows I paid $80 less than I actually paid, as the corner tax does not show on the invoice. It's a redesigned invoice, so too bad they couldn't get that on it. I like records that are correct. 

It will be nice when they get the bugs worked out of the website. I was able to update my listing, so that part was working, and as promised, easy to use, with immediate results. I can now find the minutes that have been approved of both the board and Standards Committee, so that is useful.  

 It's also a big waste of staff time when we have to contact them in person for every little thing, and it feels like gatekeeping to me. Systems are designed so that not every detail needs to be handled one-on-one. Maybe that will happen in the future.