Puzzle And Puzzle Some More!

Have you ever put a jigsaw puzzle together?  You have this beautiful picture on the box lid to go by but when you dump out the pieces it’s just a big mess of paper with bits and pieces of that picture. You then begin, usually, working on different sections then putting those section together until the entire picture is completed.

Now suppose that you were working one of those puzzles, not a small one rated “easy for ages under six” but one that is rated “hard for ages up to 100 years old”. It might take years to fit all those pieces together. 

For those who enjoy jigsaw puzzles let me give you a few pieces of a puzzle and you can put them together and make a completed picture which you can name anything you want. 

First piece of the puzzle is the question, why would a County Executive become involved in an election for a county commission seat to the extent of funneling taxpayer money in to the defense of a person who blatantly violated election laws? One view might be that since that executive may have been actively involved in picking that candidate they might want to cover their bets. That really doesn’t fully answer the question of why jeopardize your high paying  position and use county money to pay an attorney under the table to represent that lawbreaker? Well, maybe they didn’t think they would ever be exposed or if they were exposed no one would care enough to do anything about it? Whatever the reasoning, when you place the pieces on the table, you have one attorney paid double then having half that money be transferred to a different attorney, an attorney related to the most consistent “yesman” on the commission and one that had been given his job for “various reasons”.  

Second section of the puzzle is to figure out why that county executive might then go way overboard in cultivating friendship with that new commissioner, who then votes 100% with the executive? Then you add another piece of the puzzle and you get a picture of a county executive personally becoming involved with fraudulently paying that commissioner for  attending meetings they “did not” attend but why would someone jeopardize their position with such a small criminal act?  Again, perhaps it’s a matter of feeling untouchable by the law since they basically control the enforcers of the law. Maybe, again, they figured that no one would care enough to bother?

Now comes the third section of the puzzle, that commissioner is elected president of a group that controls a great number of votes in the county, enough to prevent the executive from losing their last campaign.  The picture develops of a massive quid pro quo, “something for something” activity. A payment for a payment, Use your position to help me and I’ll use my position to help you. 

So all the pieces fit together and the different sections match up to make a picture, but what is the picture of? It’s a picture of a medieval castle with a king and the royal court having a huge lavish feast. The tables are being served by people dressed in ragged clothes, look half starved and have sticks poked in their eyes. Outside the castle are a group of workers toiling in the fields. They also are dressed in ragged clothing, look half starved and have sticks poked in their eyes. Surrounding the workers are several individuals on horseback with whips that they use on the workers of the fields. Those on horseback are dressed somewhat better that those on the ground and only have one stick poked into one eye.   

Now below the picture are these words, “ The king and his court use the people for personal enrichment. The servers are workers are blinded to their reality other than to know their labors are barely keeping them alive. The riders are only half blind able to see their surroundings but unwilling to do anything for fear of being cast from their comfortable positions on horseback and made to be like the other workers. A circle of fear exist to keep everyone in their “proper” place blind to the reality that they can remove the sticks and restore their sight while gaining the self respect and will that would allow everyone advance and partake in the benefits of their labors.