Parents tell your children the bad news: the truth doesn't set you free

Two years of watching and cringing as the management of a public healthcare district in a senior community, KVHD, lied and eventually the people who paid were innocent victims.

And after all this time of telling the truth as best I could get it, I realize it's made no difference at all. I seem to have set nothing free.

Isn't that funny? Ironic?

If I told you right now that I thought the community allowed this to go on and that makes them co-conspirators, would it be the truth? Would it set anyone free?

Really, I mean it, don't tell your children that honesty is a good policy, because its the most overlooked thing around. It lead to our elderly residents, loved ones, to be completely missused, overlooked and their dignity taken away.

How do you feel thinking about yourself, bedridden, no choices, can't get to the bathroom, no one to speak to, drugs not regular or always the same; it's a scary thought.

But this hospital lied when I tried to tell the community there was a problem at the expense of our elders just before the state was threatening to close the SNF down for unsafe conditions.

Others in the community were more willing to believe anything: gossip, urban legend, innuedo, anything but the rough and rugged truth.

I've told you all with evidence, what has been going on at this hospital. Laws have been repeatedly broken, and ethics stomped, scandalous behavior and dealings.

Again, nothing appears to be free. The board has some new members, but even after Pam Ott left, there were still other problems, like the CFO, Chet Beedle, whose number crunching gets stuck in my teeth.

I do realize the truth isn't a straight and narrow road, we all have things to lie about and reasons to lie. But the truth can help straighten a particularly crooked road.

So, those with children on your laps tonight, don't lie, tell them the truth, "the truth won't set you free. Sorry dear, but it's a bad world with a bunch of people afraid of the truth. You would most likely be more successful as a good liar."

And those with Christian bibles, especially, need to say it like it is, "the truth doesn't set things free. Oh yeah, we talk about it, preach about it, but don't take us too seriously, we won't actually do anything about it. "

Tell those children the bad news, crime pays, the truth takes a back seat to people's fears and insecurities...