Steve Smith
EDWARDS CO.—Not much ever comes out of little Edwards County unless it’s just scandalous enough to warrant a look-see.
And this is.
We learned about the allegations against Steve Smith, who operates the publicly-funded (grants) Hope Center in Albion, early Monday morning (03.19.12) through Albion sources, but couldn’t get it confirmed by public officials and had to let the story go. Then this morning we see this on the local radio station, WFIW in Fairfield:
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Notice anything interesting about that story? We did:
No names.
The Edwards County Clerk is Mary Beth Smith nee Saxe. We like Mary Beth. We think she’s very capable; a damn fine county clerk. We like her whole family, one of whom used to be a judge, back in the day. We have nothing against her….but WHY not run Steve Smith’s name??? Do you see why we get a little grouchy over local mainstream media coverage of this stuff? What is the excuse for this?
We’ve only been able to confirm just what WFIW has: that recently (our sources were unsure of the date), Smith was videoed taking trash bags from the courthouse. A LOT of trash bags. Probably to use for his grant-supported operation, through which he makes a living, and at which he’s made a living for the past many years. The matter has been turned over to David Williams, Wayne County’s state’s attorney, because of a perceived conflict with Edwards’ duly-elected prosecutor, Mike Valentine, who can’t be prosecuting anything against another elected official’s spouse. End of story, and hey…Williams, who is notorious for his do-nothing way of conducting business in Wayne, may just let it all go….even though there’s video-taped evidence, and enough there to warrant having brought it to the attention of authorities.
The Hope Center
What kills us about this whole thing is this: We’ve had several friends and even relatives go to the Hope Center for their services (providing necessities to “families in need”). They’ve all reported that Mr. Smith and his co-horts/workers/volunteers/whatever have, in the past, spent an inordinate amount of time bad-mouthing us. Over various things, we won’t go into too many specifics, but it largely has to do with the fact that they wished we’d “keep our noses out of Edwards County goings-on.” Like Michelle Wyatt, former ambulance director, being a pathological liar and almost running that taxpayer-supported entity into the ground in 2008. Or when Sheila Colbert, another grant-sucker who used to be the director of Project Success (another taxpayer-supported, intrusive group in Edwards), was using the group as her own personal bank that same year, and buying dresses on the PS credit card, but it wasn’t charged until after Brian Shinkle got out of office. Or like Shinkle himself, who in 2003, after I started my paper, attempted to squeeze local meth cooks into “confessing”—falsely—that I was helping them in their operations so he could hem me up on SOMETHING so I would stop producing Disclosure and in exchange, he’d make sure their charges would be reduced (didn’t work…which should tell you something)…and then when Shinkle kept running for judge but had serious marital problems including accusations of abuse, well, I was some kind of FIEND for writing about it….for writing about FACTS.
And this guy is the one on video allegedly stealing TRASH BAGS?
There’s no Schadenfreude here. I could care less if the county bigwigs are or are not charged with crimes other than it gives me more material to put onto my news budget and hope to God I can get it in the next issue without it being squoze out by another tornado or some other catastrophe. But what boggles me is this: WHY do these people bother to open their mouths against someone who is in a position of reporting FACTS…then they do something that’s instantaneously going to get them reported upon? The mentality here is just…idk. I don’t get it. If indeed this is true…and it’s recorded; that’s going to be hard to refute…what the hell was he thinking? That I was gonna think, “Oh, he probably NEEDED those trash bags because they’re going to send things to people in Harrisburg who are in need! It’s all good!!” No. I’m not gonna think that, Steve. Even if that’s the case. Because wrong is wrong. Things like this are NOT less wrong for some people than they are for others. They’d do the same to me, believe it.
And here’s the other problem I have with the bigger picture of this.
WHY is it that the government (state and federal granting agencies) finds one religious belief more favorable than others to the point that they will send money to that religion-adhering group, but not to the others?
Because that’s what’s happening here.
The Hope Center isn’t a pleasant little secular group of people with big hearts who got together and said “Let’s help these indigent little families and poor unwed pregnant mothers and try to keep them from having abortions/abuse their other kids in their stress of pregnancy/whatever.” They have a certain number of requisites that those “in need” have to meet before they can receive “assistance.” Among those requisites is the fact that the recipients need to sit through what amounts to a half-hour SERMON, provided by helpful staff, very broad-spectrum Christian-based and not proclaiming to be of one religious persuasion or another, but you can’t get your (pick one or more) food, diapers, formula, clothing, etc, until you do. Alright. But these people function on GRANTS. Grants come from TAXPAYER MONEY, yours and mine….you know, those taxes you pay in every week, month, quarterly, etc, then MAYBE get a refund on once a year, and if you don’t, guess where your money is going…? To places like The Hope Center. Promoting a religion that you may not believe in by ANY stretch of the imagination. Folks, that’s robbery, and that’s fraud. Because the government is not there to tell the people which religion they MUST, or conversely, MUST NOT, adhere to. The government needs to STAY OUT of anything that favors one flavor of God over another. But here, they are not. And it’s not just this place; there are a LOT of religion-based “groups” out there that get this favorable status, because someone knows how to write a grant…or they sneak the religion in there after they get the grant. Meaning they are hypocrites. And that’s detestable.
Anyway…we’ll be following this, whether it’s not pursued, or pursued wholeheartedly. If you know anything, feel free to post.