Monday Morning Quarterbacking on the Move to Salem

Basically, we are now packing books still. I know it seems we have so many, and soon we will be selling/donating some desks and other materials to local groups. We have a lot of stuff that we no longer need, and we do not want to store. This is really difficult because we had every intention of being in Central Illinois forever and that was where we would put our HQ and deep roots. Today we seem to be in Monday Morning Quarterback mode, which is hearing people say what they would have done, if they were in charge of the project over the last six to eight years. It's always difficult to listen to because they were not available to play when we needed it. After the fact advice is the least helpful form of advice in the whole world.

Probably the hardest part of this move is the uncertainty of it all. The largest energy to this feeling is a fear that somehow by moving to Salem that Don and WSI, will become more like Laurie Cabot and Christian Day, very larger than life figures, whose personal stories far eclipse the communities story around them. If we are lucky, we will have as much luck as they have, but Don and Witch Schoolers in general are certainly a different type of people. We tend to be workhorses, overachievers, concerned more about success and outreach than we are image and drama that can be created. Status is not a real element in community standards, except in the most superficial way, and does not last when good organization and great people act in a positive and unified way. That is the truth we work from.

The thing is '˜everyone' is trying to '˜warn us' about the difficulty of Salem itself. The struggles and politics, the name calling, the ego battles, the strutting and the battles in the press and the populace. The claim is we are going to get caught up in it, and I say not so much. We are much more likely to record it, and report it to the public. We will bring these engagements to the public notice, and report them, not get involved with them. We are just not that ego driven, and that is essential to our future success. We have our mission to keep us focused, just as it has for over a decade so far. Salem is a place, and the drama of Salem is a state of mind, and we are moving to the place, but not the state.

I think people really do not understand what we have already been through. We built in Chicago, and maintained roots, but we had to do the majority of the work in Central Illinois to afford building the entire school system. The slings and arrows we faced on very local level, as well as regional difficulties with churches as well as our own over the last 80 months has been monumental and historic. This has toughened us up, we are lean from this, and we are as dedicated as ever to our mission. Salem is a paradise, an honest and true paradise in comparison. Salem hostility is easier to face than the ugliness of true fundamentalism and hate of the Christian Warriors of Hoopeston, and the communities that surround the area. Even spite is better than unrelenting hostility, and the games played in Salem, are never quite in the same category as fearing a gun, a rock or a moltov cocktail in the middle of the night. In the last six years, I have faced that here, so no matter what anyone thinks about the difficulties we face in Salem, they will be much easier to deal with than where we are now.

So don't worry about us being in Salem, be grateful and give thanks we survived and made it to this point. With your help, we will survive this too.