Yes, It's All True

Yes.
I am Bea Jones.
I have lived in Hardeeville for 23 years. Raised my kids here, bought a house here, paid taxes here. But, more...
I worked EMS for 7 years; from the days when Mayor Thornton Butler threatened to get his tow truck and drag an ambulance down to Hardeeville for us to have our own, thru the days when we got paid $10 a 12-hour day, $10 a call, to the days when we actually had a salary and benefits. I worked on the Lowcountry Weekly under Grayson Smith, the Hardeeville Times under Ridgeland ownership, and the Carolina Morning News as a weekly local columnist. In the meantime, I worked many different jobs and volunteered for many different organizations - First Steps, Rotary, the Hardeeville Fire Department. I did it all to make your lives better, and because it was fun, and a challenge, and I like a challenge.

But I always swore that when Hardeeville got another stoplight, I was out of here. I have talked for years about moving - to Idaho, where my brother lives, to New Mexico, where I used to live, even to Las Vegas to be close to my oldest son.
You see, ever since I was 14, I wanted to own my own farm. I raised chickens here in Hardeeville til they zoned me out of them. I grew and still grow my own vegies and herbs in my backyard, and had my own greenhouse. No government in Hardeeville liked my blackberry bushes, cherry bushes, or peach trees in my front yard - and I didn't give a damn. I love horses, and chickens, yes, and cows too. I've made my own butter and cheese and yogurt. I've done everything I could to be a farm girl in the middle of a town. And I have looked forward to the time when Mike and I could retire and have the farm we wanted. Six years ago Rodney Cannon asked me to run for Council to help bring the dream we had shared for over 15 years to reality. And I agreed. I thought we had plenty of time, and I knew that what Rodney and I were doing was the right thing to do.

Well, three years ago, Mike was disabled. We had a hard three years - and the only person who ever even tried to help us or gave a damn was Rodney Cannon - who was going thru his own life upheaval. Then last year I was diagnosed with lupus. I started looking on the Internet for a farm that Mike and I could work - and afford. Well, I found it. On May 15th, 2008, we were approved to buy 60 acres and an old, 1910 farmhouse in a tiny town in Nebraska that is losing population, where people are warm and funny and friendly and open and honest, and hardworking. Lots of deer, wild turkeys that roost in the farm's trees, antelope, coyotes, mountain lions and wildcats and prairie dogs, and even elk wander across the property. We have barns, and an old dairy to run, and lots of room to do what we want. It is exactly what I have always wanted, exactly what I have always dreamed of, and exactly where I planned to be in my life - I am just going 10 years sooner than I expected. Most importantly - no interstate for 100 miles, no noise, no pounding growth that demands answers - and no people who think that I owe them a thing, nevermind what my life is like, what my dreams are, or what I want.

I don't ask for your sympathy, your support, your understanding, or your concern. Bluntly, when I was fighting in tandem with Rodney all those years - he in politics, me in the papers - to make this area better, from better medical care to better political representation, I didn't ask you to consider my children or my husband or my life. And - few of you did, any more than you considered Rodney's. And I still didn't care, because I have always believed in "Do What is Right, Let the Consequence Follow". We strove to do what was right, to fulfill our commitments to you. Well, now those commitments are over. You decided that you don't want everything that he and I have fought so hard to bring you - local, statewide, and national fame for being the best, the most innovative, the least expensive, and the most businesslike government we could provide you. Now I will seek out my own dreams and goals and life. I owe you nothing, and you owe me nothing. I only regret leaving the few staunch, honest, and decent friends I have made here - the True Christians, not the ones who gossip in their churches, their filthy cowardly lying emails, their self-righteous little cliques, behind their hands and anonymous screens and phone calls - but I do not regret for one minute any single thing I have done here, nor do I regret leaving. I look forward to living my dream at last. If that offends anyone - well, too bad. You'll just have to be offended.

I. Have. A. Life.