Over the years I have assisted Jb with his efforts to share facts and encourage informed opinions – I have watched him struggle to share to the ugly truth that Jefferson County & especially Madison have fallen so far behind as to become one of the worst counties in Indiana & even the nation when it comes to many issues but especially those that impact our children.

Do you remember the lady who was stabbed to death by a husband who had a restraining order because local law enforcement, a judge and prosecutor failed to respond when she asked for help? Those who could have and should have responded didn't because- “he was a nice guy.” He killed her, then himself and left a teenage daughter. 1 in almost 8 women experience violence in the home. That means you probably know at least two or more men who beat or abuse his partner. Almost a third of our kids are physically abused.

Do you remember the veteran who froze to death in a shack in our beautiful downtown historic district? Do you remember that our local Veterans officer decided he didn't’t deserve help and later while being transported via ambulance to the VA - KDH ordered his return (then abandonment) at the hands of law enforcement that had crossed (illegally) into Kentucky to arrest him. At the time he was hallucinating and had become combative because the veterans service officer had made sure he didn’t have his medications for his schizophrenia. Did you know that almost 1 in 5 of us has a mental illness and that doesn't count substance abuse which is more than 1 in 4 of us.

Do you remember the names of teenagers who killed themselves? Can you recall how many young persons have committed suicide in Jefferson County just in the last 5 years ? Can you name a local resource for kids who feel depressed, confused or suicidal?

Did you know the newspaper was instructed by the then mayor not to print rapes and assaults – do you know the name of the 70+ year old woman who was raped a few years back? Do you even know how many of our daughters and nieces are seexxually abused each year or harassed while at school? Did you know that just over 1 in 5 of our kids are saying they have been seexxually abused? Do you know is most likely to abuse a child in this way?

Can you remember the stories about KDHs community health assessment and how every year mental health & addiction services topped the list but that KDH and community leaders refused to act – how many decades has it been since the public first requested these services and yet “stake holders”, leaders and officials failed to act? Do you know that even Vevay has a community health center but we don't. What do you know about the county's new Health and Human Relations Council? What the heck is the "treatment train"?

Do you know how many of our young LGTBQ kids are bullied or for that matter how many children have been approached by a teacher, SRO or other adult for seexxaul favors? do you know that more than 2/3 of all our children/adults have reported that they have experienced one or more adverse childhood experience. Almost 38% have experienced more than one childhood experience that left their "ugly scars".

Do you remember JB posting for nearly 6 years of the atrocities of local industry working to keep citizens and families at poverty level wages? Midcor, EDP or whatever they ended up calling themselves was finally exposed for “wage fixing”- they called it “workforce protection” but what they really did was keep out companies that would have paid higher wages and driven up salaries in our area. How many children were born into poverty with working parents that couldn’t afford the basics any working family deserves? How much money came from city and county government to support industries efforts to keep wages low? Which companies were involved in wage “fixing”- do you know? Did you know we rank 11th in Indiana for the number of children born and living in poverty. How can we be proud of a community that allows such immense suffering?

These are some of the posts/facts that JBs page shared – most of the information came to JB from inside sources. But, more often than not the truth was met with hostility from elected officials, stake holders and community leaders. But today I am happy to let you know- that at least some of those persons are now listening; today a few are at a conference that addresses some of the hardest truths about Jefferson County. They are addressing Childhood Adverse Experiences- which is a big way of saying things that hurt our kids and even as they grow continue to negatively affect if not destroy their life. Today – I have a little hope that we are no longer so afraid to face hard truths, that others are speaking up and discussing things....Tami

For years JB has faced severe political pressure & negative feedback including some pretty nasty name calling & even threats for posting the truth. I’ll give you Jb can dish it out but what most don’t know is that by far his most colorful admin comments have been in response to posts you never see. Some of the most atrocious responses have been because he has shared the ugly truth about our community especially when it came to our children, child abuse, incest and poverty numbers and how our lack of leadership and political response or even worse active yet detrimental actions have directly harmed our children.

I promised Jeff I would share, yet once again, in hopes of generating public awareness and perhaps help motivate change. Tami