Article May 26, 1997 Issue

Cynicism could have shut the program down

James Scott Rosebush

At one time I was involved in an effort to create a community-based program to benefit homebound senior citizens who could not cook their own meals. We thought the best way to staff the program would be with individuals and volunteers from the community. With the initial regulatory hurdles met, we hired our first employee.

Imagine how devastated I was to learn after two weeks of operation that this employee was engaged in unethical and fraudulent activity. This threatened to shut down the whole program, depriving people who had been counting on a hot meal. It seemed like a classic case of a good idea being defeated by the very community it would serve. To be cynical about what happened would have been easy.

But I was praying for that program. I quickly realized I couldn't hold both a prayerful attitude and a cynical one at the same time. This program was meeting a critical need, and it deserved to succeed!

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Who—me, cynical?
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