What a Difference a Year Makes...Or Not?!?

This week has been mentally exhausting. I never realized how draining it is to deal with idiots. I've grown accustomed to the idiocy at city hall. Besides, they're courteous enough to discuss me during executive session. I rarely get the opportunity to address them face to face because they're silent when I'm present. Unfortunately, the opprobrious environment at the Shell station in Lumberton didn't afgord me the opportunity to renew my mind between posts. There was this constant need of the employess to defend the fact that their manager, Tommie Mosley, dropped the ball and allowed the shoplifting alderman, , Jay McGraw, to walk away from a crime unscathed. At one point, Mosley had her child and some random boy come to her defense. When I grew weary of constantly responding to the outrageous posts, one of which implied that I was stalking an employee...sounds familiar...I picked up the phone and called the Shell station to speak to the manager. Prior to my interaction with Tommie Mosley, I believed her hands were tied and she couldn't get Jay McGraw charged with shoplifting because of politics. However, any faith I had in Mosely quickly dissipated when she spoke to me like I was the thief. If Tommie Mosley had this much disregard for a paying customer, there's no way she would have allowed Jay McGraw to walk away from his crime without getting arrested unless she wanted him to. She and her supporters can blame the police, politics and upper management but I spoke with her and she wholeheartedly supprted the outrageous behavior of her employees and it is my belief that she willfully chose not to pursue charges against Jay McGraw.

I have always shopped at the Shell station. After I found out that the Chevron station owner in Lumberton refused to support the LHS cheerleaders, I decided I would not support a business that does not support this community. After my exchange with the rude Shell employees, I realized that my money was not wanted in Lumberton. I made a concerted effort to buy gas in Lumberton because I wanted to; despite higher gas prices. I shop at Sam's and gas is always cheaper there. Now let me go on record and say that all employess at the Shell station in Lumberton are not rude. I didn't interact with all employees, my interaction was with Tommie, Leslie and Briana. It is my hope that someone in management take the steps to improve this store. It is unacceptable for a manager to condone rude treatment of a paying customer. There was no apology, there was no effort to make it right; Tommie Mosley was just as rude, maybe even ruder, than her employees. What a great example she's setting. Sarcasm fully intended. In her defense, the same disregard shown towards customers is the same disregard shown towards the citizens at city hall. Unfortunately, I don't shop where I'm not respected. What happened to customer service? Why are employees allowed to roam blogs and social media sites wnile on the clock?

It's my hope that they learn from this situation. It's their choice to be rude to paying customers while circling their wagon to protect a stealing customer but it's also MY choice to spend my money elsewhere. I wasn't planning on discussing Shell or Jay McGraw today but when I logged onto Facebook I was shown a memory from one year ago. Well low and behold, it was about the incident where the deputy clerk, Melissa Willoughby-Nightengale, cussed (I intended to say cussed) out Jay McGraw. To this day, we don't know the full story but it ended with Melissa getting fired and Jay storming out the board room demanding the arrest of the deputy clerk because she allegedly threatened him. How ironic! A year ago, Jay McGraw wanted someone to lose their job (which she did) and get arrested for their actions. Hello pot! Meet kettle. Now if he was all about doing the right thing, he would resign. Let's face it, McGraw has avoided the humiliation of getting arrested and based on my conversation with Shell management, it's not likely he's going to get arrested. When Jay confessed to stealing the Zippo lighter, he said the experience was humblimg and embarrassing but there was never an apology. This should be my final post on this matter. Another interesting aspect is the fact that Jay McGraw is suppose to testify against me about my character. Another one of life's ironies. This should be my last post on this matter. I'm sure I'll be the only one filing an ethics complaint and by the next board meeting, all will be forgotten. I pray for Jay and it's my sincere hope that he's treated more fairly than he's treated others. There's are people still suffering because of his vote but he's allowed to walk away from his crime for the low price of $55. I guess being a law breaking elected official has its privileges. Enjoy your weekend and don't forget the Lumberton Panthers have a home game tonight.