Sometimes a gift should just be accepted - gratefully

Have you ever received a present from someone whom you forgot to include on your gift list?

Embarrassing, right? 

Now imagine that the present you received was very expensive – in fact, the most valuable thing that the person could have given to you. Imagine that the present was intended to commemorate a great sacrifice by many heroic people. 

Would you take the present thankfully and show your appreciation? 

Or would you hand the present back to the person and tell them that you will accept it only if they promise to fill out a bunch of paperwork and cover the costs of an insurance policy on the present?

I know what you are thinking: Nobody would require a gift-giver to jump through a bunch of hoops to show their generosity. That would be extremely rude. It sounds ridiculous. 

But that’s exactly what Libby’s elected officials have done to a group of local military veterans who are trying desperately to donate a war memorial to the city.

The veterans have raised tens of thousands of dollars from private individuals to pay for the design and construction of a six-foot-tall monument honoring the military service of the men and women in this community. 

The city was not asked to pay a dime. 

The veterans picked out a prime location at Riverfront Park to place the monument so it could be seen by anyone driving along Highway 37. 

The city officials decided they did not want the memorial to be the centerpiece of the park and told the veterans to pick a different spot. 

The veterans, disappointed with the city’s reaction, held their tongues and accepted the city’s decision. They later picked a less-attractive spot in Riverfront Park that the city had pre-approved. 

At that point, it seemed as though the problems had been rectified: City officials got what they wanted, and the veterans were flexible enough to work within the city’s parameters. 

But that’s when these city officials – Mayor Doug Roll and the City Council – decided to up the ante by requiring the veterans to pay for an engineering study, register as a nonprofit organization with the Montana Secretary of State’s Office and commit to paying hundreds of dollars each year for liability insurance on the monument. 

The veterans again acted honorably and decided to satisfy the city’s demands. They found an engineer to do the planning at no cost, filled out the necessary paperwork and began soliciting cost estimates from insurance providers. They also committed to paying all costs associated with the upkeep of the monument. 

Essentially, the city kept coming up with new rules that the veterans would need to follow – rules that for some reason didn’t apply to a different group that built a memorial at the same park several years ago. And the veterans repeatedly bent over backward to work within those rules because they didn’t want strife to be the legacy of their gift to the community.

The veterans certainly could have chosen a different strategy. If they had played political hardball from the beginning, public pressure would have mounted heavily against the city officials who were making things difficult. In the end, the veterans probably would have gotten what they wanted.

Instead, the veterans once again demonstrated sacrifice above selfishness. And the city once again proved that bureaucracy, no matter how small or local, is adept at punishing those who seek to do good deeds.

The community seems willing to accept the veterans’ gift with no strings attached. But the people who speak for our community have unwrapped the gift, peered at it ungratefully and demanded more. 

Maybe it’s time to tell these city officials that their ungraciousness in this matter reflects poorly on the people they represent. Or maybe it’s time to take them off the gift list entirely.

(Matt Bunk is publisher of The Western News. His column appears weekly.)