PLAINFIELD, IN -- Plainfield Parks & Recreation's Plainfield Public Tree Council (PPTC) cut down the “Equal Opportunity” tree in Friendship Gardens early last week. The town-sanctioned tree had grown and prospered since planted in the soil of the budding west side community fifteen years ago.Friendship Gardens Park was created to give the people of Plainfield a place to gather strength from and to rally around. The park's planners intended for Friendship Gardens to showcase Plainfield as a "Community of Values." The park still features the values of Integrity, Truth, Justice, and Environmental Responsibility. But Equal Opportunity was severely lacking in care and Equal Opportunity was deemed dead and declining in Friendship Gardens.
Residents nearest to Equal Opportunity believe it was healthy and vibrant, cut down by the very people who planted it in the community.
“Equal Opportunity provided protection on my way to a better life,” said Joshua Goldburger, a local who ran on the path where Equal Opportunity once stood. “The glare left from Equal Opportunity's void will forever blind my pathway, creating an uncertain future in which I will now have to walk. I can only just see what’s directly in front of me. It’s a harsh reality to live in.”
Others believe it was time for “Equal Opportunity” to go.
Jessica Nelson, a PPTC employee, was designated to the grounds from which Equal Opportunity first sprouted.
“Equal Opportunity became a serious nuisance for most of us who worked for the Town of Plainfield. These townspeople wanted their values represented by foliage, but who’s going to take care of those values? I haven’t seen anyone out here watering Equal Opportunity. Oh, I’ve seen them milking it, but no, I’ve never seen them water it. I always felt like working with Equal Opportunity was like working under this large dark mass that could fall on me at any point, wipe me from the face of the Earth, and replace me with someone else. I just couldn’t support its cause any longer, which was to fall on me." Nelson continued, “We were actually going to burn Equal Opportunity to the ground just to show them we weren't fucking around, but then Hendricks County adopted a no open burn ban last week.”
The PPTC does not plan to stop eliminating the hopes and values of the small town of Plainfield however. “We’re not above taking away these other so called Values. I don't give a shit about Justice,” said a suddenly determined Nelson, through snarled teeth. “As a matter of fact we might even replace them with Pestilence, War, Famine and Death.”
Story by Hate Nurst
