Guilty by Association

One of the unexpected developments as we close down our business is that a few of the vendors with whom we have had good relations with for nearly eight years--and by good relations I do mean that we spent a lot of money with them and always paid our bill in full and on time--are treating us with suspicion.

They have made it very difficult to order from them in the past weeks, which is frustrating because we've been working on some large school orders that are independent of our physical closing date.

Now I totally understand that they want to limit their liability just in case we disappear off the face of earth, but we wouldn't and have never given them any cause to think that we would. They are suspicious of us because they have been burned by other businesses that have closed.

Guilty by association.

It makes me feel agitated and powerless and defensive. Going through this has given me just the tiniest taste of what it must be like to live with it all of the time, and it isn't pretty. I can only begin to imagine what it must be like to be, for example, an Hispanic in the U.S. with all of our immigration issues or a faithful Muslim in so many parts of the world. Wow.