Karen Pletz is accused of looting the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. Pletz presided over the osteopathic school for 14 years before being sacked last December. In a subsequent lawsuit, the university accuses Pletz of mishandling $2.3 million, including a $4,000 cash advance for a trip to a plastic surgeon.
Pletz denies wrongdoing. The gist of her argument is that the university never had a better, potentially cosmetically altered face.
Pletz moved in elite circles before the allegations against her became public. A writer at the Kansas City Business Journal recently asked Pletz about how she was getting along, and she responded with a portrait of a civic leader in exile.
In a written message, Pletz told Rob Roberts that her life remains "busy and fulfilled," if much less public. Pletz said she was volunteering, tending to her elderly parents and keeping in touch with friends at the university.
Pletz also acknowledged the dispute with her former employer and its damage to her reputation.
Obviously, it is very difficult to be constantly at the center of negative energy, and to know the anguish that others are experiencing.Pletz typed her update under the glow of warm candlelight. She described the joy of spending time with 1-year-old granddaughter and closed her note with an anecdote from a shopping trip to Cosentino's in Brookside. Caught in a sudden rain storm, Pletz lost control of her shopping cart, spraying her groceries into a gutter.
While I cannot take that anguish away, I can refuse to contribute to it. It isn't always easy, but the fact is that although all things may outwardly be taken from us, the most valuable of human freedoms remains: the opportunity to choose the way in which we respond.
As I bent to retrieve them, a handful of strangers rushed from every direction to help, and I was reminded that the simplest things, the smallest kind acts, are powerful in their ability to lift the spir[i]t.Roberts reports that Pletz enclosed pictures of her granddaughter with her note.
When we are not able to change the circumstances of our lives, we are still, and always, able to change ourselves. And I am grateful for that daily opportunity.
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