This is my last letter to you where I leave the door open.

 

I want you to understand something about accountability before it is no longer yours to choose.

 

The director who holds her institution accountable for what it did to an unpaid volunteer on public land is the director she has always believed herself to be. That person deserves all the accolades she receives. That person has a legacy
worth preserving.

 

The person whose entire professional identity is built around doing better than this — who says this was wrong — is finally living that identity instead of pretending to. That person sleeps better at night. That person is in there. I’ve
seen her.

 

The manager who acknowledges that the job required better of him is someone who finally deserves the uniform he wears. That person is possible. I met him once.

 

The person who elicited trust and treated it with absolute disregard — who names that directly — is demonstrating the only quality that makes someone trustworthy. And he knows I’m right.

 

Accountability doesn't collapse who you are.

 

It's the only path back to it.

 

I came to serve Oregon State Parks in good faith. I showed up whole. I documented what I saw because that is what I do with reality. That is not a pattern of concerning conduct. That is not a basis for permanent expulsion. That is just
who I am.

 

You cannot build a false story around that person and expect it to hold.

By now you know this. 

 

Robert Samuel White

Former Oregon State Parks Volunteer

oprdvolunteerabuse.org