Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Le Sigh

It is a very early bedtime for me, I have to be up at 4:45am so I can catch the bus downtown with enough time to walk to the PD's office. Eep!

Thank you so much to who responded to my questions. I will formulate a more proper response in due time, because so much of what they had to say was so wise, and helped me to feel even more that I am on the right path. Thank you again!!

And now for something . . . well, I don't know what to call it. But with the news of late it's been kindof bugging me.

The summer of 2005 I came across a very interesting blog via another blog. It wasn't as interesting as it was about to be, but I printed it out and read it over and basically had a few "epiphanies" or break-throughs (about the world and state of things) or whatever you want to call them. At this time, I knew little to nothing of the criminal legal world, of its procedure, or the peoples involved (I don't think I'd even started law school yet). So this post, in particular, really startled me, Little Miss Sheltered:

The term "sex offender" is an interesting choice of words. In the past the term "ex-convict" was used to describe offenders who were released from prison. The "ex" obviously implying that the mistake was in the past. But States have unanimously and officially dropped the term "ex-convict" and replaced it with "offender" - a present tense term that implies the person was, and still is, offensive.

The term "ex-convict" was suiting, since it did not indicate that a person was bad, or even guilty. It just meant that at some time in the past the person was convicted of a crime . . .


I really learned a lot from this blog, not the least of which was how "other" worlds exist outside of the middle-class happy-go-lucky experience. It was a tremedous eye-opener, regardless of whether the posts were fiction or non, the rants of a crazy fiend or of a person who was lucid and okay at one point. I've accepted that it's just going to be weird. And that I can't talk about it to many people, because many misunderstand where I'm coming from, they think I'm sympathizing and then everything gets even more weird. I mean, a couple of people even stopped talking to me completely because I wanted to discuss and explore some points made in this blog - rather than do the usual lambast, "burn n die sucka! If you aren't with us, you're with him!" Truthfully, I'm tired of feeling guilty about it, and I think I will just have to get used to this sort of ostracism.

This is because the blogger from whom I "learned" so much, the blogger who helped open my eyes to a whole other world that existed outside of Main Street, USA, was Joseph Duncan.

Knowledge doesn't always come packaged exactly how we would like it, and we don't always receive needed gifts from the most pure of people.

Such is life.

I'm going to bed. Good night!!!!

p.s. tomorrow I start interviewing inmates, yippeeeeee!!!

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