Hello again.
I'd like to say a few words about civil disobedience. The most proud I have ever been in my entire life was telling people that I worked for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Department. I'm only 34, I only worked at the jail for 63 and a half months. I have sworn an oath to my country when I enlisted in the national guard, and an oath to the people of Maine and the County of Cumberland when I started working as a 'corrections' officer. In the five years that I spent there I broke up many fights, I was nominated for officer of the month for breaking one up while working alone in a housing unit, I have held the feet of someone swinging from the second floor railing and pulled the rope around another person's throat out so A Sargent could cut it, I've walked on towels that covered so much blood we would have slipped if we hadn't put them down, I've pulled someone's feet to get them out of the food chute they were stuck in and then wrestled them when they tried to run away. I learned to work the control room, and did it well, I worked maximum security, and was signed off in the booking room even though I only worked there on overtime. I still have some contact with a lot of my former co-workers.
Three years after my divorce and after losing several desperate lawyerless appeals and not being able to pay the 435.00 per week that I was court ordered to pay in Child and Spousal support, (250 child support 185 Spousal/alimony I paid the Child support off the top of every weekly paycheck, and provided dental insurance for the children even though I wasn't court ordered to because I wanted them to have it, this was at an added cost of 17.00 per week) A Judge from the Springvale, Maine District court house found me guilty of Civil Contempt and issued a warrant for my arrest and a 30 day sentence in the York County Jail. I was working in the Master Control room in the Cumberland County Jail when I found out about it, At the time I was actually responsible for opening and closing all the facility doors when the phone call came in.
I spent February 25th through March 26th 2011 in the York County Jail in their classification unit. I refused protective custody and interacted, ate with, and watched TV with the regular inmates every day. Civil Contempt is a class E misdemeanor. However unlike most other crimes, you don't receive any mandatory good time on civil contempt. If I had assaulted someone I would have gotten five days off during my 30 day stay. If I had stolen from Walmart I would've gotten 7 days off during my 30 days. If I had become a 'trustee' and worked around the jail, I would have gotten an EXTRA 10 on top of that. I could have been out in as few as 13 days!! However I went to jail for being poor. I did the full 30. I requested in writing a jury trial prior to conviction, I did not get one, I was not represented by a lawyer. Now I am almost unemployable, and can't even re-enlist. The Cumberland County Sheriff's department fired me on March 7th 2011, for being absent without adequate leave time.
Where will I go from here? Am I willing to accept defeat? Of course not...as for what direction I'm going to choose...that remains to be seen. One thing I can say with absolute certainty. In my darkest hours none of the places I swore my allegiance to were there. I now owe allegiance only to those I trust completely. I now serve one person and and one person only. I am not without faculties, I am not without resources, skills, and physical ability. While I might have some pretty substantial handicaps I can say with certainty that I learn faster than most of the nation. I can say with certainty that I am in better shape than ninety percent of America. I have no problem saying that I have lived in some tough situations, I have faced substantial adversity, and that I have a mixture of training along with a breadth of knowledge that will grow dramatically over the next few months. What I choose to use this on depends largely on what I find out in the next few months. Please stay tuned and learn with me. I promise nothing, but will try to make it interesting and entertaining.
Nothing Special
Hello all!
This part of the Whateverlution...is all about me. Call it an ongoing ever changing 'about the author' Dane Cook once said...A suicide note written by someone who is not suicidal is called an autobiography.
So what gives me the ability to speak out about the world? Why should anyone listen when I tell them about fitness, gaming, intellectual pursuits, the sociological ramifications of current world politics, and gummy worms?
Well that's something you're going to have to learn as you go. However if you want credentials, allow me to fill in a bit of my resume.
At 34 I have collected paychecks from over 30 different employers. I have built million dollar homes, I have driven a front end loader through mountains of trash, I've been to basic training and enjoyed some peace time national guard time, I've worked for restaurants, retail chains, and convenient stores and been a substitute teacher. However I have also spent over five years as a guard at a county jail AND 30 days as an inmate at a different county jail. (For CIVIL CONTEMPT-I couldn't afford to pay ALIMONY, and was subsequently put in jail, which caused me to lose my job with the Sheriff's Department)
My education involves an Associates degree, and 90 credits towards a BS in Mental Health and Human services, as well as a healthy interest in reference literature. School and I have never gotten along, I find it too rigid and constraining, I can learn more on my own.
The only things I know for sure...I've been pretty good at just about every job I've ever had. The closest to a job I actually liked was as a guard. I'm a people watcher and psychological dynamics fascinate me, plus I'm an adrenaline junkie and at the time thrived amidst the crazy fights, hangings, cut-ups etc etc. That being said I now have to pursue a different career, and this blog circle is part of it. It's a social and personal experiment. I know that everywhere I've gone, people tend to remember me. However despite being a quick learner, and intelligent and well-spoken, something seems to be holding me back. So I am now hoping to work from that into something here, maybe a job, maybe a career, maybe pocket money, time will tell.
This part of the Whateverlution...is all about me. Call it an ongoing ever changing 'about the author' Dane Cook once said...A suicide note written by someone who is not suicidal is called an autobiography.
So what gives me the ability to speak out about the world? Why should anyone listen when I tell them about fitness, gaming, intellectual pursuits, the sociological ramifications of current world politics, and gummy worms?
Well that's something you're going to have to learn as you go. However if you want credentials, allow me to fill in a bit of my resume.
At 34 I have collected paychecks from over 30 different employers. I have built million dollar homes, I have driven a front end loader through mountains of trash, I've been to basic training and enjoyed some peace time national guard time, I've worked for restaurants, retail chains, and convenient stores and been a substitute teacher. However I have also spent over five years as a guard at a county jail AND 30 days as an inmate at a different county jail. (For CIVIL CONTEMPT-I couldn't afford to pay ALIMONY, and was subsequently put in jail, which caused me to lose my job with the Sheriff's Department)
My education involves an Associates degree, and 90 credits towards a BS in Mental Health and Human services, as well as a healthy interest in reference literature. School and I have never gotten along, I find it too rigid and constraining, I can learn more on my own.
The only things I know for sure...I've been pretty good at just about every job I've ever had. The closest to a job I actually liked was as a guard. I'm a people watcher and psychological dynamics fascinate me, plus I'm an adrenaline junkie and at the time thrived amidst the crazy fights, hangings, cut-ups etc etc. That being said I now have to pursue a different career, and this blog circle is part of it. It's a social and personal experiment. I know that everywhere I've gone, people tend to remember me. However despite being a quick learner, and intelligent and well-spoken, something seems to be holding me back. So I am now hoping to work from that into something here, maybe a job, maybe a career, maybe pocket money, time will tell.
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