Today I parked my car outside of Dixon and walked to class. I usually park in the lot beside the baseball stadium, but it was full this morning. Anyway, as I returned to my car at about 11:30 after class, just outside of Dixon, a group of 5-6 high school kids came up to me. One had a notebook in her hand, another a small book in his.
"Hi, how are you? Could we have a moment of your time? We'd like to read something for you real quickly."
I assume it's about an environmental issue or it's a religious pitch. One or the other. "Sure," I say, "I don't normally take the bait, but you guys seem harmless." They sort of remind me of some of my former high school students. I'm feeling amiable.
"You know cool people when you see them, right?" They laugh. They start talking fast, several at once. "We'd like to read you a passage from the Bible. We're just spreading a good word. We'd like to buy you lunch. Thanks for talking to us! Here, just let me find the page..."
I laugh, "okay, make it good--you're working on an atheist, gonna take some magic."
They seem so happy. One guy reads me a passage from the New Testament, one short sentence about the light of the lord that I can't exactly remember. I'm distracted by all the faces staring at me and a Civic speeding by behind them. Suddenly a girl next to the reader holds out five dollars and puts it in my hand.
"We'd like to buy you lunch for listening today. Thank you so much for hearing the word of the lord. God bless."
I'm a little baffled, still in a good mood but not ready to respond to all of this. "Oh, really, I don't want your money, it's okay, thanks." I try to give it back to her. "You guys can put this to better use..."
"No, please, keep it. Thanks so much. Have a great day! God bless." They walk away.
I put the five ones in my cup holder and they're still there. I've been trying to think about how I should have responded. Should I have put the money down in front of them and politely explained that buying listeners is not, in my opinion, an ethical way to practice one's religion? What would I have said about this situation to my students when I taught high school English? What was my role in this as one participant in a rhetorical situation, and how could I have slowed everything down to make them think about their actions without being offensive? Maybe I'm over-analyzing this and I should use the cash for a couple PBRs, or pass it on to a transient outside Safeway.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
It's almost August. August!
I was reminded recently that I am a horrible blogger. I do not object.
Lately I have been very busy with Spanish/battling dragons, but this is a relaxing Friday night and I'm about to go outside again. I recently added lights to the backyard and it's well-equipped for grilling, so I may take some salmon out of the freezer tonight. Our small yard is home to a pretty comfy-though-dangerous hammock, a gas grill that burned some hair off my left arm last week, a plastic table with an umbrella, a sprinkler with timer set for 6 a.m., lawnmower, weed-eater, satellite dish, several styles of lawn chairs, and my bicycle. It's a steel-frame Schwinn that is too heavy to ride up a mountain and too slow to really make good time with around town. But, tonight I took it out for the first time in quite a while, and I've just attached my new headlight and taillight. I'd like to use it more regularly. I've managed to spend a few hours at the gym each week in July.
I miss playing softball, and I haven't put much time toward my thesis this summer. Spanish is going fine; I'm not retaining a lot at this point, but I'm doing well in the class. We're about to finish 112, and 113 starts on Wednesday for 3 weeks. After that I hope to work on my thesis every day until I begin preparing to teach WR 121 in mid-September.
A note about "The Dark Knight": very good, but it falls short of excellent, in my opinion. The cheesy dialogue may hold true to the genre (I'm not an expert), but some of Batman's lines could have been much stronger. Heath Ledger is fantastic, even better than I expected as the Joker. The film is about 30 minutes too long, and my sense of it is that the directors and editors were a little too caught up in the magnificence of their product. Cutting maybe 20 minutes of the 2.5-hour film could have made it stronger. Ledger makes such a wicked Joker that I wanted to see the film bumped to an R rating so that the truly sinister nature of this character could play out on screen. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the movie and it met my expectations. Ledger deserves a big nomination...
Tomorrow I am helping a friend shoot a short film for a class project. I'm hoping I don't look nervous on screen. Drama was never my thing, but I think I can ignore the camera and take on this character in the way my friend envisions. It'll be a good time. Maybe I'll post the final product here. Maybe not!
Lately I have been very busy with Spanish/battling dragons, but this is a relaxing Friday night and I'm about to go outside again. I recently added lights to the backyard and it's well-equipped for grilling, so I may take some salmon out of the freezer tonight. Our small yard is home to a pretty comfy-though-dangerous hammock, a gas grill that burned some hair off my left arm last week, a plastic table with an umbrella, a sprinkler with timer set for 6 a.m., lawnmower, weed-eater, satellite dish, several styles of lawn chairs, and my bicycle. It's a steel-frame Schwinn that is too heavy to ride up a mountain and too slow to really make good time with around town. But, tonight I took it out for the first time in quite a while, and I've just attached my new headlight and taillight. I'd like to use it more regularly. I've managed to spend a few hours at the gym each week in July.
I miss playing softball, and I haven't put much time toward my thesis this summer. Spanish is going fine; I'm not retaining a lot at this point, but I'm doing well in the class. We're about to finish 112, and 113 starts on Wednesday for 3 weeks. After that I hope to work on my thesis every day until I begin preparing to teach WR 121 in mid-September.
A note about "The Dark Knight": very good, but it falls short of excellent, in my opinion. The cheesy dialogue may hold true to the genre (I'm not an expert), but some of Batman's lines could have been much stronger. Heath Ledger is fantastic, even better than I expected as the Joker. The film is about 30 minutes too long, and my sense of it is that the directors and editors were a little too caught up in the magnificence of their product. Cutting maybe 20 minutes of the 2.5-hour film could have made it stronger. Ledger makes such a wicked Joker that I wanted to see the film bumped to an R rating so that the truly sinister nature of this character could play out on screen. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the movie and it met my expectations. Ledger deserves a big nomination...
Tomorrow I am helping a friend shoot a short film for a class project. I'm hoping I don't look nervous on screen. Drama was never my thing, but I think I can ignore the camera and take on this character in the way my friend envisions. It'll be a good time. Maybe I'll post the final product here. Maybe not!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Vice President selections
A quick prediction:
McCain: Bill Frist.
Obama: Wesley Clark.
These are the people I think they'll select, and not necessarily the people I'd like to see selected.
Your thoughts, predictions?
McCain: Bill Frist.
Obama: Wesley Clark.
These are the people I think they'll select, and not necessarily the people I'd like to see selected.
Your thoughts, predictions?
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Where dirty cops go when they're outed
Ex Corvallis officer helps beat DUII raps
By Bennett Hall
Corvallis Gazette-Times
After a distinguished career of busting drunk drivers for the Corvallis Police Department, Dave Cox has a new job: helping motorists accused of driving under the influence beat the rap in court.
In six years as a Corvallis patrol officer, Cox made more than 1,000 impaired-driving arrests, far more than anyone else on the force, and won a statewide award for his prolific enforcement efforts. But he turned in his badge Nov. 1 after an internal investigation found he had wrongfully arrested a sober man for DUII.
Now Cox has resurfaced in Boise, Idaho, as a private investigator and the proprietor of Fact Finder Investigations Inc., an agency that specializes in the defense of DUII cases.
Reached by telephone last week, Cox declined to comment on his new career path. But the Fact Finders Web site touts his extensive law enforcement training in catching drunk and drug-impaired motorists and offers to put that expertise to work for individuals facing charges of driving under the influence.
Cox charges $255 for a DUII defense case review or $85 an hour for trial prep. He also offers to testify as an expert witness or re-create the events on the day of the arrest, right down to performing field sobriety tests and breath exams on the defendant — both drunk and sober (price quotes available on request).
In addition, Cox has developed a seminar for lawyers on DUII defense. Highlights include:
• Driving cues and signs of intoxication that police are looking for.
• Tricks and tactics police use in DUII cases.
• How to attack the results of a breath test; and
• How to get an officer to tell the jury your client’s side of the story.
According to the Web site, the class is approved for continuing legal education credit in several states. The going rate: $299 a person.
Cox apparently has even written a book on the subject.
Titled “How to Fight a DUI Arrest,” the book is promoted as a must-read for drunk-driving defendants.
“Dave Cox wrote How to Fight a DUI Arrest to assist those who have been wrongfully arrested for DUI,” the online sales pitch says. “More innocent people are arrested for DUI than for any other crime. In fact, as many as 300,000 innocent people are arrested for DUI every year. And millions of other people are stopped by the police and are worried that they, too, may get arrested even when they are not intoxicated.”
The volume is available in electronic form at a cost of $29.99 — or, at least, it was available. The Gazette-Times attempted to order a copy this week but was unsuccessful, and references to the book were subsequently removed from the Web site.
Local law enforcement officials said they were unaware of Cox’s new business venture but not necessarily surprised.
“It’s not uncommon for folks who once worked in law enforcement, once that’s not an option for them, to go into some other sort of investigative work,” said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson. “There’s nothing improper about that.”
Though Cox now lives in Idaho, he could find himself back in Oregon before too long. He is a co-defendant in two civil lawsuits against the city alleging false arrest for DUII.
By Bennett Hall
Corvallis Gazette-Times
After a distinguished career of busting drunk drivers for the Corvallis Police Department, Dave Cox has a new job: helping motorists accused of driving under the influence beat the rap in court.
In six years as a Corvallis patrol officer, Cox made more than 1,000 impaired-driving arrests, far more than anyone else on the force, and won a statewide award for his prolific enforcement efforts. But he turned in his badge Nov. 1 after an internal investigation found he had wrongfully arrested a sober man for DUII.
Now Cox has resurfaced in Boise, Idaho, as a private investigator and the proprietor of Fact Finder Investigations Inc., an agency that specializes in the defense of DUII cases.
Reached by telephone last week, Cox declined to comment on his new career path. But the Fact Finders Web site touts his extensive law enforcement training in catching drunk and drug-impaired motorists and offers to put that expertise to work for individuals facing charges of driving under the influence.
Cox charges $255 for a DUII defense case review or $85 an hour for trial prep. He also offers to testify as an expert witness or re-create the events on the day of the arrest, right down to performing field sobriety tests and breath exams on the defendant — both drunk and sober (price quotes available on request).
In addition, Cox has developed a seminar for lawyers on DUII defense. Highlights include:
• Driving cues and signs of intoxication that police are looking for.
• Tricks and tactics police use in DUII cases.
• How to attack the results of a breath test; and
• How to get an officer to tell the jury your client’s side of the story.
According to the Web site, the class is approved for continuing legal education credit in several states. The going rate: $299 a person.
Cox apparently has even written a book on the subject.
Titled “How to Fight a DUI Arrest,” the book is promoted as a must-read for drunk-driving defendants.
“Dave Cox wrote How to Fight a DUI Arrest to assist those who have been wrongfully arrested for DUI,” the online sales pitch says. “More innocent people are arrested for DUI than for any other crime. In fact, as many as 300,000 innocent people are arrested for DUI every year. And millions of other people are stopped by the police and are worried that they, too, may get arrested even when they are not intoxicated.”
The volume is available in electronic form at a cost of $29.99 — or, at least, it was available. The Gazette-Times attempted to order a copy this week but was unsuccessful, and references to the book were subsequently removed from the Web site.
Local law enforcement officials said they were unaware of Cox’s new business venture but not necessarily surprised.
“It’s not uncommon for folks who once worked in law enforcement, once that’s not an option for them, to go into some other sort of investigative work,” said Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson. “There’s nothing improper about that.”
Though Cox now lives in Idaho, he could find himself back in Oregon before too long. He is a co-defendant in two civil lawsuits against the city alleging false arrest for DUII.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
And then he moved to Argentina
It's Thursday but it seems like a Friday and I'm exhausted. My summer Spanish class(es) is consuming me and it has me feeling a bit masochistic; I like slaving away at something quantifiable, practical, unfamiliar. I don't have time to do much outside of Spanish and I don't care, can't care, because feeling guilty about it only distracts from the work in front of me. I'm forced to put everything and everyone else out of my mind. Sometimes I think I'm only really okay when I have so much to do that I just barely get by.
Oh, I should explain: I'm taking three 4-credit first-year Spanish courses in nine weeks this summer: Spanish 111, 112, and 113. Each course is three weeks long and one day in class is equivalent to one week in class during a normal term. We're in class from 9 a.m. to 11:45 or so five days a week. We have one week worth of homework each day (about 3-4 hours of work) and on day 5 we had a unit test that covers materials usually taught over the course of 4-5 weeks. It's challenging, but those of us who didn't drop (exactly half the class did) are pretty determined, and the instructor is flexible and helpful.
However! Tonight I am going to see The Builders and The Butchers and The Long Winters at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland with a few friends. Should be a great show and I'm happy to be leaving town for a night. Right after I take a nap.
Oh, I should explain: I'm taking three 4-credit first-year Spanish courses in nine weeks this summer: Spanish 111, 112, and 113. Each course is three weeks long and one day in class is equivalent to one week in class during a normal term. We're in class from 9 a.m. to 11:45 or so five days a week. We have one week worth of homework each day (about 3-4 hours of work) and on day 5 we had a unit test that covers materials usually taught over the course of 4-5 weeks. It's challenging, but those of us who didn't drop (exactly half the class did) are pretty determined, and the instructor is flexible and helpful.
However! Tonight I am going to see The Builders and The Butchers and The Long Winters at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland with a few friends. Should be a great show and I'm happy to be leaving town for a night. Right after I take a nap.
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