#44

I’ve obviously fallen off the blogging band wagon. I felt I had to write a few lines on this historic day. I watched the inauguration today on television with my son sleeping in my arms. Twice I felt tears come into my eyes. Once When Aretha Franklin sang My Country Tis of Thee, and again when the camera showed the ecstatic faces in the crowd, many of them stained with tears of their own.

Obama was eloquent and inspiring as usual. He told the nation that we face many problems and that they won’t be easy to solve but that these challenges will be met. He called on Americans to put aside petty grievances and worn out dogmas and unite in a common purpose and become the leaders of the world again. He said we needed to pick ourselves up and move forward. He talked about the sacrifices our ancestors have made that led America to this point.

I felt a physical sense of relief as Bush climbed onto his helicopter and flew away from the capital. I’d expected a more dramatic exit from Bush and Cheney, given everything that we have seen from them in the last eight years. Instead they both seemed diminished and smaller. Their administration ends with a whimper, and few are sad to see them go.

They go now to their lives of privilege. They will collect $500,000 per speaking engagement. They will continue to amass wealth. They will continue to push their ideology through their think tanks and other activities. Never again, though, will they have the ability to affect so many lives negatively. Never again will they have their hands on the levers of power in the same way. The only people who will listen to them now will be those who share their narrow view of the world and humanity. It appears that constituency is shrinking rapidly.

It’s important that I distinguish the former administration from what I will call mainline conservatives or Republicans. Much of what we have seen from Bush and his ilk doesn’t mesh with true conservatism. All that I hear in the media says that Obama’s inauguration marks a new beginning for Republicans too. They view this as a chance to renew, a chance to clarify, and chance to be a constructive critic to the new President.

I am so happy and so proud to be alive at this moment of history. Not only has the first African American become president, a historic achievement in itself, but there is a feeling that a new era has begun. Obama won’t work miracles, but he will be a thoughtful and unifying President, and there is at least the chance for greatness.

Did It Really Happen?

I still have a sense of unreality about the election. I watched the election returns come in from a webcast from WestPoint that my nephew was taking part in. Early in the evening the returns showed McCain with 51% of the popular vote and I thought, “here we go… Its going to be 2000 all over again.” After that point though, Obama pulled ahead and the margin between Obama and McCain kept getting wider and wider. WestPoint called the election about an hour before the national media.

Then I went and watched McCain give his concession speech which, I admit, made me feel a little sorry for him since this was his last chance at the Oval Office. McCain showed class and dignity even if his supporters who were listening did not.

Later I watched Obama give what I’m sure will be a historic speech. I was overcome with a sense of relief. I felt like crying as I looked at the faces of the people there in Chicago. I was particularly touched by the older African Americans who know the sacrifices that were made to bring us to this point.

A friend of mine recently told me that he did cry that night. He told me that a colleague of his commented that he was crying because he had been suffering. I guess it’s true. Everyone has suffered through the current administration. Not just Democrats and progressives but true conservatives too. The world has suffered from a world leader who refused to engage. It’s over now. Bush will be gone in January and I doubt there are many who will miss him no matter what their political allegiances are.

I hope that we are headed into a period of reconciliation. Of course there will be division and there will be differences of opinion. I just hope that the political atmosphere in the US and in the world will be less poisonous.

I am so happy to be alive to witness this moment in history and to have been on the side of change.

A Long Walk Does the Soul Some Good

A week ago yesterday, my wife, our two kids, my sister, her three boys, my parents, and I attempted to see Barack Obama speak at a rally on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. First we went to a park and ride location north of Fort Collins and took a bus to CSU. The bus dropped us at the mid-point of the line leading into The Oval, the central park on the CSU campus were the rally was to be held. We started walking the line which stood six deep along the outside of the campus, passing hundreds and then thousands of people, all who had come to see the Democrat’s nominee for President of the United states.

We turned one corner, then another, and another. The line stretched on an on. After we had been walking for about a mile we finally came to the end of the line. Then we watched as thousands more streamed passed to get in line behind us. As the line started to move towards The Oval, it stretched in each direction as far as the eye could see.

At one point as we walked along I looked up at one of the dorm room windows were a student was holding up a John McCain sign and waving at the line filing past his dorm. I waved at him pointing down the line to where it disappeared in the distance, and then the other direction where it did the same, and gave him thumbs up sign. A little further on, just as we entered the campus, a lone protester stood with a sign that read something like “I PUT MY TRUST IN JOE THE PLUMBER.” As we walked past him my dad said “It’s got to be a disappointing day for you.”

We realized at some point that we were never going to make it to The Oval in time, so we headed to the overflow where area people who did not get into rally could hear the speech on a PA. All of us trudged on and on, but there were so many people on the move that we didn’t even make it there, not even close. By the time we were about 300 yards from the overflow area we started meeting people streaming out of the rally after its conclusion.

Although it was disappointing not to be able to hear Obama speak, it was inspiring to see so many people there and to feel that we were a part of something incredible, something historic. Fifty thousand people packed The Oval for the rally, and forty or fifty thousand more were trying to get in. We learned later that, earlier that morning, Obama had drawn a crowd of one-hundred-thousand in Denver at another rally. Two-hundred-thousand people in less than six hours in a traditional red state; I have never seen anything like it in my life, certainly not in Colorado.

The election of Obama truly would be historic. I don’t pretend that it would be the end to the multitude of serious problems that face this country. It would mean, though, that, in this election at least, hope and unity would have won out over fear and division. It would also be a huge step toward fulfilling the dream that Dr. King spoke of forty-five years ago. I wonder if Dr. King saw from the mountain top that a black man would stand to become the leader of the free world one short generation after he dreamed his dream.

I can hardly bear to watch. I will be holding my breath until the result of the election is certain.

Obama in my Back Yard

I’m going to hear Obama speak in Fort Collins tomorrow if we can get near the place. My parents are going too. Initially my Mom said “I’m not sure if I want to fight the crowds.” My Dad pointed out that it was because they didn’t want to fight the crowds that they did not attend the March on Washington and hear King give his I Have A Dream speech. Dad said “I’m going.” Mom is going too. So are several friends from high school.

It’s a great end to a week that included mountains of kites (the little notes inmates send requesting to talk with me), a bout of who knows what that knocked me on my a A–Double-Snake for a day and still has me feeling a little sick, and initiating a suicide watch literally in the last hour of my shift.

I did however start the week off with hope. Monday I made calls from an Obama field office to voters who had EVER registered Democrat. I made 97 calls. When I asked them who they were voting for all but a couple said “Who do you think, Obama,” as if it was a crazy question.

Things look good but I almost don’t dare to believe it. Anything can happen in a week. And who knows what they might come up with in the next nine days. In the mean time, I’m going to go hear a positive man with a positive message of unity and hope. What more can anyone ask for really?

Proud to be a Leftie

The hallmark, really the brilliance, of the conservative movement during the Carl Rove era has been to portray liberals as some kind of “other.” They have painted liberals as un-patriotic, un-American, bleeding-hearts, who only want to tax and spend. The result has been a deeply divided nation in which half the population views the other half with suspicion if not contempt.

Part of this strategy has been to turn every liberal into an apologist for their beliefs as if having such an ideology somehow indicated moral or intellectual bankruptcy, instead of a difference of opinion and philosophy. As someone whose ideology tilts heavily to the left, I know that I often feel that I somehow have to explain my lifelong allegiance to liberal ideas and causes, and my reluctance to support conservative ideology. The Carl Rove model says it’s okay to be an unwavering conservative but to be an unwavering liberal shows narrow mindedness and an inability to think.

I realized, suddenly, last week that there is no reason for me to feel that I need to explain or make excuses for my progressive ideology. I am a liberal because liberalism is consistent with my personal morality, a morality, by the way, that came from being raised in one of the most conservative Christian denominations in the United States. I am a progressive because progressive thought fits most closely with my ideas of right and wrong and how others should be treated.

Although I have never voted Republican, I would be open to the chance that someday I might if a Republican candidate came along whose ideas meshed well with my own beliefs. With conservatives so entrenched in a narrow, largely evangelical Christian, ideology, I can’t imagine this happening in the near future. This is exactly the reason Colon Powel endorsed Barack Obama for President last week, although he has always been a staunch Republican, and towed the line of the current administration throughout his tenure as Secretary of State. When giving the endorsement, Powel stated that, essentially, the Republican platform had become too narrow and that Obama represented the best hope for unification and a change in direction from the divisive politics of the past eight years.

That is not to say that John McCain is not a moral person with a strong character. He is. Before the nomination of Sarah Palin as his running mate, I had a great deal of respect for McCain even if I disagreed with him politically. I had the feeling that I could accept him as a Commander In Chief, even if he was not my first choice, because he was a moderate, reasoned, and intelligent man, who was a stark contrast from the current administration.

Governor Palin has been the game changer though. Since she joined the ticket, in an effort to win skeptical evangelicals and Hillary supporters, McCain’s campaign has veered hard to the right and followed the Rove play book of division and distraction. Palin has called supporters outside of Democratic strongholds the “real America” as if those supporting Obama and living in our cities were not Americans. Palin has called for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, an issue sure to thrill evangelicals, but is probably a political dead end, except that it further fractures America.

What is really troubling about Palin, though, is her effort to dehumanize Barack Obama. She has gone out of her way to call into question Obama’s morality, character, and patriotism. She has mocked Obama’s years as a community organizer as a waste of time. She has suggested that Obama palls around with terrorists even though his relationship with William Ayers, the co-founder of the 60’s radical group the Weather Underground, was on a school reform committee whose other members included several prominent Republicans. Governor Palin has dehumanized Obama to the point that some people attending McCain rallies have felt comfortable calling for Obama’s death. While McCain rightly and honorably put a quick stop to these outbursts, and while I don’t believe the people calling for Obama’s death are indicative of Republicans, it is McCain’s choice of Palin as a running mate that invited such people into the tent.

I don’t believe that Obama will be the magic bullet that will solve all America’s problems. If Obama is elected, and that is still a big if in my mind, he will inherit an economy in recession, an unpopular war with no easy exit strategy, another war which is growing increasingly more deadly, and a deeply fractured electorate. He will have his work cut out for him.

I have to believe, however, that Obama does have the best chance of being a unifier and sparking the imagination of America. His election would represent a real historic change in America. Unfortunately, since Palin joined McCain’s ticket I don’t see the possibility of a McCain Presidency unifying the country in the same way.

Intake Interview

What follows is a representation of the interview that I conduct with inmates as they come into the facility. The inmate is based on hundreds of different people and is typical of the kinds of answers I receive when I conduct the interview. It is not based on any specific person.

The typical interview takes about ten minutes from start to finish if there are no issues such as severe mental health problems or a desire to harm or kill themselves or others.

When I was working in community mental health I used to do intake interviews with my clients but typically they would last an hour. The questions in that psycho-social assessment were all open ended, meaning that they could not be answered with a Yes or No. I would have a pretty clear picture at the end of those interviews of all the different forces affecting the client. I would also have a clue as to where I could begin my intervention.

My intakes here at the Jail mainly have to do with assessing the level of risk the inmate might be to themselves or others. This interview, along with a review of their criminal history, determines where an inmate will be housed, minimum, medium, or maximum or whether the inmate need to be placed on a suicide watch.

For the vast majority of inmates I screen, this is the only contact I will ever have with them. I do, however, work with many inmates after this intake and it is only then that I am able to start asking the kind of questions that help me to really know an inmate and where I might be able to assist them.

DC = Detentions Counselor
ID = Inmate/Detainee



DC: Hello. I’m Pirate Aggro. I’m a Counselor here. I’m just going to ask you some questions that I ask everyone as part of the booking process.

ID: Okay.

DC: When we’re done you can use the phone here to make a local call.

ID: Can I call long distance? I don’t know anyone here.

DC: Well, the phone will call long distance but it will default into a collect call.

ID: Okay.

DC: Is there any one here that you would need to be kept separate from?

ID: I don’t think so.

DC: Anyone you would fight with?

ID: I don’t know anyone here.

DC: Have you ever been the victim of a violent crime like assault or robbery?

ID: I was mugged once.

DC: How long ago was that?

ID: I don’t know… about five years ago I guess.

DC: Have you ever been sexually assaulted?

ID: No, of course not.

DC: I’m sorry… These are questions I ask everyone.

ID: Okay.

DC: What’s your highest level of education?

ID: I finished high school.

DC: How much and how often do you drink alcohol?

ID: About three times a week I guess.

DC: Do you drink until your drunk when you drink?

ID: Of course, why else would I drink?

DC: Do you use drugs?

ID: I smoke pot sometimes.

DC: Anything stronger than that?

ID: No.

DC: Have you ever been treated for a mental health problem.

ID: No.

DC: Nothing like depression?

ID: Oh sure depression. I get depressed.

DC: Have you seen someone for depression in the last two years.

ID: Yes.

DC: Were you prescribed medication?

ID: Yes.

DC: Are you still taking it?

ID: Yes.

DC: What are you taking?

ID: I take Paxil.

DC: Has anyone in your immediate family ever tried to harm or kill themselves.

ID: Yes.

DC: Who was that?

ID: My brother attempted suicide.

DC: It was an attempt?

ID: Yes. He’s still around.

DC: How about you? Have you ever tried to harm or kill yourself.

ID: Well sort of.

DC: How long ago was this?

ID: A couple years ago.

DC: Can you tell me what you did?

ID: I took a bunch of pills. It was stupid. I don’t feel that way now.

DC: Were you hospitalized?

ID: They gave me charcoal. I spent the night and went home the next day.

DC: But they didn’t put you on a suicide watch?

ID: No I don’t think so.

DC: Are you feeling suicidal right now.

ID: Well I don’t feel great.

DC: But are you feeling like you want to hurt yourself?

ID: No. I’m just sad.

DC: Would you tell us if you started feeling suicidal?

ID: Sure, but what good would that do?

DC: Well, we just want to make sure you’re safe while you’re here.

ID: Sure, I’d tell you.

DC: Do you have a religious preference?

ID: I’m a Christian.

DC: Okay, this is a pamphlet on sexual assault awareness.

ID: What! Why are you giving me this? Am I going to be assaulted?

DC: No. This is a pamphlet we give to everyone that comes into the jail.

ID: Oh.

DC: This is a relatively safe facility. It’s not like TV. You will be okay while you are here. This type of thing hardly ever happens here.

ID: Good… Okay.

DC: What’s the longest you have ever been in jail or prison?

ID: I did two years almost back in the 90s.

DC: Was that a prison or jail sentence?

ID: Jail. I’ve never been to prison.

DC: Good. What county was that in?

ID: Adams.

DC: Are you a resident of Colorado?

ID: Yes.

DC: Do you have friends and family here?

ID: Friends, no family. They’re all dead or back in Chicago.

DC: Are you working now?

ID: Well I was. I’ll probably be fired now.

DC: What do you do?

ID: Construction mostly.

DC: How old are you?

ID: I think I’m forty-seven. No, forty-six. I’ll be forty-seven at the end of the month.

DC: Okay, this is a receipt for your personal items. You’ll get these things back when you are released.

ID: Okay.

DC: Do you want to use the phone?

ID: Can I? I thought of someone I can call here.

DC: Okay. Just pick up the phone, dial 1, the area code, and the phone number.

END OF INTERVIEW

In this case I would have continued contact with the Inmate because he reported a suicide attempt within the past five years, and he reported that a blood relitive had also attempted suicide. This statisticly means he is at greater risk for suicide. As a result I would visit with him at lest once a month while he was an inmate here at the jail.

PARANOIA!!!

I was recently invited to join Facebook by one of my professors from graduate school who was assembling a kind of alumni list of people who had been in his solo performance class. So I signed up and waiting for me there on my personal page was not only his group, but two or three people from graduate school who had been looking for me and requested to be “friends”. I thought it was a little spooky but, okay, it’s the brave new world of social interaction right?

Facebook has only continued to amaze me, and, at the same time, make me a little uncomfortable. As I fleshed out my profile suddenly people were finding me from work, collage, my first grad school, my second grad school, and high school and asking to be “friends”. These are people I have not had ANY contact with of ANY kind since the day we graduated; people that I never would have hand contact with again were it not for Facebook.

Then I noticed that down in the lower right hand corner of my Facebook page it has “suggestions” of people who you might know, and, incredibly I knew a lot of them and wanted to be in contact with them. So I went on obliviously for a couple of weeks accepting any friendship invitation I received even if I did not recognize them because, if they knew me, I could probably eventually figure out who they were.

Then I received an invitation from one person that I recognized from somewhere but did not recognize their name. I said yes to the invitation and then went on my Facebooking way. Then it occurred to me, what if this person who I recognize but don’t recognize is a former inmate? What if this person was on my caseload at the jail? Not only would it be a violation of social work ethics for me to converse with them on Facebook, it would also be the kind of thing that could get me into trouble at work. Luckily the person ended up being friend from high school, but now I am much more careful about accepting any friendship invitation willy-nilly.

Then the paranoia really started in. It is very apparent from my Facebook page that I am a blue blooded liberal through and through. There is also a link there to this blog which obviously leans strongly to Port. I knew people from work, and people from both sides of my family and my wife’s family, all of them mostly staunchly right-wing, had started to find my Facebook page and, I assume, my blog. I NEVER talk politics here at work or with extended family. I don’t want to get a reputation for being a rabid liberal, even if I am, because I don’t think it’s useful in the context I function in at work. It could also potentially make relationships with some of the staff difficult if they judge me purely on my political leanings, which they do. I also don’t discuss politics with my extended family because… well, what’s the point? They are my family and I don’t want to fight with them the couple days a year I spend with them.

I debated about toning down my Facebook page and removing the link to the blog. Ultimately, though, I figured I’m not making any personal attacks, not saying much specific about work, not saying anything beyond the pale, and really, not so politically rabid after all. I’m just a liberal, and I’m proud of my beliefs. It’s just the Carl Rove, right wing propaganda machine that has made liberal a dirty word.

After I put that bit of worry to bed, the next day I was driving my daughter to school and heard a radio news report about people stealing other people’s identity’s based on the amount of personal information available on Facebook. I drove straight home and hid my birth date on my Facebook account and made some other minor changes that would make it difficult for a person to steal my identity.

So like all technology, Facebook is a blessing and a curse. I am in touch with friends I have not heard from in years but it also has its risks. As my sister recently warned me, anything you put on the internet is there forever. This means that I need to be cautious about what I say and do on the internet. Shouldn’t everyone though? Should we ever say or do something in one context that would be totally taboo in another context? It’s just like your mother told you, “don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” I would say, don’t do anything you would be embarrassed by or deeply regret at some point in the future. I haven’t.