Quote:
Originally Posted by wendyquat
Thanks for seldom seen voice of reason!
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We do need checks and balances. In my own situation in the Summer of 2000, so that I would not be so easy a mark so to speak I started volunteering at Palm Harbor Library and also pushing my victims/survivors' access to information agenda to a small extent but mainly just trying to be helpful and friendly at the library as I try to be on TOTV.
I thought this would also open up doors into libraries in the Tampa Bay area as I have a MA in Librarianship and Information Management from the University of Denver (Class of May, 1984). All went well and I managed to get the Florida Victim Services Directory linked to their website for a time. Things went south though after I met the Palm Harbor Library Director Gene Coppola who admitted that he could see no mental health problems ( I did feel I needed to tell him about the mental health problem I had earlier in 2000
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...57-post58.html but in a very non disturbing way). He thought my victims rights' campaign was a worthwhile one but then told me he wanted 50% of any fundings for the Palm Harbor Library he might help get by adding his input. I said no AND the doors to libraries in the Tampa Bay area started shutting for my finding work based on the contacts I made while volunteering. I had volunteered hoping that would land me paying work. I volunteered in Palm Harbor's two public libraries (I was also at East Lake Community Library in Palm Harbor from about September 2000 or so through maybe May 2003) for 10 to 14 hours a week for almost three years.
One person can really sway things in the wrong direction. All Gene Coppola needed to do was say I was a good worker (which I was) and keep the library website linked to the Florida Victim Services Directory. Instead, they started playing politics with the link and it soon vanished from their website.
Some one in a small pond can cause trouble just like someone in an even larger one. Coppola and I kind of caused problems for one another. I even received a Cease and Desist order from the Palm Harbor Library General Counsel on March 2, 2004 because of my complaining about the truth of the statement that there was a link to the Florida Victim Services Directory in the Palm Harbor Library website. I asked a number of Palm Harbor Library reference librarians after I quit volunteering because of the disappearance of this link. They had agreed with me that there was no link. It was important to me because I had been e-mailing many people fighting for a link to a similar victims' assistance directories in other states while also mentioning that I was listed in various Marquis Who's Who volumes. They listed me as having volunteered at two public libraries in Palm Harbor.
I do not expect personalities in more powerful positions are all that different from Gene Coppola's and mine. I do think people will use anything to play politics with especially those connected with the NRA who seem more concerned with putting up a brave fight for the 2nd Amendment rather than stopping the gun violence in the US which could be, at least curbed, with some common sense limitations on guns designed for the military being sold legally in the states. There would still be illegal gun sales of course but it would get some guns out of future marketplaces.
FYI I have tried to keep very friendly relationships with my minor dealings with Lake and Sumter County librarians whom I have found open and honest to my input. I do not volunteer in libraries anymore though. I had really wanted to move to the Villages in 2005 from Palm Harbor because Gene Coppola was also the Chairman of the Board of the Palm Harbor Chamber of Commerce and I had made some enemies when pointing out that there was no link to the Florida Victim Services Directory. I have not looked but I sincerely doubt if there is a link now as that would make them admit that they had needed one in the first or second place.
http://www.palmharborlibrary.org/ The second place as there was one before I did not take Coppola up on the offer of 50% he thought I could not refuse. Not that it matters, but Gene Coppola is no relation to the San Francisco Francis Ford Coppola clan. He is from NYC.