Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
Looking at my own situation and my choices....
I basically left the Reno, Nevada area in 1982 because there was no accredited law school in Nevada at that time. That put me at BYU's law school for about 10 days or less mainly because I had not realized how different I would feel being a Non-Mormon in a mostly Mormon community at BYU. The worst part though new roommate at BYU who was the recent Mormon convert who set his sights on making me a new convert. He was a dancing major as well from Puerto Rico. (I chose BYU because of my fascination with religions and a Merit Scholarship they offered me which had me paying the same rate as Mormons to attend BYU).
I returned, regrouped after getting the advice of one Philosophy professor Frank Lucash, took a battery of additional classes at the University of Nevada, Reno beyond my already two BAs -- a speech class, a computer programming class, and some others. I had been terrified that someone would call on me at Law School as well because my speech problems come up when really nervous. The speech course was required as I planned to get a MA in Librarianship to have something practical to fall back on and then go back to law school later in life if the opportunity presented itself.
I had also wanted to do something about the niche in information available for survivors/victims of crimes accessible in libraries but wanted to make sure I had had enough degrees and work experience to give me some credibility when I tried to do this. I started noticing that niche at Washoe County Library around February 28, 1976 in Reno, Nevada.
I did make a stab at it while at the University of Denver Graduate School of Librarianship while out to dinner with an Alaskan public library employee who was getting a MA at the University of Denver. This was her birthday dinner and the talk got around to past birthdays and the like. I talked about Mrs. Mitchell and the murder of her daughter Michelle on 2-24-1976 but this topic scared Joan E., who basically told me not to bring this up in professional settings of librarians and the like. It was just the two of us at her birthday dinner.
So, I had always after this tried to be careful about pushing this concern I had had about this niche and how to address it.
I am not sure just how worldly some well traveled and very well educated people really are especially if they are challenged with ideas like what would happen if they were victims/survivors of crimes and were faced with handling this situation.
In 1992-1993 and afterwards, I wrote a number of victim assistance providers about all the problems I had when trying to be honest about a niche in services to victims of crimes and my life experiences with the Michelle Mitchell murder (2-24-1976) investigation and they said that people have a very hard time accepted that they too might become a victim of crime at some future date. So instead of getting involved they just put aside any idea that they might be in that situation.
Joan E. at the University of Denver seemed to have that problem during her birthday dinner around 1984 but her advice of me not pushing the issue probably helped me get through law school at the University of Minnesota where I graduated in 1989. I brought it up but only in situations where I thought it might be pertinent to the matter at hand like when I was interviewing for a position on the Journal of Law and Inequality when they asked about my personal experiences with inequality and the law. I talked about the niche in practical information for survivors of crimes in the U of MN Law Library and elsewhere where I had looked for useful information. If other law students told me about their own experiences with being victims of various types of crimes-- and there were many law students at the U of MN who shared such stories with me-- I would tell them about my own experiences. These experiences though never seemed to conflict with whatever answers they would have in law school classes or in whatever advice they would give to potential clients.
I myself even represented two boys who had burned down a school library in upstate Minnesota while I was Student with the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners (LAMP). I basically just wrote them letters about their case. Tough thing to do for someone with a MA in Librarianship who has always loved libraries.
I tried to get people around the world concerned with these experiences of mine mainly because when I pushed the issue in early (January) 1991 when informed I was losing my contract with the University of Minnesota Law Library instead of addressing the issue of this niche in practical information, they first subtly, then not very subtly put my mental health in question. I just wanted to be honest with future employers --other than the U of Minnesota-- that there was this niche in practical information for survivors/victims of crimes. I did represent quite a number of prisoners though at the Legal Assistance to Minnesota Prisoners at the U of MN-- including the boys who burned down the school library-- and did this objectively and well as I was Co-Director of the LAMP office for the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater. Stillwater was the biggest prison in MN serviced by LAMP.
So, my battles have landed me in the Villages even though I have tried to get people from all over the world to look at their own community's libraries from the eyes of the survivor/victim of crime. Starting in mid-1993, I tried to enlist Hollywood in spotlighting my own experiences at these various institutions using 224 and 613 to inform them about these via many e-mails I had sent people with media connections.
I do believe that even if you live in a not so small community like the Villages, you can have an international impact if you have something very important to say or give or whatever especially since people from all over the world MIGHT read TOTV.
And, for my looking for work in libraries after I lost my contract at the U of MN Law School Library, I would only bring this interest of mine up if it was relevant to what I might be doing if that library hired me. More often than not, it never came up because my task was not relevant to the experiences I had involving the niche in practical information for survivors/victims of crimes. If for instance, I was applying for a job as a cashier at Publix, I would certainly not bring up my experiences with victim/survivors of crimes and their access to information as it would not be relevant to being a cashier.
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Very interesting history !! Our son went west to Boulder Colorado at age 22, after graduating from the University of Vermont........he later got his M.B.A. at Univ. of Colorado at Boulder. The rest is history.
DENVER, the mile high city has been his home for the past 21 years, with lots of world travel as well as domestic travel as part of his career.
He has the best of all worlds to pursue his active outdoor lifestyle, by choosing CO. as his "home"............where he & his wife are raising their family.
I believe "Lonely Planet" is very popular with his peers & age group.
Our daughter moved to Boston Mass. after graduating college; enjoying the city life for quite a few years.......however, when they chose to begin their family, they knew they wanted to return to rural northern Vermont.
But, they've also seen quite a bit of the world.
Thanks for sharing.............always interesting.
P.S. Many of my son's high school/college buddies all went west to Colorado.......as did the sons of our neighbors up here on the hill.
I think we all played way too much "John DENVER" back in the day.
All are now raising their families out there...............
DENVER is a nice modern city, while Boston is a historic quaint city.
Tons of museums, etc. in both.........