The blog I posted the day before regarding the young woman who “rejected” my helping her with her work called me today. I mustered the courage to copy the link and sent the blog which you read and almost immediately her voice broke and with tears shared her feelings. I was touched.
In the State of New York, when someone is determined to be a convicted sexual offender a Board of Examiners evaluate them for classification. The place where my offense occurred was in Puerto Rico. I would register for 10 years, once a year, and then be finished and come off their registry. To date, they do not have an Internet site.
I recently received a job request to help someone retype their lecture notes into digital form proved to be very interesting. He apparently lectures on the Civil War and what actually occurred and I found some of the statements in his document worthwhile reading and decided what has happened since the mid-1800s hasn’t changed much from today.
Recently engaged to a woman with two daughters, ages 11 and 13, which didn’t last not anything due to the my current stigma of being a registered sex offender, but because we conflicted on just about everything, yet I breathed a sigh of relief for what would have been a very difficult future. Currently residing in New York and not having to deal with the idiocy of restrictive living distances regarding schools and churches, such as my previous residential situation in Georgia, there were other concerns which made it apparent what used to be true that “love” overruled most difficulties, in this era of media-hype and fear-mongering for people who are decent but having made a mistake in their life, would have been too overwhelming.
For many of us we are the “boogieman” many will be warned about. Depending upon what state you live, some will be quarantined in facilities until the witching hour has past. Others will have to post signs indicating your status on the door and still others are forbidden to participate by turning out all your lights, which ordinarily you wouldn’t have done because during this time it is dark. You/we have become the brunt of bad jokes and the cause of fear on this day but not in the way it was every conceived many years ago.
This is a blog which will appear on both the Substance Abuse and Sex Offender blogs because it covers both areas. I recognize I haven’t posted blogs, of recent, as I have done in the past. I made a promise to myself I would not write for the sake of writing but when I had a message to convey I believed was something of substance, only then, would it be posted. I’m not here to waste my time filling up space and waste your time filling your head with mundane and not relevant information. I respect you and value your interest in my site and desire to keep you interested only if it is going to provide a service and that is to encouragement and help those of us who suffer from addictions whether substance or sexual.
This day has special importance attached to it in both prongs of my ministry: sexual and substance abuse, and will be posted in both blogs. It was how God used my substance abuse addiction to have me placed in Federal custody where He would provide healing for my sexual issues as well. This was the day I was arrested in 2002.
I received the brief my New York City attorney assigned to appeal my level designation case to the Appellate Division of the court system in New York. It was quite impressive as he stated the obvious, “How can you prove with preponderance of evidence someone determined to be a Level 1, all things being considered and using a point scoring setup and implemented by a examining board to do oversight on each offender, can be designated a Level 3?” In other words, how can you rightfully predict and punish someone for criminal acts not otherwise committed? I believe this is the plight of many offenders and this question will be asked over and over in the hallowed halls of the justice system.
At a weekly meeting I partnered with a friend which began with the premise to be of assistance to those who were addicted and wanted an alternative to the secular NA/AA/CA meeting rooms, we began a “meeting ministry” called “Restoration”. However, this meeting has evolved into a meeting of sexual offenders who are looking for camaraderie, fellowshipping and support.
Recently having arrived in New York and newly arrived where I am living today, and just one day after receiving a mailer from the Justice Department wanting to verify my address and other information, I received another thick envelope from a law office in New York City. Thinking, “who wants to sue me now?” I took the letter and with some hesitation opened it once in my room. To my pleasant surprise, it was from an attorney who is appealing the level ruling given me.
