Observations From Hadleyville: COMMUNITY SERVICE

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

COMMUNITY SERVICE

The Captain asked me to assemble a team to conduct an official "visit" of our local Sheriff station. The idea was to have citizens from the community observe and report on the situation and practices they saw. At first, I thought this was some sort of public relations deal. If you watch the news you'll know that LA County has been under assault from the Without-A CLU people for the past month. Made sense to me.

However, when I got the files via email I discovered that this is a much bigger deal. It isn't merely a county or state PR attempt. No, this is a world-wide undertaking. For a two week period, citizens around the world will make similar inspection tours of their local police facilities. And, at least as far as our local station is concerned, the cops love the idea.

The concept is pretty amazing when you think of it. I mean, there are many places in this world where avoiding a police station would be at the top of my To-Do list. I can imagine myself checking the box for "No Thumb Screws In Evidence." CHECK. But here the police were eager to introduce citizens to the workings of the station. The tour itself was thorough. We went to every place in the station that I knew about and a few places I hadn't known previously. The consensus of the group was that real cops aren't much like what you see in movies. (Unless you've seen the wickedly funny send-up of "Cop Movies" in SO I MARRIED AN AXE MURDERER) See Above.

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Don the Baptist considers himself to be both intellectually deep and extremely humorous. Don the Baptist assumes no responsibility for blog browsers who cannot tell the difference between the two. Blog browsers are advised to consider any "Observations from Hadleyville" content that makes no sense to be the result of a lack of intellect or sense of humor on the part of the blog browser and not that of the blogger. Don the Baptist is a non profit guy so don't bother suing Don the Baptist as it would be a waste of time and resources.

WORDS OF WISDOM FOR WRITERS

The secret of becoming a writer is that you have to write. You have to write a lot. You also have to finish what you write, even though no one wants it yet. If you don't learn to finish your work, no one will ever want to see it. The biggest mistake new writers make is carrying around copies of unfinished work to inflict on their friends.

I am sure it has been done with less, but you should be prepared to write and throw away a million words of finished material. By finished, I mean completed, done, ready to submit, and written as well as you know how at the time you wrote it.
-Jerry Pournelle

WHAT'S THIS HADLEYVILLE THING?

Those of you familiar with Mark Twain’s works might recognize my blog title. As Samuel Clemons grew older, he became increasingly disillusioned with humanity. Towards the end he began referring to the Damned Human Race; employing the secular and religious epithet at one stroke.

I find I’ve not reached that level of despair myself. I still believe in redemption and I still see signs of nobility even among we fallen, damned creatures. So, I could not bring myself to call this blog “On the Damned Human Race.” I do however, resonate with another of Clemmons stories; “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg.” And viola, there you have it. “Observations From Hadleyville.”