I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
May 23, 2003 - 2:31 a.m.
I debated whether or not to write about what happened tonight and decided I should. It isn't my proudest moment but it's a good story and that's what counts right?
I went off late this afternoon to see They Might Be Giants at the Bowery Ballroom. I wanted to get there early so I could stand up front as usual. On the way there I stopped by the dry cleaner to pick up my shirts. The cleaner is right next to the train station and I should have picked it up yesterday. If I had done so I'd be a lot better off today. There is a corner in that neighborhood I always dread. I have a stop sign and the other road doesn't. Visibility isn't great and when people speed you can't see them in time. I've had a number of near misses there. Today it wasn't a near miss. I was broadsided. The only good part was that the other car hit the passenger side.
As soon as I saw that I wasn't too badly hurt I went to see how the other driver was. She had left her car and didn't want to talk to me. I wanted to exchange information and get going. I wasn't going to go to the concert though. I had hurt my head and back and didn't think I could take standing all night. When I said I wanted to get home or to the doctor I was told the police were called and I couldn't leave. So I stayed in my car and waited. It took about half an hour. Good thing I wasn't more seriously hurt.
Guess what, the bad part hasn't started yet.
When the police came I gave them my story and handed them my license, registration, and insurance card. After waiting for about 20 minutes the cops come back to me and tell me that my license had been suspended. I had gotten a ticket a month ago and missed the hearing. There is no notification, it just happens automatically. It gets worse.
Any other place in the country I'd be given a ticket and walk home. Not in NYC. Thanks to our beloved Ex-Mayor, Guiliani, the rule is that if you are caught driving with a suspended license you are arrested. And that's what they did. They had me put me hands behind my back and cuffed me. I was put in the back of the patrol car.
When we got the station the did a full search of me then led me inside to the cage. They also made clear that they were doing me a favor as sometimes people are taken to central booking where I'd have to spend the night in jail. As it was I spent most of the evening in a holding cell. They really did take my belt and would have taken my shoelaces if I had any. They let me keep my wallet though. All that's in there is one metal bench, not the most comfortable of surroundings.
I found that if I used my shoes as a pillow I could curl up, lay down, and not be too uncomfortable.
I had to leave the cell a couple of times. The first time was to be fingerprinted. It isn't done with ink pads any more. It's done with an electronic scanner. It is actually pretty cool. It is also why I had to wait around. The fingerprints were sent up to Albany where they were checked against a database to see if I was wanted for anything. That took hours.
The other time I was taken away it was to have my picture taken. Yes that's right the classic full face and profile that you always see on TV. The only difference is that it is now done with an digital camera and there is no need to hold up the numbers.
The arresting officer was actually pretty nice. He knew how ridiculous this all was and said so. When I was walked to the room with the camera he told me to just put my hands behind my back for show. He didn't bother cuffing me. It probably helped that I got friendly with him.
I finally got out of there around 10:30. Now the problem was how to get my car home. The cops moved it to a meter spot. I'd get a ticket if I left it there. My mother can't walk that far to drive it home. I couldn't call Aubrey because he lives in Nassau and the phone wouldn't call out of NYC. I didn't want to wait till I got home because it would be after 11 then. I tried calling bad Carey but he was already asleep. There are real disadvantages to having most of your friends not be local. Everyone I knew that could drive me lived on the Island. I decided to risk it and drive home. I didn't have my license but what are the odds of my being stopped? I just drove super cautiously. That is what I plan on doing till I get my license back. I'm going to keep my driving to a minimum and be careful when I do.
So now I'm home and have a court date, June, 30th. I don't know if I need a lawyer. I'm going to ask a lawyer that I know if I need one.
So that's the deal, I got arrested for being an idiot and not paying my ticket. I really do need help. Why do I let things like that slide?
When I got home I was shaken so of course I called Carey. I hated needing her like this on a day she was celebrating getting a job but as she always says, "That's my job." It's nice to have the best best friend in the world.
It's not going to be a random quote today. It's by Arlo Guthrie, parts of a little ditty called Alice's Restaurant
And that's what we did, sat in the back of the patrol car and drove to the quote Scene of the Crime unquote. I want tell you about the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where this happened here, they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the Scene of the Crime there was five police officers and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it. And they was using up all kinds of cop equipment that they had hanging around the police officer's station. They was taking plaster tire tracks, foot prints, dog smelling prints, and they took twenty seven eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography.After the ordeal, we went back to the jail. Obie said he was going to put us in the cell. Said, "Kid, I'm going to put you in the cell, I want your wallet and your belt." And I said, "Obie, I can understand you wanting my wallet so I don't have any money to spend in the cell, but what do you want my belt for?" And he said, "Kid, we don't want any hangings." I said, "Obie, did you think I was going to hang myself for littering?" Obie said he was making sure, and friends Obie was, cause he took out the toilet seat so I couldn't hit myself over the head and drown, and he took out the toilet paper so I couldn't bend the bars roll out the - roll the toilet paper out the window, slide down the roll and have an escape. Obie was making sure, and it was about four or five hours later that Alice (remember Alice? It's a song about Alice), Alice came by and with a few nasty words to Obie on the side, bailed us out of jail, and we went back to the church, had a another thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, and didn't get up until the next morning, when we all had to go to court.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
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On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
creative commons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Horvendile May 23, 2003
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