Perpetrator vs. Person

With time comes knowledge, with knowledge comes wisdom, with wisdom comes enlightenment and with enlightenment comes a higher electric bill. :p

Over the past month or so, I have occasionally received phone calls from an inmate at the Washington State Penitentiary. His name and the names of the other people involved were changed to protect them, though I daresay I'm not sure if they deserve said protection. On the other hand, I also don't want to deal with a liable suit if I can at all avoid it.

As I said, over the past month, my phone has rung probably half a dozen times with Mr. "Anderson" requesting that I accept the charges of his collect calls. I have refused at all points, as I was unwilling to pay the initial $5.00 surcharge not to mention the $1.00 per minute thereafter. I did, however, desire to get a message to Mr. Anderson to let him know that the number he was dialing no longer belonged to the person he was attempting to contact. (I'm quite sure of this, as I've never known a Mr. "Anderson".) I proceeded to call my local phone company. They indicated that they couldn't help me in the slightest and that I should call the company providing the collect call service. I then called AT&T (the aforementioned provider) and after getting lost in the loops and dead-ends of their phone system a number of times, I was finally able to talk with a live human being. This person indicated that the only thing I could do would be to block all incoming collect calls. This would prevent me from receiving any more calls from Mr. Anderson, but it would not achieve my goal of communication. I then decided to call the Washington State Penitentiary and see if I could convey information through those channels. I left a message requesting a call back and indicating that I wanted to get in touch with Mr. Anderson. A few days later, I did get a call back from Ms. "Steel". She left a message on my answering machine with her direct number. Eventually I called her back and proceeded to tell my story and indicate my desired outcome. Apparently she didn't hear what I said as she immediately offered to block my number from calls from said institution. I declined and reiterated my desire to simply let Mr. Anderson know that the person whom he was attempting to contact no longer lived at this phone number. Ms. Steel then informed me that what I was requesting was not possible. "She" could not relay the message. She did, however, forward my call to someone who could. I do not recall the name of the "gentleman" with whom I spoke. Actually, I'm not sure that he identified himself but that aside; his speech was clipped, bordering on rude. I proceeded to inform him of the situation and what I desired to do. He must have had the same hearing problem as Ms. Steel as the first words out of his mouth were, "We can block your number." I carefully explained that there was no need to block my number at this point in time and that all I really wanted to do was to inform Mr. Anderson that his calls were going to the wrong person. Eventually, my point seemed to sink in and the gentleman in question indicated that he would get that information to the "perpetrator".

According to http://www.m-w.com (aka Webster), Perpetrator: to bring about or carry out (as a crime or deception). When did it become a crime to dial the wrong number or not know that the number you are dialing no longer connects to the person with whom you wish to speak? When did it become a criminal act to attempt to communicate with someone? More importantly, when will we as a society, realize that the people in prison are just that, people. Now maybe Mr. Anderson is the most heinous of the heinous. Maybe he'd rather stab me than look at me. Maybe he is a rapist of thousands and a killer of millions. Maybe he has destroyed entire planets and his minions have infiltrated every world government and are, even now, scheming to overthrow humanity and sell us all as slaves to the marauding space pirates who eat only fresh virgins for breakfast. (Hey, I'm safe.) Maybe he is personally responsible for all evil in the universe. I rather doubt it, but it's possible. I would say that it's more likely that Mr. Anderson made a mistake; possibly it was a pretty bad mistake, but a mistake none-the-less. Maybe Mr. Anderson is trying to call his ex-girl friend and apologize for all the mistakes he made in their relationship, hoping that she'll at least send him a letter from time to time. Maybe Mr. Anderson has a daughter who he's been trying to call to apologize for missing her birthday again this year. Okay, so that's laying it on a little thick, but my point is, Mr. Anderson is a human being and should be treated as such. He is NOT a "perpetrator" or the implied "criminal" just because he's trying to make a phone call.

*steps off soap box*

In other news, my dog had kittens and my canary ate my cat. Oh wait; I don't have a dog. Uhm, actually not much. I started practicing staff again today. Most of the form was still there. Only the last two positions were a little fuzzy but I was able to get through them with minimal help from the form sheets. I think my neighbors think I'm nuts, waving a big yellow stick around and jumping about like some sort of madman. Oh well, they'd be correct, in this case.

I recently started using an application called "w.bloggar" to update this Blog. It's available at http://wbloggar.com/. It's free and fairly nice considering the price. The built in dictionary could use some additions, but as I said, the price is most certainly right.

More soon.