Goodbye and Thanks for All The Code
Goodbye and Thanks for All The Code
- Subject: Goodbye and Thanks for All The Code
- From: Michael David Crawford <email@hidden>
- Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2015 20:23:04 -0700
I've been out of work for most of the last five years. Many
well-meaning yet sadly misinformed people give me what doubtlessly
would be good advice for others, for example that I should go on
disability, get into subsidized housing or to stop linking my essays
about my mental illness from every page on my website, but those
well-meaning people do not understand my values.
For reasons having largely to do with the way I was raised, it is far,
far more important to me to solve the problems of others than it is to
solve my own problems.
I sent this just now to an administrator at the Northwestern School of
Law at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. I have many
reasons to study law but primary among them are that while the legal
rights of the mentally ill are well-established in legislation as well
as court precedent, those rights are not only not enforced, they are
largely unknown.
That led for example, to my being very nearly beaten to death by two
Oregon Health & Sciences University campus police officers. When I
regained consciousness three days later, while I could correctly
visualize the spelling of my name when I thought out it, I could not
spell it correctly when I tried to write it by hand with a pencil.
I asked the American Civil Liberties Union to represent me in a Civil
Rights complaint against OHSU but recieved a form letter that pointed
out that they focus only on Constitutional concerns. That doesn't
make a whole lot of sense but that is what the ACLU actually said.
To Wit:
Ms. Sullivan,
After a great deal of consideration, I have decided to change careers
from Software Engineering to Public Interest as well as Civil Rights
Law.
However I'm not real sure how to get started. I am of very modest
means; were I to go back to Physics grad school, I know my way would
be paid by my advisor's research grant. I don't have a clue how I can
pay for law school but given my lifelong dedication towards the
service of others I expect some way can be found to pay my expenses.
I wish to request an appointment for an Informational Interview,
either with yourself or some other Law School staff that you
recommend. My schedule is wide open. My number is (503) 688-8345 or
my email is email@hidden.
Among the reasons I want to read the law that I was taught from a very
early age that the reason America exists was so that we would not live
in the kind of country that in my actual experience, America has
become.
A great-great (not sure how many greats) uncle of mine, Roger Sherman,
signed the Declaration of Independence - on the back of the $2.00 bill
Uncle Roger is fourth from the right of the five founding fathers
standing before the signing table, the tall guy with the tall
forehead. I'm also related to the two Union Army General-in-Chiefs
during the American Civil War, George B. McClellan and William
Tecumseh Sherman.
As a physicist and a computer programmer I know many ways to employ
technical measures to protect our privacy and our rights however my
experiences with those who don't take interest in technology is that
engineering falls far short of the mark. My mother for example knows
to shred her paper documents but there's no way I could ever convince
her to use The Onion Router to protect her privacy.
(http://torproject.org/)
Mom attended Lewis and Clark her first year in college but transferred
to the U of Idaho after she met my father.
I attended Solano Community College and UC Davis for just a few
classes after passing the California High School Proficiency
Examination. I majored in Astronomy at the California Institute of
Technology, then transferred to UC Santa Cruz where I obtained my BA
in 1993. I enrolled in graduate school with a focus on Elementary
Particle Physics, but dropped out as I was not prepared financially.
While I would love to go back into Physics I don't see it as solving
the kinds of problems I see.
My experience is that while I do not get the best grades I am very
well-known for asking the most-insightful questions.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that my difficulty finding
work in my present profession is due to my being so notoriously
outspoken; a while back I wrote an online book called "Solving the
Software Problem: a Taxonomy of Error". While I wrote it
pseudonymously as "Jonathan Swift", on my "Contact" page I wrote:
=================
I suppose this is a good place to clue you all in to the fact that my
real name is Michael David Crawford.
I use Jonathan Swift as a pseudonym not because he wrote the
well-known book Gulliver's Travels but because he wrote the more
historically important pamphlet A Modest Proposal.
A Modest Proposal suggested that the problem of Irish poverty could be
solved by slaughtering Irish infants that their meat may be served on
the dinner tables of wealthy Britons. For his contribution to the
social discourse of the day, Swift got a price put on his head by the
British Crown.
Perhaps if I work very, very hard to perfect my craft as a writer, I
too might get a price put on my own head.
One Can Only Hope.
==================
Ever Faithful,
Mike Crawford
Michael David Crawford, Consulting Software Engineer
email@hidden
http://www.warplife.com/mdc/
Available for Software Development in the Portland, Oregon Metropolitan
Area.
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