I appreciate your comments on my deleted post about my latest death threat (a quick count has it over 20 now – or about one a month). All of them up to now have been just kind of laughed off, not that I don’t think they want to kill me, it is just that they aren’t a real threat. Most are high when they make them and only one has ever been aware they have done it and apologized (which I accepted).
The latest one included being high but had a certain pathological element that has persisted for a couple of days. I didn’t fear the threat but was aware this week that it was made at a different level than the others. Without going into details, the situation had some other police and prison officials contacting me over it and they gave me some unsolicited advice on taking some precautions as well.
That is what I wrestle with. Part of what makes anyone effective in working in a social agency is being accessible and open while at the same time it is what puts us at risk so today I took some advice, ignored some others, and took a couple of recommended steps to make sure that the risk was minimized a bit.
I know some of you think I am crazy to put myself at risk at all but I feel pretty strongly about serving in the inner city and I think I do some good things there that make a difference. That and after 18 months of being there, 1 stolen bike, and 20 or so death threats later, I still look forward to going into work every day. I’ll post some more on the steps we took later and there are some changes coming to the sites to mention as well.
Thank you for not giving up.
I wasn’t thinking about giving up but at the same time our address is plastered all over this (searchable) site as well as some other things that could be removed.
Wendy and I did have our address removed from the phone book which was one bit of advice that was given.
Why did you delete the previous post? Second thoughts??
No, I didn’t like how it read.