So, where does this Alabama ex-pat begin today’s Sunday before Martin Luther King birthday homily?
How about: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”‘
And women?
Hmmm.
Women’s second class-citizenship in biblical times, chattels they basically were, still stinks up the place.
But then, a Swiss woman I deeply respected, Dora Kalff, who had trained under the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, kept telling her Sandplay therapy students, one of whom was my 3rd wife, “In order for any real change to happen on this world, the women will have to go first.” A great majority of Dora’s students were women, who did not seem to like hearing Dora say that. Or that, “You must keep doing your own work, for you can only take your clients as far as you yourself have gone.” Dora meant their own healing, their own spiritual work, soul evolution.
Dora and Dr. Jung both relied heavily on their dreams, and the dreams of their patients. If western medicine had embraced Dr. Jung, instead of Sigmund Freud, western medicine would be very different today. As would the western world. As would humanity.
My 6th wife told me that she was told in her sleep, “All women on this planet are in a rabid war with God, and that war is the cause off all wars on this planet, including all man-made wars.” She was told that after Jesus, Archangel Michael and Melchizedek had healed her of her father having had sex with her from age 3 to age 18, when she felt she had to leave her parents’ home, but she did not know why – until those three angels showed her why, and then all hell broke loose in and around her for about a month. It was wild. Inside of her. Outside of her. Then, for the first time in her life, she had an orgasm during sexual intercourse. And she continued having orgasms during sexual intercourse. With me.
She became like a radio-TV receiver from those three beings. She understood why all women were in a rabid war with God. Why would women not be in a rabid war with God, on a planet where women are second-class citizens, chattels? On a planet where about 2 billion members of Christendom, consciously or unconsciously, believe what Paul wrote: that no woman can know Christ, except through her husband, and would that all his followers be like him: celibate. And that Jesus was celibate, and he and Mary Magdalene never got it on. The greatest love story in world history, and it never happened, if you believe the Pope and probably every other Christian minister and theologian since Jesus and Mary Magdalene died.
My 6th wife and I probably would still be together, if we had not been financially broke and homeless on Maui. She became the Muse for the novel, HEAVY WAIT: A Strange Tale, which former Monroe County Mayor Shirley Freeman, left below, told me she loved, could not put it down.
In kindle and trade paperback at amazon.com, and in Spanish at amazon.com.es.
From this past Friday’s Key West the Newspaper (thebluepaper.com):
KATHY REITZEL WILL GET HER DAY IN COURT
Kathy Reitzel
by Dennis Reeves Cooper…….
Former Monroe County School District Financial Director Kathy Reitzel will finally get her day in court. Circuit Judge Mark Jones’ dismissal of her wrongful termination lawsuit in September 2015 has been reversed by the Third District Court of Appeal.
Monique Acevedo, photo Florida Dept. of Corrections
It was Reitzel who, in 2009, blew the whistle on former School District Adult Education Coordinator Monique Acevedo’s theft of $413,000 in school district funds during 2007-2009. Acevedo used her school district credit card to make thousands of dollars worth of personal purchases, including a satellite radio lease for her son, numerous airline tickets for her parents, a $1700 bed and the infamous “Ride Me Cowboy” adult play costume. She subsequently pled guilty and was sent to prison. Her husband, Randy Acevedo, who was Superintendent of Schools at that time, was also prosecuted and convicted of attempting to cover-up his wife’s criminal activities. He was sentenced to probation and was removed from office. Reitzel provided key testimony before two grand juries and was also a key witness for the prosecution at Randy Acevedo’s trial.
In June 2009, the School Board renewed Reitzel’s contract. However, in September 2009, she was suddenly fired. She filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in February 2010. Judge Jones threw that suit out of court in September 2015. She appealed that ruling in November 2015. The reversal of that order was announced this week, January 11, 2017 by the appeals court. This clears the way for the case to go to trial.
Chief Judge Mark H. Jones
According to the appeals court announcement, Jones’ order was reversed because issues of material fact exist– whether Reitzel voluntarily decided to retire and whether the School Board had good cause for her termination. In her lawsuit and appeal, she argued that the School Board had no reason to fire her and that she signed retirement paperwork under duress.
Read the Court of Appeals Order below:
Download (PDF, 66KB)
Responses to “KATHY REITZEL WILL GET HER DAY IN COURT”
Rick Boettger says:
January 13, 2017 at 1:42 pm
Hooray for Kathy–and Justice. Saved by a Higher Power from a rare error by Judge Jones.
Town Fool Sloan says:
January 14, 2017 at 12:41 pm
State Attorney Dennis Ward called me a day or so after Judge Jones had sentenced Monique Acevedo to 8 years in prison, and told me that, in his past, Judge Jones had a wife do something to him sort of like what Monique had done to Randy Acevedo. I said, maybe that is why Judge Jones gave Monique more years in prison than you were offering her? And why he put Randy on probation?
Many Key West Conchs were outraged that Ward had prosecuted Randy, a Conch. Those Conchs, and Harry Bethel, a Conch whose son Ward had put into prison for robbing other fishermen’s lobster traps, mounted a campaign to defeat Ward in 2012. Catherine Vogel swept Key West, as a result, and that’s how she became state attorney. Afterward, Bethel bragged about it online.
Maybe Judge Jones felt so sorry for Randy that he could not bring himself to give Kathy Reitzel her day in court? Of course Reitzel was coerced into resigning. She was told she would be fired, if she did not resign.
School Board member Andy Griffiths told me himself that, upon learning what was going on with he Acevedos, thanks to Kathy Reitzel, he himself went to the state attorney office about it. Griffiths also told me that he had to vote to fire Reitzel, because she had waited too long to blow the whistle.
Really? Do ya think Reitzel knew what was going to happen if she blew the whistle? That she would be fired? Do ya think that might have caused her to wait to blow the whistle, until she herself was going to be made a criminal if she did not blow it?
Do ya think Andy Griffith’s wished, and still wishes, Reitzel had never blown the whistle? If you know Andy, then you know that’s not a sincere question. Praise in public, criticize in private, is Andy’s mantra.
Reitzel was Dennis Ward’s star witness. Without Reitzel, Ward would have had no case. Reitzel is why Randy got convicted by a jury of his peers for covering up for Monique. Reitzel is why Monique then pleaded guilty, then her public defender Trish Gibson tried to prove Monique was bipolar and should get off light.
I attended Monique’s sentencing hearing. I was convinced she was not bipolar, but was a drug addict with an attitude, who had been convinced by her lawyer and family and hired doctors to try to go the psychiatric route. I suddenly felt awful for Monique. Sentenced to prison. Sentenced to psychiatry.
The next day or the day after, Dennis Ward called me to say Judge Jones had had a wife do something similar to him.
Hell, the School Board should have given Reitzel a medal and a raise and a promotion. Maybe a jury will give Reitzel a good raise. She deserves it.
Sancho Panza got a bee in his bonnet yesterday over this Facebook thread I had published the day before:
Vicki
Fighting!!!! Nasty Cancer!!! Well, I’m gonna say bye-bye to some of you. It’s been a long ride, Now I’m watching the ones who will have the time to read this post until the end. This is a little test, just to see who reads and who shares without reading! If you have read everything, select “like” so I can put a thank u on ur profile! I know that 97% of you won’t broadcast this, but my friends will be the 3% that do.
Please, in honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer, or even had cancer, copy, and paste.
Write “done” in comments when you’re finished. I can put a thank u on ur profile! I know that 97% of you won’t broadcast this, but my friends will be the 3% that do.
Please, in honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer, or even had cancer, copy, and paste. Write “done” in comments when you’re finished.
Sloan Bashinsky It reads, Vicki, like you are dying of cancer, and are furious, terrified of God (going to God), and you are blaming just about everyone else for it.
Vicki
It’s from someone else Sloan. I am well. Sorry for the confusion.
Sloan Bashinsky I saw it was from someone else before I replied, but at first I thought it was from you, Vicki, and knowing you pretty well, it seemed off, not like you. I saw a separate FB post from who appeared to be the author. I know him pretty well too, and I’m sorry he has such a serious problem, but what I wrote to you Vicki still is my sentiment. “We all die. It isn’t pretty, or fun, as I have observed. It is, I suppose, the last of life’s real tests, unless it happens really fast or instantly. You and I know life continues, just the car we are driving and the clothes we are wearing and our worldly possessions get left behind. In the Eastern religions, for example, death is simply a passage in a long continuum. Same in other religions. But in the 3 religions descended from Abraham, physical death is an extinction event, so to speak, and depending on which view is held, some get to go to heaven and live happily ever after, and most have a different experience. Really unfortunate outlook, I feel. Fortunately, God is not bound by it.”
Sancho wrote to Sloan privately:
You and I, Sloan, can look back and say that perhaps life has offered us choices… but death comes to living things at all stages of life… perhaps the mother of that baby blown-up in Aleppo would cry out in anguish at your idea that life is a testing ground for us… that would be a truly cruel “test” for an innocent child who never had a choice… as to what happens after we die? Your dreams sound nightmarish to me… why would you want to go into that World after you die? Reincarnation/Karma? Coming back and back to repeat the “lessons”, that too is cruel, as these lessons can be painful and we seem to forget everything we learned, inside the old car or coat pocket you leave behind when you die.
The truth is that consciousness is a double edge sword, it allows us to be aware of what’s good for us, so we can pursue it, but also what can hurt us, so we can avoid it… and death is seen by most of us, as the ultimate unavoidable evil enemy, an enemy for which we have invented all forms of weapons and shields to keep at bay. Medicine and Religion are the best tools we have come up to deal with it… yet, something doesn’t seem right to me about this simplistic way of looking at the picture… I see most of us acting in ways that are destructive, that cause pain to ourselves and others… people don’t follow reason or logic, they don’t follow doctor’s advice or priest’s admonitions, they seem to be puppets of the same forces that are constantly changing everything inside ourselves and outside ourselves.
You can name these forces “angels” and most people would smile thinking you’re either nuts or simple minded, yet, if they were to examine their own actions, they would have a difficult time justifying them without evoking some social construct like, duty, fidelity, patriotism… or some emotional justification like fear of The Man, hatred for The Man, love of God, fear of God, etc., etc., in the end, these “justifications” are just convenient concepts, as immaterial and disconnected from reason and logic, as “the Devil made me do it” … which is actually a lot closer to the truth, if you define The Devil as an agent of change and upheaval.
We think that if we can name something we can make it real, we can give it solidity, we can fit it in with the rest, the whole…. Sloan, every day you blog, you name names, you call things as you see them… something is driving you in a way that I have never seen anybody been driven… seems like a lot of the people you come in contact with are also driven by forces that are still actively churning the primordial soup, or swamp, from where we all spawned… It’s there still time to put the frog back in the can? Oink!
I replied:
The child who died in Aleppo was released from that hell, the mother stayed behind in it, seriously exacerbated by the loss of her child. Having lost a child myself, in the throes of a rabid argument with his mother, I know what losing a child is like. The parent suffers horribly. The child is back with the spirit realm. The bereaved parent is tested, and tested, and tested. The outcome never known. Each bereaved parent is different. What I have never been drawn into is being all torn up over my parents dying. It was not easy, but it was not life-shattering. The most difficult death for me emotionally, was my black mammy dying. The most difficult immediately, for me. My mother’s death, at age 44, or so, was grueling for me. I never wept. Learning of my father’s death, I wept because we had not patched it up between us; but I was happy for him he was gone and free from his physical infirmities. His wake, though, bugged the shit out of me, because of how the minister handled it. I wanted to punch that slimy, avaricious asshole’s lights out, but I held my peace.
I don’t suppose there is anyone l know, who can grok my bizarre transit. For me, dreams tell what is really going on in my worldly affairs, in the world itself, if I have that kind of dream. For me, dreams are essential to navigating the various encounters life serves up. That way of living has caused me a great deal of grief socially, in my family, with women, and in politics. The Birmingham woman wanted me to walk away from that, which would have been like me walking away from my body.
The Devil does not like people to change. Jesus, on the other hand, in the Gospels, was ever after people to change. Many in the establishment viewed him as a devil. Or as, The Devil. He trained me. As did Archangel Michael. And Magdalene Melchizedek. And Kali. Quite a tag team event. Of course I cannot prove that. Nor can anyone disprove it. And that’s where psychiatry and most religious people, and most people get lost, when they rub against one like me. As they try to shrink God down to something they can understand, even control, they try to do the same to me.
Perhaps it would be more productive, if they wondered if it was possible I’m telling it true, and if so, what is it about them that they are not having similar experiences? Well, I suppose that’s too scary to wonder. Much safer to make me out to be crazy, for the alternative is not acceptable. That’s what my father came up against. And the rest of my blood family. And many friends. And many enemies. And the woman suing me in Key West. I live on this world still, but am no longer of it, even though it inflicts great suffering on me, and perhaps I on it.
Great suffering is what drove me to seek God for help, after everything humanity had to offer did not help me. The suffering continued, for sure, but something else came into the picture, which was palpable, sometimes visible, sometimes audible, and it took over my dreams and produced other ways of communicating with me, not always pleasant. What I don’t get is why society wants to shut me up, instead of study me, maybe society might learn something. But then, is that possible?
Sancho also had replied to my taking down everything I had published about what happened after the bloom left the rose during my recent trip to Birmingham, Alabama, as reported in yesterday’s Yesterday was … interesting post at goodmorningkeywest.com:
I actually put together an email advising, one last time, for you to do exactly what you did, but I changed my mind and never sent it… mostly because I didn’t really want any more of the negative energy from that mess to spill over to my plate… I am very relieved that you changed course and perhaps now there will be a little harmony in The Force! As to why she got upset and changed her mind? She probably thought you would keep her identity secret and was taking a chance that you could be reintegrated into the fold of professional society… probably by her side as a grateful friend or better! Both of you underestimated how difficult change is for people our age. Perhaps a sincere heart to heart apology from you will settle this case out of the courts… it might be worth trying via a third party!
A true lover of wisdom has hands too busy to hold on to anything! He learns by doing and every pebble in the path becomes her teacher! Oink
I replied:
I was keeping her identity secret. Steadfastly.
Yet she had told the property manager who would be staying in the apt. She had put me onto her car insurance. And onto her credit card, and had a card on that account issued in my name. She bought me the First Class airplane ticket in my name, with her credit card. We had email about her wanting to be anonymous, who she was was nobody’s business and they should not wonder, and I teased her, said of course people want to know who she is and they will just have to keep wanting to know, that was part of the gestalt, but I didn’t say gestalt, I used another word, perhaps mystique.
I am at loose ends how to proceed next. Very definitely, I was steered in dreams toward the Answer I e-filed to her Complaint, and in my later answers to her later e-filings. Then, she went after the web host for all 3 of my websites, I imagine she threatened to sue, and the result was what I posted today. I was okay with doing that. I would have been okay with doing it when you told me to lay low, but the dreams were not in agreement with that approach at that time.
That was all before I came to know of her apparently widespread use of litigation to bully her way through life. The first I knew of that was her former husband and neighbor across the street from her. Then, I spoke with the police chief of her city, and then the city attorney. She is causing, and has caused, a lot of people a great deal of grief by using litigation, the police, and she seems to get pleasure from it. That’s what I put to the angels riding the lower keys shuttle tonight. Just her and me, sure, I can walk away, play dead, wait on the judge to crucify me, or not. But what about all the other? That’s to be left alone? I don’t know.
Would suit me just fine to croak in my sleep tonight, but I figure there are too many people wanting, needing me to stick around for various reasons for me to be so lucky as to check out of here tonight.
Wonder if she is going to advise the Court I took everything down off my websites and Facebook, which I published after the bloom left the rose? She had not complained about anything I published before then, other than she did not seem happy that I was still writing about Key West and Kari, and I was still writing about angels. Just hours before I got on the Delta flight out of Key West, she laid this below on me. Maybe that’s where I fucked up. Maybe that’s when I should have said, thanks, but no thanks. And maybe that’s when she should have said, so sorry, don’t come, it won’t work.
From:
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016 3:55:46 AM
To: ‘Sloan Bashinsky’
Subject: You are almost home.
I hope you have a beautiful flight and safely land in good ol’ Bham. It’s cold here so I hope you have a jacket with you.
I was issued two sets of keys to the apt. I am leaving one set for you and keeping a set.
I will not, under any circumstances, enter the apt unless invited to do so by you. That is YOUR home and I will respect your privacy at all times.
If any work orders for repairs to the apartment need to be filed, I must be the one to do it. You cannot contact the apartment management yourself. You are not listed on the lease and as far as they are concerned, you are visiting me, not living there. If any repairs are necessary, please email me and let me handle it.
When the lease expires at the end of July, I must give 60-days’ notice of intent to vacate, which means I will tender notice of my intent to vacate the first of May. Otherwise, the lease auto-renews, which I do not want to do.
If you want to stay in the apt, you can lease it yourself at $650/monthly. If you decide to stay in the apt, we will decide what to do with the furnishings at that time.
I hope, within the next seven months, that you will get your law license and begin generating enough income to maintain the apt. It is going to take two years or more for you to heal from being homeless and to reintegrate into mainstream society. Having a home is essential to your healing and your ability to move forward toward having peace of mind and sense of personal security.
If you get your law license, you can do so many things from home. Some lawyers who handle death penalty appeals work from home.
If, at the end of seven months in the apartment, you are not generating enough income to support yourself, we can discuss what options are available at that time.
Under no circumstances do I want to see you homeless again. Therefore, we will take each step at a time and hope for the best outcome for you with the financial support I am giving to you.
You have taken an important first step and I am very happy for you that you have chosen to come here. While I will stand behind you and support you, I will not be involved with you or your daily life. My involvement will be limited to being on hand for you when you need me. Otherwise, I hope you will open some new doors to complementary relationships with some of your lawyer peers, and other professionals, including a mental health counselor and a family physician.
I suggest that you stay away from the opposite sex and don’t complicate your life by forming attachments to any dysfunctional people in the Birmingham area. Dysfunctional people bring a lot of high drama into other people’s lives. It is easy to get addicted to drama and I believe you have had enough of that with Kari and Key West.
When you are involved with dysfunctional people it takes the focus off your own life and onto theirs. That is not what is in your best interest right now. Keep the focus on yourself, your own healing, your own financial independence, and don’t get distracted by the drama that Kari and others bring into your world.
Going forward, I hope that you will keep your ideas about “angels” to yourself and understand that most people are not in the least interested in hearing about that. Also if you continually discuss what “angels” tell you to do, etc., rest assured that you will sabotage other’s trust and confidence in your mental stability. That does not mean that you will not continue to feel and think the way you do – at least for now, but if you plan to reintegrate in mainstream, that part of your life needs to be kept very low key and private.
If you refuse to keep it low key and private you are going to sabotage your opportunities because no employer is going to hire you if you continue to express those thoughts expecting people to understand that part of your life and psyche. I would hope you have had enough self-sabotage and that you are ready for something better.
Lastly, I do not want to see my communication with you to wind up on the Internet and on your blog. I am a very private person and expect you to respect my wishes in that regard. What I say and do regarding you is extremely private and not for anyone else’s eyes and ears.
The Internet is not your therapist. And publishing all of your thoughts for public consumption will surely sabotage your professional opportunities.
From: Sloan Bashinsky
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016 11:35 AM
To:
Subject: Re: You are almost home.
Thanks.
This for many years has been and felt like my home, Bham a distant relation, to which I feels I am returning to visit, not knowing the future. Nor, as far as I know, does anyone else know the future.
I don’t feel you understand what the angels have done to me. My family does not understand. Kari is only now getting some glimpse. Women I was with before her, who actually lived with me, got lots of glimpses, and of angels engaging them, too, in many different ways, including physical sensations, voices, phenomenon, dreams, visions …
No mental health practitioner who had me as a patient was anywhere close to being able to comprehend what I was experiencing, and were themselves totally out of their depth and were oblivious to the obvious attempts of the angles to engage and communicate with them directly, though me, through quirky experiences.
One-dimensional people.
What you propose for my “recovery” never worked before.
You first wrote there were no strings attached to your offer.
But there are strings. Lots of them. I think, though, you do not yet know the real reason, or reasons, you made your incredibly kind and generous offer, and I also think that will become clear after I get to Bham and time passes.
I’m going off line now and will not be back online until I get to Birmingham, and perhaps not until tomorrow, as I have no cable for my laptop to plug into a cable server and will have to find a cable somewhere for my laptop after I get to Bham.
Sloan
From:
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016 2:59 PM
To: ‘Sloan Bashinsky’
Subject: WIFI PASSWORD
caec1d99
From: Sloan Bashinsky [mailto:sloanbashinsky@outlook.com]
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016 4:22 PM
To:
Subject: Re: WIFI PASSWORD
Thanks, am in Atlanta airport using its free wi-fi. Good flight. Comfy seat next to window. The charge for wi-fi on airplane. Bham flight on time, so far. Announcing boarding soon. Cold here. Darn glad I have my cold weather coat with me. Have not been on airplane since Dec 2000. My sinuses started to hurt, especially the left upper. Pulled out the nose spray I told you about, that helped.
From:
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016 7:00:11 PM
To: ‘Sloan Bashinsky’
Subject: Follow up
The apt is ready but has no food there. I decided to let you buy your own toiletries and food.
Here are a few repairs that will be made to the apt:
The bathroom fan and light is one unit and has been removed. They have ordered a new one. Therefore there is no light in the bathroom. I will bring a lamp over to put in the bathroom until the new fan/light is installed.
The toilet tank takes a long time to fill up. Would you turn the valve all the way on and see if it fills up faster? If not, I need to put in a work order to fix it.
The bedroom closet door is broken and they have ordered a new one.
The keys to the unit and car and the credit card are on top of the microwave.
I left the plastic on the mattress and box spring in order to keep them clean. If it bothers you, please remove the plastic.
I am buying some cushions for the rattan chair in the bedroom.
Attached is a photo of the Spectrum WiFi password that is taped to the back of the unit on the desk.
My movers did not know how to put the metal shelves together so I hope you can figure it out so that you will have a cupboard and shelves for clothes and towels, etc.
Call me whenever you feel like it or need something. The car is full of gas and is the dark green/blue Dodge Stratus parked under cover. The registration and insurance are in the glove compartment.
From: Sloan Bashinsky
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2016 10:29 PM
To:
Subject: Re: Follow up
went to piggly wiggly, cooking vegie and stew meat soup right now; have gotten into wifi, have not yet figured out how to work the TV; pretty good batting average, given I almost never can figure out on my own how to work TV control device; you car sounds great, drives easy; piggly wiggly pretty well stocked; will check out Asian market on 7th Avenue tomorrow, to see if it’s still there; used to buy bock choi, mustard greens, daikon raddish, seaweed and peanut oil there; also need to find brown rice, I know I can pay an arm and a leg for it at Golden Temple; apt smells good with that soup cooking …. and it’s comfy, and so far, really quiet; will check toilet later; if it doesn’t behave, I can always hang over the side of the porch
From:
Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2016 4:10 AM
To: ‘Sloan Bashinsky’
Subject: Cable channel guide and remote control information
http://www.charter.net/tv/guide/
Charter.net TV Guide
www.charter.net
Limited Programming Available You may be unable to watch some channels, TV shows and movies when you’re not connected to your Spectrum Internet service.
**********************************
I will e-file an answer to her motion to strike my answer to her motion to strike my answer to her motion in limine. Her motion in limine asks the court let me only introduce my correspondence to her, but not her correspondence to me. That entire online correspondence speaks for itself, out of her and my own Facebook chat and emails. That correspondence shows what actually went down. She does not want the world, or the Court, to see what actually went down. That online correspondence is my defense to her cyberstalking and libel allegations. She is trying to win the lawsuit on the pleadings, so the pleadings need to contain all of the evidence. I hate clogging up the Court file with 70 or so pages of her and my online correspondence, but, unless I can figure out to create a link for the PFD file I made, which contains all of her and my online correspondence, she has left me no other choice, since I no longer have a link on my websites, which I can give to the Court for it to open and read all of her and my online correspondence.
It occurred to me yesterday, that if she was so determined to get rid of her and my online correspondence, she could have bought it from me. The number $100,000 came immediately into my thoughts.
sloanbashinsky@outlook.com