Just like a Slattery

Actual thing my brother said:

“Tell ’em don’t make your brother have to come up here, because if he does, he’s bringin’ an ass-whipping. And he buys that shit buy the case.”

Do you ever just want to slap somebody and say snap out of it!

Because goodgodamighty I do, and it’s not even somebody I know.

It’s like a train wreck, and I ain’t ever seen no real bad wreck before, so I can’t seem to stop watching.

Daddy called me yesterday.

We talked about the weather first. We nearly always talk about the weather first, because if one of us is hot, we like to make sure the other is suffering equally.

I asked him what he was doing and he was watching golf.

I reckoned that must be exciting.

“Gets much hotter, the golf balls are gone hatch.”

“Chickens or baby alligators?”

“Golfers, dummy.”

It has been a weird weekend.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Finally put the drawers back in the kitchen and closed the cabinet doors. Now I need to clean the floors with ammonia to get the paint up and turn it black and white again instead of dirty and black.

I have some organizy things from The Container Store to put into use. Maybe, um, Tuesday. I should do it before the cleaning lady comes, in any case.

Today I went over to the Home Depot on Piedmont, the one with the best selection of things, and the one that my friend Ron, from college, works at as a kitchen designer and finally picked knobs and pulls. Naturally they’re special order, but at least I finally picked some and ordered them.

It was also good to see Ron, who I spent nearly all my spare time with way back when. Nobody since then has made me laugh the way he did.

I need to get up right now and get things together for the week and that’s all the news that fits.

Raquel Nelson’s press conference yesterday went very well, lots of media coverage. She is scheduled to appear on the Today Show (NBC) on Monday morning.

Thank you for your letters to the judge, and for signing the petition. Every single effort by each of you helps. If you haven’t done so already, it’s not too late.

Here is how you send a letter to the judge:

The Honorable Katheryn Tanksley
State Court of Cobb County
12 East Park Square
Marietta, GA 30090-0115

The appropriate salutation is

Dear Judge Tanksley:

Please sign your letter and include your address, otherwise it will be summarily dismissed.

In the interest of time, you may email it to her via her assistant at:

ericka.kemp@cobbcounty.org

Here is my letter, if you’re stumped, but please compose your own:

Dear Judge Tanksley:

I do not pretend to be an expert in the legal field, but I do recognize injustice when I see it.

The charges of vehicular homicide, reckless conduct, and jaywalking against Raquel Nelson were over-reaching in their scope. Ms. Nelson has already paid a price no one should ever have to pay, and she certainly was not reckless. Further, at the stretch of road in question, crossing even in the crosswalk (a third of a mile in either direction) is a death-defying stunt.

As such, I request leniency in her sentencing.

I do not know how we have reached a place where a woman crossing the street – who was, herself, injured – with her children loses a child and becomes a victim of the system that is supposed to be her champion. I do not know, and I do not understand.

We live in interesting times, indeed.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
my name
my address

If you are interested in attending the hearing, it will be Tuesday morning at 10:00 at the address above.

Thank you so much for your time in all this. Every person’s voice will help this young woman and her children.

This afternoon I spoke with Ms. Nelson’s attorney, David Savoy, and with her aunt, Loretta Williams.

There are a few things we can do to help.

Ms. Williams sent me a direct link to a petition that you can sign:

I know, I know, you’re skeptical about online petitions. Please do it anyway.

The second is you can contact the Cobb Superior Court and ask for leniency. I am waiting for the name of the judge. In the meantime, address your correspondence to the Clerk of Courts. HERE’S THE CATCH: you cannot pussyfoot around about this. This is urgent and must be done immediately. Sentencing is Tuesday. 

The third is you can go to the sentencing on Tuesday and help fill that courtroom. If you can’t go, maybe you can pass this along and someone you know can.

Fourth, there will be an appeal. Appeals are expensive. A legal defense fund is being set up. It will be tied up all nice and neat tomorrow, and I will pass along the information when I have it. $2 will help. $200 will help. You will be able to drop off any amount, at any time, at any Chase Bank branch. Mr. Savoy is in no way involved in her legal defense fund.

Tomorrow there will be a press conference at 11:30 in Glover Park at the Marietta Square. I believe it will be aired on WAOK (1380 AM).

I will post more information as I have it.

It is important to note that I do not speak for Ms. Nelson, her family, or her attorney. I do not know these people, but I know injustice when I see it.

Thank you for helping me help them. I appreciate it.

And now please pass this along.

In April of 2010, Raquel Nelson took her three children and went to celebrate a family birthday. On the way home, they stopped at Wal•Mart for groceries.

Mothers with children go to birthday parties and the grocery store all the time. Ms. Nelson does it on MARTA trains and buses.

Now she only does it with two children, because some fool who’s blind in one eye and had had “three or four beers” and was on pain pills ran over her kid.

And she might be going to prison for vehicular homicide.

Ms. Nelson and her three children got off the bus with their groceries across from their apartment, 600 yards from the crosswalk, at the intersection of Austell Road and Austell Circle. Austell Road is a “big road” – big enough to have a median.

Ms. Nelson elected to cross to the median and then to go on across to the other side.

She was toting groceries and a 2-year-old, and keeping up with a 4-year-old and a 9-year-old. 600 yards is about a third of a mile.

I wouldn’t have walked that far after riding trains and buses all day with three children and groceries to cross the street and then walked that far back, and I don’t think anybody reading this would, either.

Because you never expect a man who’s blind in one eye, half-drunk, and on pain pills to be out driving on your street, and certainly not one who has already been convicted of two hit and run accidents on the same day.

Because when the worst happens, you never think you’ll be convicted of vehicular homicide when you don’t even have a car, let alone do you think the fool who killed your child will be charged with first degree homicide by vehicle and cruelty to children and then somehow manage to get the charges dropped to hit and run.

Jerry Guy, the man who was driving that car, served six months and will serve 5 years on probation. His lawyer says that it “affects him still, to this day.” Believe me, mister, my heart bleeds.

I do not know how we have reached a place where a woman crossing the street with her children – who was, herself, injured – loses a child and becomes a victim of the system that is supposed to be her champion. I do not know, and I do not understand.

I do not know how 12 middle-class white men and women who have never had to take public transit can be considered a jury of Ms. Nelson’s peers. I do not know how this case made it all the way to trial. I do not know and I do not understand.

I’m so mad I could spit quarters. Somebody come over here and catch them up in a cup so we can give them to Raquel Nelson – she’s gonna need them.

Well. That was surprising.

I mean, it’s not like nobody in my entire life has ever decided to take their ball and go home, but y’all, we’re grownups.

Lemme back up for a second here.

Last week I had (very) early dinner and a movie with Jeff and Carlton, and we were talking about the miracle of Facebook and defriending and hiding people, and Carlton and I are in agreement that defriending people just causes unnecessary drama, when you can just hide them – you know, put them over there and look in on them from time to time. No need to cause awkward questions and hurt feelings when you don’t have to.

Now. For the record, every now and again, I have myself a quiet little purge, clean things up, get rid of people who I haven’t heard from since they requested the pleasure of my company (er, people who have hidden me, as it were), but I don’t make a big deal of it, like when certain people call other certain people up to tell them they’re never speaking to them again.

But anyway.

Last week, there was a conversation that occurred on my wall (very adult term) about Caley’s Law (which I happen to think is an idiotic knee-jerk reaction). The conversation was not heated, nobody called anybody else stupid, the terms liberal and conservative did not come up, nor do I believe there were any accusations of whoremongering or other illegal or unsavory activities.

I have had and expressed more incendiary opinions in more incendiary ways than I did in that conversation.

(At this time I will point out that it is somewhat weird to call discourse between a handful of strangers conversation.)

So.

The next day or so I noticed that my number of friends had dwindled by one. I didn’t look for who it was because Facebook is like that – people come, people go, people come again. But today I got to wondering where someone was and she’s gone.

I cannot say for certain that our little disagreement sent her over the edge, but it’s the last trace I can find of her. All of which is to say that I hope it’s not, because I like her, and I value her input. So if she’s reading this, I hope she comes back or at least sends up a signal.

This is how I do my budget, based on what I learned from The Empress of All Jackets, Suze Orman.

After an item has cleared my bank account, I shade it in red (because I expect there to be a lot of it, and I like red). Where you see a yellow line, it means that bill no longer exists for me.

Underneath the totals are smaller items that I note at the beginning of the year, such as birthdays that I plan to stick to a budget for but seldom do.

I don’t include incidentals such as gasoline and groceries and shoes because if or when I run out of money, I stop buying things, no matter how miserable it makes me.

I look at the two-week period before payday, each payday, so I can plan for the short term, and at the whole thing at the same time, so I can plan for the long term. I do not include savings here because that money is removed before I can ever get my greasy little mitts on it.

So, there it is. That’s how I budget. It’s pretty rudimentary, but I don’t need anything more complicated for my purposes.

Or, at least, that’s most of the year. It’s probably much more exciting than you ever dreamed possible.