Venting - Why Crime is not Cool and that I now hate all criminal minds!

[Val Strate]

I have recently had a very unfortunate event happen to me. I was a victim of crime. This event has happened to me before and I realize that I need to be more careful, maybe it's a warning from the powers that be that I need to be more careful and less trusting of the world.

However... with that being said, I currently work in a line of work that I have to deal with budding criminal minds every day. I have to help them complete their court ordered obligations so they can begin the rehabilitation processes.

Now, after being a victim today of crime... I am reminded how different I am from criminal minds and how much the same I am. I want justice to be served, at any cost. I am rational about all this but inside, I am pissed and want to vomit at the very thought that I could be working with individuals that could have done the same type of crime that I am a victim of. I feel anger and violation that leaves me feeling embarrassed, stupid, exposed, and naive. I hate the feeling and it's happened before. Unfortunately... I know it very will happen at some point in my life again. I hate that possibility and wish I could do everything in my power from it happening again. I didn't grow up on the wrong side of the tracks and I don't give a crap if someone else who did and feels they have the right to victimize me, or feel that they can just do what they want to because they were raised wrong. I don't give a crap if the world is ugly. I know for a fact, it's not all that way all the time! Why? Because I LIVED IT! I did live in a world of "Mayberry or Hazzard County" I lived in a world that even though you get lemons sometimes there is always lemonade. Not a world where people have no respect and have the right to make a conscious decision to commit a crime and have no regard for their victim. You know what, sociopaths like that can be disposed of... I don't care how, but it's sad that they have to exist in this world. If you have no respect for your fellow man and feel the world owes you everything, you can take a hike and get the heck out of town because you don't belong in "Mayberry or Hazzard County", and if you want what 'we' "Mayberry or Hazzard County" have, they you sure are not going to get it by trying to take it from us. Oh, sure, we're suppose to be understanding. We're suppose to do things that can protect ourselves and our property from your diabolical habits. After all, you can't help yourself, you're a criminal! All of the good, honest, honorable, hardworking, self-respecting people should bend to your life because you just can't help but commit crime. Who cares if you cause heartache, pain, suffering, hey the world owes you right, and that sucker shouldn't have been there in the first place. They had it coming... WRONG! What gives you the right to think that way? What gives you the right to make a black and white world gray? You can justify your actions to yourself all day long but in the end... YOU ARE WRONG! We all are. We all are sinners to some degree. The difference between you and me is the fact that I try to respect others, I try to live in "Mayberry or Hazzard County", and I put myself through hardships in order to obtain reward. I have privilege because I earned it! I learned the difference between right and wrong, and I played the game by the rules and I'm finally winning at it. It takes honor, guts and bravery to live life with respect and to not be a coward and do the evil thing, or the thing that is wrong but you make it right in your mind. I also know people who have less than I and live in the world I do and have way more than YOU, and I'm not talking about material wealth. People tell me to start seeing gray in the world; no it's about time that the world started to go back to black and white. Now yes, I know that the world is gray, but if I see the world your way, 'gray', I will lose my world of black and white, which you have already stepped on and attempted to destroy.

Now for everyone out there who wonders who I am talking to...? It's the criminal mind out there. I just want all those who think that way... I am really starting to have a hate for you. Yes, it's a strong word but after what I have been through with the criminal world, I have that right.

Sincerely,

Valerie M. Strate

[Brian Coltrane]

Val, I'm sorry to hear you've been victimized. Can you tell us a little more about what happened?

Meantime, let me say that while fictionally I've represented the criminal mind, I don't advocate breaking the law. I do, however, have a mixed moral background and mixed life experiences, but that's of the past. Frankly, life treats you better when you play by the rules. And there is such a thing as karma, cosmic justice, whatever you want to call it. I have seen it for myself.

Peer groups, friends and family can make all the difference in someone's life. Unfortunately negative influences come too easily in this world.

In the course of your career, you may provide a good influence to somebody and help turn their life around. Or you may be dealing with incorrigible jerks who never get the message and worse - attack you in some way to show their scorn for the system. They may seem to get away with it, for the moment. Eventually though their habits and attitudes catch up to them and bring them down.

Sooner or later everybody reaps their own reward for their actions.

Don't let hate take you over, Val.

[AlexJackson]

In the course of your career, you may provide a good influence to somebody and help turn their life around. Or you may be dealing with incorrigible jerks who never get the message and worse - attack you in some way to show their scorn for the system. They may seem to get away with it, for the moment. Eventually though their habits and attitudes catch up to them and bring them down.

Sooner or later everybody reaps their own reward for their actions.

Don't let hate take you over, Val.

I have to agree with Brian on this. You work with kids who need help, and you help them find the right path to becoming productive citizens. If you have this hateful attitude, what exactly is that going to say to them? You have to have compassion, like Brian said not everyone grew up like Leave it to Beaver. Karma will come back to whomever harmed you, but these kids are looking to you to help them not scorn them...

Alex

[DaneyDuke]

I have recently had a very unfortunate event happen to me. I was a victim of crime. This event has happened to me before and I realize that I need to be more careful, maybe it's a warning from the powers that be that I need to be more careful and less trusting of the world.

However... with that being said, I currently work in a line of work that I have to deal with budding criminal minds every day. I have to help them complete their court ordered obligations so they can begin the rehabilitation processes.

Now, after being a victim today of crime... I am reminded how different I am from criminal minds and how much the same I am. I want justice to be served, at any cost. I am rational about all this but inside, I am pissed and want to vomit at the very thought that I could be working with individuals that could have done the same type of crime that I am a victim of. I feel anger and violation that leaves me feeling embarrassed, stupid, exposed, and naive. I hate the feeling and it's happened before. Unfortunately... I know it very will happen at some point in my life again. I hate that possibility and wish I could do everything in my power from it happening again. I didn't grow up on the wrong side of the tracks and I don't give a crap if someone else who did and feels they have the right to victimize me, or feel that they can just do what they want to because they were raised wrong. I don't give a crap if the world is ugly. I know for a fact, it's not all that way all the time! Why? Because I LIVED IT! I did live in a world of "Mayberry or Hazzard County" I lived in a world that even though you get lemons sometimes there is always lemonade. Not a world where people have no respect and have the right to make a conscious decision to commit a crime and have no regard for their victim. You know what, sociopaths like that can be disposed of... I don't care how, but it's sad that they have to exist in this world. If you have no respect for your fellow man and feel the world owes you everything, you can take a hike and get the heck out of town because you don't belong in "Mayberry or Hazzard County", and if you want what 'we' "Mayberry or Hazzard County" have, they you sure are not going to get it by trying to take it from us. Oh, sure, we're suppose to be understanding. We're suppose to do things that can protect ourselves and our property from your diabolical habits. After all, you can't help yourself, you're a criminal! All of the good, honest, honorable, hardworking, self-respecting people should bend to your life because you just can't help but commit crime. Who cares if you cause heartache, pain, suffering, hey the world owes you right, and that sucker shouldn't have been there in the first place. They had it coming... WRONG! What gives you the right to think that way? What gives you the right to make a black and white world gray? You can justify your actions to yourself all day long but in the end... YOU ARE WRONG! We all are. We all are sinners to some degree. The difference between you and me is the fact that I try to respect others, I try to live in "Mayberry or Hazzard County", and I put myself through hardships in order to obtain reward. I have privilege because I earned it! I learned the difference between right and wrong, and I played the game by the rules and I'm finally winning at it. It takes honor, guts and bravery to live life with respect and to not be a coward and do the evil thing, or the thing that is wrong but you make it right in your mind. I also know people who have less than I and live in the world I do and have way more than YOU, and I'm not talking about material wealth. People tell me to start seeing gray in the world; no it's about time that the world started to go back to black and white. Now yes, I know that the world is gray, but if I see the world your way, 'gray', I will lose my world of black and white, which you have already stepped on and attempted to destroy.

Now for everyone out there who wonders who I am talking to...? It's the criminal mind out there. I just want all those who think that way... I am really starting to have a hate for you. Yes, it's a strong word but after what I have been through with the criminal world, I have that right.

Sincerely,

Valerie M. Strate

[DaneyDuke]

~sorry, computer acted up~

Val, sorry you had a bad day. Hopefully, it's going better for you.