November 24th, 2003:

Dear Clarence Brown:

In response to the following well punctuated and grammatically correct email you sent me:

you should not have used ATT to start with they contribute to abortion on demand. As a reverend you should know better.

I’d like to ask that you consider a few things.

First and foremost, just because I use the word Reverend in my name doesn’t mean that I’m using it in a context consistent with the only use of the word you know. In fact, it says very little about my beliefs, my intelligence, or my morals. Unless you believe it is safe for me to assume that you constantly wear brown clothing simply because your name contains that word.

Secondly, even if I were the type of Reverend that you assume I am, why does that mean that I would have a problem with abortion on demand? Perhaps I am a Reverend that happens to support such activities?

Even if I were to allow you the assumption that I am both the type of Reverend that you believe I am, and that I am a Reverend that holds the beliefs that you believe I hold, why should I know better? Is there some general knowledge about Reverends that states that, not only are they constantly aware of all current political and moral issues, but that they are also aware of all of the viewpoints of every major company in America for each of these issues? Have I been left in the dark here?

I have no idea which charities and organizations any of the major companies in America contribute to. I don’t even know which charities the company I work for contributes to. And to be honest, Reverend or not, I don’t really care. To make matters worse, even if I did care, I don’t have any clue what "Abortion on Demand" is. But, if I had to take a stab in the dark and guess, then I imagine I would fully support that cause.

Furthermore, you shouldn’t work for DART. They kill over 14 children every year due to recklessness. You should know better.

How is it that even when I talk about something as simple and clean-cut as "AT&T is screwing me over" some moron manages to land on this page and actually figure out how to either leave a comment or send an email so he or she can make some clueless statement that is assumptive, uneducated, poorly-written, and critical of my personal beliefs? Why do they even waste the 3 hours it most likely took them to find each of those letters on the keyboard? What do they expect to get out of it?

It’s a ghost town here. With all of the people on Vacation for Thanksgiving, on top of all of the people whose last day of work was last Friday due to the Voluntary Separation Package, there’s hardly anyone here. I have a meeting with my new manager at 1:30 today to talk about all of the organizational changes and to give her a chance to tell us all exactly who she is and how it is that she is going to be our new boss. It’s frustrating, more than anything. Most of me wishes I had taken the package, too. Then, none of this would be an issue and I wouldn’t be scared to death about every new day that my job brings.

I’m now doing the work of about two and a half people. When everyone decided to leave, my (then) boss, assigned lots of new projects and tasks to me assuming that I would be able to handle it all since I pick up new things quickly and am a very hard worker. And he’s right, in most regards. I can certainly handle all of the new work. But something inside me just doesn’t want to do it. Any of it.

I’ve got a nice long list of things that need to be done NOW for my new duties. On top of all of that, I still have a very hectic timeline for the big project I’ve been working on. And the "customer" for that project is very demanding when it comes to dates and times that things will be accomplished. So, needless to say, there’s a lot I could be doing, but I just don’t feel like it. My back hurts, I’m irritable and hungry, and I just wish last weekend could last one more day.