I don't want anyone defending me for this. A commenter has mentioned that I am an ex-con. I am. (I'm not positive if you can be an ex-con without being convicted of a felony but I don't want to get caught up in semantics, I have been convicted of crimes and have committed crimes that I wasn't convicted of)
I don't talk about this past of mine because I am ashamed of it. I made horrible choices, I hurt people and I hurt society. I was a bad person. I won't categorize the things I did as "mistakes" or try to justify them. There is no justification for the things I did or the person I was.
While I regret the things that I did, the only thing that I can do now is live my life the best I can in the eyes of Jesus, my family and society.
In fact, my past is part of the reason that I do what I do. It's my own personal restitution and a desire to make our society better.
I don't think that my past precludes me from speaking out against the evils and wrongs of society now, I think that it gives me a unique perspective. That I have to talk about this is further consequence for actions that I committed a long time ago and it's a good lesson. Actions do have consequences. Forever. People are accountable for their behavior. I accept that accountability and won't run from it.
As for my unique perspective, I understand the liberal mindset. It is the same mindset of a criminal. It is a lack of personal responsibility, no respect for life, no respect for authority, no respect for others. Liberals don't believe that a person can be a "bad person."
I do find it ironic that criminal alien supporters have jeered me when I tell them about how I've changed my life around. Some have even suggested that I should "be on their side" because of my past. They mock me for who I was while at the same time excusing people who are committing crimes today.
If I had been rehabilitated by a government program and I was speaking out in favor of social programs for criminals I would probably be hailed as some success story in the Fishwrapper. (they do those stories occasionaly)
Instead I speak out against the evils that I did and I'm ridiculed by democrats for it. I actually deserve the ridicule because of what I did but I still stand firm on my positions.
My positions against illegal aliens. (anyone else here used to hang out with them?) My positions on drugs. (let me help you, there is NO SUCH THING as "medical" marijuana) My positions about the traditional family. (feel free to go to any jail/prison and do a quick survey on how many of the inmates had married parents) My position of punishment for crime. (rehab doesn't work, someone has to want to change, until then LOCK THEM UP)
So, I understand completely if no one is reading my blog as of tomorrow. Or if you have less respect for me. (if you had any in the first place) Or if you think that I am a bad person. (I was but I don't consider myself one today)
So you can call me "ex-con" and I certainly won't argue with you. There is no comeback. All I can say is that I paid my debt to society under the law and continue to pay my debt to society under my concience (and other more tangible consquences) even today.
As a criminal I used to love the ACLU. As a Christian, a husband, a father and a contributing member of society I hate it.
45 comments:
The first stone has been cast. I don't follow that particular creed.
I've met you face to face. And liked who I saw.
Max
Take heart Daniel, you are a good person.
Fiction writers couldn't write irony any better than this. You've got to be shitting me!
Max, dchamil, thanks for your support. People who know me today know that I am a good person. I'd like to move on.
Anon, why is this ironic? You here stories all the time about ex-drug addicts using their experience to preach against drugs. (I have a different take than many of them, when I decided to stop using drugs I stopped. There is only a one step program. Step one: don't use drugs. But whatever works for people)
My point is, my positions still stand. If the argument is "was Daniel a criminal" then yes, you got me. (actually I got myself)
But if the argument is "should we reward criminal aliens with amnesty" then I still win on facts and principle.
Some of us who are most inspired truly know evil from having worked with the devil and now are committed to defeat him.
Daniel, you are not alone on the path.
Daniel - you're a cool guy. We've all made mistakes in our lives - some won't admit them, and others just haven't been outed yet. I read your blog every day, and admire your dedication to a cause. I also think you must have been a comedian in another life, because your wit seems so natural.
Keep up the good work and don't worry about the lesser mortals who have nothing better to do than envy you for having the strength of character to pursue a goal. I share that goal, and thank you for your perseverance.
Bobbi
well said, bobbi!
Those anon's who now feel it wise to ridicule Daniel are fools who throw rocks in glass houses... UNLIKE Daniel you are gutless ANON'S...
If I had been rehabilitated by a government program and I was speaking out in favor of social programs for criminals I would probably be hailed as some success story in the Fishwrapper.
I don't know your whole story, but if someone turned their life around by getting a decent job and that job was with a bigger coporation, chances are they would be on a Government program.
AKA: Corporate Welfare.
Many times Corpo's are rewarded with lower property taxes (others must be taxed more) by local Governments, givaways by all and flat-out free money from the Feds in the form of grants.
Lets cut all Government programs back, not just the "liberal" ones.
Daniel,
You have confessed your sins to God and changed your ways, nuff said.
You and Veronica are in my book of friends and that is where you will stay as I know what is in your heart.
John 8:2-11
Daniel I have much respect for you!!
There is a significant difference between a criminal and someone who has committed a crime and paid society back.
A criminal is someone who continues to exploit society, refuses to repent his/her crime, and feels no remorse for the crime in which they commit. A criminal typically feels society owes them something rather than feeling they owe their fellow neighbors.
Protesting Illegal Immigration is the right thing - these people, no matter which country they are from, are here illeaglly and are here to benefit only themselves.
Daniel - We have never met, yet the comments you speak of on this blog convey values that contradict what a criminal values. I personally will continue to support you and your efforts as I have for over a year now. Please do not take to heart the people who would bring you or your message down - what you are doing is right. God Bless...
Some of us just didn't get caught.
;)
You paid the price for your bad choices and are conciously making thoughtful, good choices.
What could be more moral then that?
I appreciate everyone's response. You all know that there is not an ounce of criminal thought in me. (I do work for a large corporation but sorry, what can I do...)
I have a conservative message to continue to get out and I plan on doing so.
You have confessed your sins to God and changed your ways, nuff said.
So did Charlie Manson. Let's let him out in a neighborhood near you.
So as a criminal, you can probably relate more to illegal aliens you label criminal than we can. So, what is it like, being a criminal I mean?
Also, what do your homies think about you leaving the 18th Street Gang? If you have.
Daniel, Well said. Gives me a new perspective on your writing . It actually gives more credence to your oppinions. My pastor always says that "someone with experience is never at the mercy of someone with an argument."
Gary
Daniel
That's a road less traveled but take hart you are not alone on it.
He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
- Proverbs 28:13
Only one Man lived without sin, and for this we nailed Him to a cross. I do not judge a man by the mistakes he has made. I judge him by the way he corrects his mistakes.
Daniel,
Your notion of criminal mindset seems to still exist with the stalking order you have against you now. Seems old habits die hard, don't they Buddy.
As for you Gully, you should quit the philosophical dribble and tend to those dirty ass feet. Put some socks on them or something. For god sake man at least wash the yellow off of them.
Rob
gullyborg -- Like hell! You seem to judge men pretty damn harshly for the "mistake" of entering the country illegally...or for disagreeing with you for that matter. Hypocrite.
Criminal Daniel? Takes one to know one?
anonymous:
like I said, I judge a man by how he CORRECTS his mistakes.
how is an illegal alien supposed to correct the mistake of illegally infiltrating the country?
BY LEAVING.
Oh, and "Rob," I'm not afraid to put my actual likeness and my actual name on the internet. Are you? Tell you what, buddy: my physical address is easy enough to obtain; why don't you come here with a rag and try, just try, to wipe the dirt off my feet...
Thought so.
Oh, I almost forgot:
When you refer to THE HOLY BIBLE as "philosophical drivel," you pretty much rule out any possibility of being taken seriously by polite society. Perhaps you should leave this country and go to Afghanistan, where they kill people for being Christian.
why don't you come here with a rag and try, just try, to wipe the dirt off my feet...
A rag? By the look of those things I am not sure a blowtorch would work, let alone a rag.
I agree that it's time to move on; so let's go!
Although if anyone here has led a completely blameless life, I'd be interested in a show of hands.
Then ban them, because they aren't being honest either themselves or with others.
The bottom line: every person ever born will screw up somewhere along the line. That's what we do. And that is why we have created these funny little constructs that we call "laws".
We know that people are going to screw up. We want to minimize the effects of that. So that's why we made laws.
The idea behind laws is that if you break them, you have to pay a penalty.
The problem under discussion here is the fact that illegal aliens pay little - if any - penalty for breaking our laws.
Entering the country illegally is a really gross violation of law.
Shoplifting is illegal as well - and so a guy who walks into a store and then tries to walk out with a turkey stuffed in his pants is likely to be stopped.
If we stopped the flow of illegal aliens into the USA, that guy would likely never have stuffed a turkey into his pants.
He'd have a job, and could buy food for the family.
I hate to interupt this love fest but where do I sign up to impeach George Bush. I have been a long supporter of the president and every effort to secure the safety of this great nation, but now I'm so mad I could spit. On the heals of the Dubai ports fiasco comes a deal hire the Communist Chinese to test cargo containers in the Bahamas that are destined for here for nuclear cargo.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060324/D8GHKOIOI.
This on top of the lack of border security, illegal immigrant amnesty, off-shoring, out-sourcing, lack of emergency prepairedness for Katrina and the aftermath, the lack planning and conducting the war in Iraq, oh man I can't go on.
Sorry, thanks for letting me rant.
There's no place like home. There's no place like home.
There's no place like home.
Sorry link doesn't work try:
www.drudgereport.com
Rob, I don't have a stalking order against me. Provide a link if you want to make baseless accusations.
Thank you for daring to be true! A lot of growth took place in your life for you to come to your conclusions! I too came from a path that I regret. I too have changed and I too now see a better way to live and think.
Now ff I were the organizers of the pro-immigrant side, everytime I saw Daniel coming down the street to do his little nativist song and dance, I would dial up the police. Daniel sporting those gang tatoos and his criminal possession of firearms and drugs would definately draw the interest of the police.
Better yet, if the media is around talking to Daniel, just hand them his CCH (Computerized Criminal History)and OJIN (Oregon Justice Information Network) report. Needless to say, you could probably get the media to write stories about Daniel and his fellow criminals that make up the U.S. Nativist Movement.
I really couldn’t understand why I was reading today’s post. What was the relevance? It took reading some of the replies to understand the connection. Is Daniel, now revealed to be a convicted criminal, somehow now in a position of inconsistency for speaking out against illegal immigration? First of all I don’t think I really see Daniels outrage being focused on the illegals. Rather it is the governments aiding and abetting of them that seems to tick him off. If Daniel is mad at the illegals it is for reasons that don’t seem the slightest bit inconsistent. The illegals seem to act as if it is their right not only to break the law but to not suffer consequences for it and in fact to be helped in it by the government. I doubt very highly that, whatever crime he committed, Daniel insisted it was his right to do so. There really isn’t a parallel here so not exactly any hypocrisy, or inconsistency. The idea that Daniel is somehow disqualified from speaking out because of his past is yet another try at the same tired refrain: “No one can really say what is right or wrong because there are endless shades of grey and who are we to speak out because our forefathers raped and pillaged this country and so everything we have now is ill gotten gains so what’s right? What’s wrong……”
I do know what Daniel means though as far as hearing “hey, because of your past you should be on our side” and the liberal mindset being a criminal one. I hear it all the time in my business when I tell people I am a Republican. I take it as a double insult somehow. It is as if they say “come on over to our side, we excuse everything”. They are saying to you not only do your actions need the excusing of liberals, but you should join them in order to ask for it. It’s disgusting. Daniel has paid his debt to society. At this point his salvation is his own, not someone else’s to grant by behaviours excused.
Well that's quite the turnabout. I don't have time to dig up the dirt on those crimes, so I'll make an ass outta U & me and ask some questions... But I won't cast stones; that's not an atheist's job - I'll leave that to the [self-called] "moral" inDUHivduals...
Roger implies you ran foul of drug laws... The weapons issue would be secondary since weapons are legal if you are...
Why should it have been a crime in the first place?
Society is far from perfect; many of the worst laws are holdovers from man's barbaric past. IMO, this Nation went drastically backwards from 1875 to 1950. Now we're picking up the pieces and even showing signs of degenerating again - see the war on drugs.
Ignoring an unjust law is a virtuous act. There is in fact shame in being cowed by something "just because it's the law"... That was what the guards at Auschwitz said to each other, I expect... the law is the law...
But "Ignoring an unjust law is a virtuous act" is what Daniel implied the other day when he said "I don't care what the Supreme Court says"...
OK, mass murder and using drugs for recreation are bad bedfellows as examples, but the point is, again, society far from perfect, and so is our over-lauded "system" for changing bad law. Anyone who disagrees with that is just smug... And stupid... our government has run completely amok. If the rights you cherish are still protected, just wait. Your turn is coming.
Eventually, every American will be either a criminal or a slave working for globalists who answer to no one.
And as for the illegal aliens, nowhere is the breakdown in our system more apparent than in this issue, glossed over as it has been since the Eisenhower administration.
And on a horizontal issue:
David the gullyborg opines "When you refer to THE HOLY BIBLE as "philosophical drivel," you pretty much rule out any possibility of being taken seriously by polite society."
Dave, you are a classic chauvenist. Calling the bible drivel is being charitable. In reality it is an ugly, sadistic semi-historical mess - and therefore well matched to the people it is written about... Dave, has it occurred to you "polite society" knows this and doesn't take the bible seriously??? Just wondering...
Here is what I think is truly incredible, and sad:
Reading the negative responses to this post, you would think that Daniel's enemies believe everyone who has ever done wrong should be locked up forever, shamed, shunned, shut out of society, and left to rot.
After all, they make so much noise about Daniel, who has done wrong. Of course, Daniel's wrongs were, relative to certain offenses such as murder, minor. After all, he didn't spend 25 to life.
Meanwhile, Daniel has done his time. He has admitted his wrong. He has vowed to live a better life. He contributes to society. He reaches out to make the nation a better place.
And here these people scorn him.
Well... WHERE WAS THEIR SCORN FOR TOOKIE WILLIAMS?
WHERE IS THEIR SCORN FOR LEONARD PELTIER?
WHERE IS THEIR SCORN FOR MUMIA?
WHAT ABOUT THE NEVER ENDING CYCLE OF CRIME-PARDON-CRIME-PARDON FOR CELEBRITIES LIKE ROBERT DOWNEY AND GANGSTA RAPPERS?
I find it ironic that the critics here are ready to throw the switch on Daniel, yet at the same time want to free convicted murderers who have never shown remorse.
Keep talking, assholes. And Rob, you aren't fit to wipe my feet.
It took nuts to write this Dan, I for one respect you for it.
It's not having done wrong that defines a man, but how he responds to his mistakes.
God bless man and keep up the good fight!
All this about Daniel's criminal record IS relevant to the issue of immigration crime.
In America, the law is supposed to apply to everyone equally. The law was applied to Daniel, why doesn't it apply to immigration criminals?
When we Americans break the law, they lower the boom on us. Why do these other people (immigration criminals) get a "Get Out of Jail Free" card?
Say, remember during the whole Monica Lewinsky thing, Republicans said they fervently believed in the shining principle that "no one is above the law" ? Guess that was all just BS.
It took guts and integrity to make these admissions. I doff my cyber-hat to you in respect and admiration!
Keep up the good work AND keep The Faith in Jesus' name. :)
Roger, the funny thing is, I've spent time at these rallies talking to police about my past.
Another example of criminal/liberal attitudes: Police profiling.
When I was committing crimes I was sure that the police were "picking on me" for always stopping me.
Funny thing is, since I don't commit crimes any more I haven't been stopped once.
When police stop people, even when it is for no apparent reason, it is called good community policing. They know what they are doing and they are protecting the public, not profiling.
El Razonador, I am going to stand by my remark despite the fact that I know lots of liberals who work hard, live by the golden rule and are generally good people. I certainly was not impugning your character, just the liberal train of thought.
Only a liberal would think that needle exchange programs for heroin and meth users makes sense.
I will absolutely concede that you were a better person than I was back when I was making bad choices. (you may be a better person than I am today, who knows) My characterization of illegal aliens comes from many sources, not just personal experience.
I will also say that I used to justify others criminal behavior. It's not right to do that. I can't and won't justify the behavior of an illegal alien just because he happens to be a nice guy. He should take responsibility for his actions and voluntarily deport himself and then apply to come here legally.
But don't think I am only for enforcing our immigration laws, I'm for enforcing all laws.
One of the worst things our culture has done to our children is call stealing music over the interent "file sharing."
It is not sharing it is stealing. If you do it you are a thief. Same with "copying" (aka stealing) computer software.
This issue is important to me in the same way as illegal immigration because it is an issue of our culture tolerating criminal behavior with no punishment and no sense of right and wrong.
Perhaps after every illegal alien has been deported I will make punishing "file swappers" my next mission...
Daniel, You have gotten a tremendous amount of support following your admissions of past wrong-doings. You have paid your debt to society, as they say. Case closed.
Except for those few who seem to think that because someone has done time can have no opinion of any kind about anything at all. That seems to be a prevalent way of thinking by the ultra-liberals who blog here. We would be well advised to acknowledge consider the source of their diatribe and ignore their mindless rantings.
Daniel, keep up the good work and after the illegals in spit of dopes like Roger and Anonymous (the ultra-liberal pontificator) and others of their ilk.
I missed removing the word "acknowledge" from the second paragraph above. Thanks for your patience with me on this.
Daniel,
I don'tknow you except through your blog. My perspective on this is that it is not important what you have done in your past, but how you are living your life now. from your blog, I would say you are living it much better than most. Keep up the good work.
I get a real kick out of people who have never "been there" but they'll tell you what it's all about. Like single people who tell you how to raise kids, or people who never served in the military telling you what it's like to be "in country", or people who have never done drugs telling you what it's like to "be high."
Daniel, I admire and respect your faith, your honesty, and your truthfulness. God's blessings!
Mike in Bonney Lake, WA.
Charles Manson moved his lips. Daniel has moved his heart. Certainly even a bitter, artless person such as yourself must see the difference.
Daniel,
You can be used in ways other people cannot because of your past.
Tha Apostle Paul killed Christians, yet GOD chose him and used him to do wonderful, powerful things. You have changed your life and that is what matters to GOD. As for the pansy ass anons...well we all know how much regard a coward receives....
Amy
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