Whistle-Blower #5

Breaker!Breaker! This series of posts is about getting my book Black Panther published and the dangers of whistle-blowing. I want to interrupt the present discussion about the danger of not whistle-blowing loudly and widely to tell about how Black Panther is being received. I recently printed copies of page 240 and distributed them to family and friends. I gave one to a Harvard graduate whom I had known for over a year without knowing she graduated from the oldest college of America with my William and Mary being the second oldest. His husband also graduated from Harvard. This very attractive woman keeps her alma mater somewhat of a secret. I had to know if she liked page 240 so I gave it to her very informally. She immediately made time to read it and then sat down with me to ask a few questions about the destruction of the Florida panther in Florida by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission introducing another panther subspecies from Texas, commonly known as the Texas cougar. I answered her, and was delighted with her observation: "This is compelling." It gave me great energy to have a Harvard graduate say my book was compelling. A high compliment.
    To return to my story, Betty Copland, Director of York County Social Services, called in a few days to acknowledge that Tammy indeed was one of their foster children. In other words, it took days for a public social services department to find out who their foster children were. To boot, this was from the social services department that thought it was the best. We were so confident of ourselves at Betty's agency when I worked there that I remember a carload of us passing the Virginia governor's car on Interstate 64 just outside of Richmond. As usual, we York County social workers were late because we were so busy doing good and important things. Gathering up social workers was like rounding up cats! We were attending some training at the Virginia Commonwealth University, and we brazenly passed the governor's car doing around 80 miles an hour, laughing at the state trooper driving it. He wouldn't dare try to arrest us. Those were halcyon days. But I realized those days were long gone as I tried to persuade Betty to get Tammy into counseling for support and ventilation before our foster child Steve told Betty's foster child Tammy that he was not going to marry her. Betty was neutral as she took the information. This was unlike her. Betty was a locomotive. She was either strongly for or against everything. A very decisive, strong woman. That's why most of her loved her. But not all as there were a few in the office who had felt the overwhelming force of her unjustified negativity. The two I knew were very quiet and withdrawn as a result too. Looking back, Betty must have been negative to Tammy getting therapy for some reason. Maybe she was resisting Sue Royster and me. After all, her agency was the best and the leader of social work enlightment. Of course, she couldn't say to me, "We're not trying to put Tammy into therapy just because you want us to!" But Sue Royster, my senior social worker, soon told me that they hadn't put Tammy into therapy. Looking back, I should not have let that happened unquestioned by myself. It points to my passivity and dependency. I should have done something, but I didn't see it then. It was my blind spot. I'm not passing the buck when I say, "If only Sue could have said, 'Does that have to be the end of it, Pete?' I'm a good guard dog. If Sue had said something I would have fought tooth and nail for the lives of Tammy and her unborn baby. But I was the administrator. It was up to me to find another way to skin a cat. I'm good at that. I just wasn't thinking.  Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW. 352-359-0850.

Whistle-Blower #4

    I called my former boss, Betty Copland, whom I still thought a lot of, at York County Social Services. I asked her if Tammy was their foster child, and she said she would check. We stayed on the line together and waited, talked and waited some more. A lot more. Finally, Betty asked, "What do you think is wrong with us, Pete?"
    People have subsequently said Betty was trying to find out what I would do with this information that York County couldn't tell me if Tammy was one of their foster children. I was not thinking that at all. I honestly and directly replied, "I think the problem is your social workers are trying to be therapists
instead of being out on the streets monitoring and taking care of their foster children."
    "You may be right," Betty replied.
    Finally, we had to hang up with Betty promising to call me when she found out. Obviously, this was a very grave error that York County Social Services didn't know who their foster children were. It would be eaten alive if it got out to the media. I naively didn't realize that I had become very dangerous to York County Social Services and possibly to other top county employees as what I knew could make York County look very bad. As I would inevitably tell Sue Royster, she would become dangerous to them too as would the rest of my small agency since we talked to each other a great deal. Unless you took precautions, all of us could be heard by everyone else in the office when talking or on the phone. Peter Nickerson MS, MSW. 352-359-0850

Whistle-Blower #3

    It was a shame Sue Royster and I were not close because when I eventually blew the whistle, a little bit, on York County Social Services, the powerful came after Sue first to get to me. I can be very protective of others (I am the oldest of six), and if we had been a more united team, I would have fought for her tooth and nail. When it comes to myself though, I have been passive and dependent. These were the qualities I used to survive an abusive childhood. The only time I was totally on and not afraid of the threatened consequences of my assertiveness was when my father came after my brothers and sisters verbally.
    When Sue told me how York County was denying that Tammy was one of their foster children, I told her I would call the director, Betty Copland, and get her help. Betty had been my supervisor when I worked at her agency. I was given a generic caseload to introduce me to working all the various services to clients. Betty was a large woman from a rural area in Charles City. She had a beefy red face, and one time I drove her to the liquor store to get a bottle. But I never saw her drink on the job. Most of the staff adored Betty, especially the young social workers who were a majority. She exuded a confidence that she could get anything done and was likened to a locomotive and a lion by the staff. She was a mother figure for us younger social workers. I had never known a nurturing mother and was particularly smitten by her. Peter Nickerson, MS,MSW. 352-359-0850.

Whistle-Blower #2

    Trying to prevent this tragedy, Senior Social Worker Sue Royster of the Williamsburg Social Service Bureau - the second smallest public welfare office in Virginia, called York County Social Services Department because Tammy like Steve was a foster child. Unfortunately, Tammy was in the "care" of York County Social Services. York County bordered the east side of the Williamsburg, and it was suffering the delusion that it was the best, most sophisticated public social services department or bureau in the state. I know because I was from there before becoming director of the Williamsburg bureau.
    But when Sue called York County Social Services, to her horror, she was told that Tammy was not their foster child. They didn't even know who their foster children were! My social worker explained to them that she knew Tammy was their foster child. No matter. She wasn't according to them. Case closed. In desperation, Sue turned to me. I was confident of Sue's analysis of the situation and dire prediction. I could see the train coming too. Sue was an extremely conscientious person, and I had witnessed the tragedies that public social workers routinely deal with give her headaches so bad that she had to leave work. But not before throwing up in the parking lot. Unfortunately, Sue and I were not emotionally close. One possible reason was that she may have interviewed for my job as director when I was applying for it too. She may have felt that she should have won the position over me as she had years of social work and social work supervision behind her, and I had only been a Senior Social Worker at York County one year. But I had also had four years as a vocational rehabilitation counselor, had a master's in rehabilitation counseling and had a pioneering paper on contract counseling published, sole author, in a major counseling journal. Peter Nickerson, MS, MSW.  352-359-0850

Whistle-Blower #1

    In 1982 my senior social worker, Sue Royster, came to me, her supervisor and Director of Williamsburg Social Services in Williamsburg, Virginia with a problem. One of our foster children, Steve, had been under pressure by his girlfriend Tammy to marry him as she was pregnant with his child. Steve was conflicted by this, explaining to his social worker, Sue Royster, that he really didn't want to marry Tammy and start raising a family as it would be, as he put it, "children raising children." Sue wisely suggested counseling, and he agreed.
Tammy had a very strong personality and was very much the decision-maker of the two. Steve's counseling was going in the direction of him becoming certain about his initial reluctance to get married. He was also working on finding the resolve to tell Tammy this. Sue Royster was an experienced social worker. Before I hired her, she had been a social work supervisor in the City of Hampton's [Virginia] social service department. She had supervised more people than I had in my office. The city of Hampton was large and densely populated whereas Williamsburg consisted chiefly of the College of William and Mary and Colonial Williamsburg. My social service agency was the second smallest one in the state of Virginia. Rural Bath County in the mountains was the smallest.
    Senior Social Worker Sue Royster's problem that she came to me about was that she presciently predicted possibly fatal acting out by Tammy if Steve told her he would not marry her. To Be Continued. Peter Nickerson, MS,MSW
 352-359-0850

Epic Of Gilgamesh: First Bigfoot In Literature

Enkidu, The World's First Wildman In The History Of Literature

   

The hunter found his pits for animals filled in with dirt and his snares pulled up. He knew who was doing this as he had seen him at the water hole, coming in with the herd of gazelles he lived with and drinking the water. His livelihood was being destroyed by a huge, hairy Wildman. His footprints were all around the water hole, and the hunter was afraid to go there. He returned home to talk with his father, telling him that the Wildman was "the mightiest in the land" and that his strength was "as mighty as a rock from the sky."
    This is from the Epic Of Gilgamesh, a heroic poem originating from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and dates back to 2,100 B.C. It is considered the first great work in literature. It does not have a sole author and was written on tablets.

 Shamhat,The Temple Prostitute

                                        
    His father advised him that this was not a job for a man but for a woman, a woman so beautiful and sensual that she was a match for the mighty. He told his son to go to Uruk and get the harlot Shamhat, a temple prostitute. The hunter journeyed to Uruk and approached King Gilgamesh for permission to take the harlot Shamhat back with him. He described the Wildman as the mightiest in the land and told how he was destroying his pits and snares. Gilgamesh, who thought he was the mightiest in the land and constantly fought other men to prove it, was interested in this request. He told the hunter to take Shamhat with him to the water hole, and when the herd of gazelles and the Wildman came in, the hunter lying in wait with Shamhat "should strip off her rainments to reveal her charms."
    The hunter took the incomparable temple prostitute with him, and they came to the water hole after a three day walk. They quietly waited for the gazelles and the Bigfoot-type to appear. On the second day the gazelles and the Wildman finally appeared. The hunter told Shamhat, "Uncradle your bosom, bare your sex, let him take in your charms. He instructed her to ignore the Wildman's smell and to"spread your clothing as he may lie on you. Do for the man the work of a woman."
    Shamhat did as she was told and "for six days and seven nights, Enkidu was erect, as he coupled with Shamhat." When he finally had enough, his head was dazed, and his legs were weak. He looked at his gazelles, but he smelled differently and the gazelles shied away from him and ran off. "But now he had reason and wide understanding" because of sexual intercourse with Shamhat, a common misconception in those times about Wildmen who had sex with civilized women.
                                                                                                                  

Gilgamesh, The King Of Uruk

                                                  
     Enkidu is persuaded by Shamhat to travel to Uruk and meet King Gilgamesh. She bathes him and trims the hair he is coated in. They journey to the city-state of Uruk where Enkidu is displeased by Gilgamesh's brutality toward others. Little does he know that he has been created because the people of Uruk have asked two goddesses, Anu and Aruru, the creator of mankind, for protection from Gilgamesh. Aruru washes her hands, takes a pinch of clay and throws it into the wilderness, creating Enkidu, the Wildman. He is their means to tame King Gilgamesh's arrogance. Enkidu and Gilgamesh fight, but Gilgamesh, though stronger and able to kill Enkidu,admires the strength and honorable behavior of the Wildman, and like many men who fight each other, they become fast friends. For years, they travel about making heroic conquests subduing amazing monsters. Enkidu eventually dies, and Gilgamesh first becomes deeply depressed and then terrified of death. He wants immortality yet he is only two-thirds a god. Finally, he reconciles himself to the humble realization that if he leaves a legend of good deeds after his death, he will live forever in them. Fortuitously this was something he had already begun with the hairy Wildman, Enkidu, and now his path is clear and bright. Arrogance has been bridled.
    The Epic Of Gilgamesh is a heroic poem originating from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and dates back to 2,100 B.C. It is considered the first great work of literature and was written on tablets.
    Nick's Analysis: In the Bigfoot literature, I have read, there is only one mention of following the precedent of using a voluptuous woman as bait for the Wildman. In the 1970s and 1980s, a group of Russians was making summer expeditions into the Gisar Mountains. The Gisars are in Tadzhiskistan in the western Pamirs, and the expeditions were to find the Almas, probably the most advanced of the world's Bigfoot-types. They were widely known to barter with humans, and some stories claimed they ate with humans inside the peasants' homes. The 1980 summer expedition had great success using a heroically built and sensual young woman of only eighteen as a lure. Her name was Nina Grinyova, and she was placed, willingly it is claimed, in a hollow near a river to attract an Almas who were locally known as Gosha. He appeared, began walking toward her, and she reciprocated by walking toward him. I have read of one person walking toward a stationary Bigfoot and others going after departing Bigfoot, but never one walking toward an approaching Bigfoot. Nina had been given a toy to squeak to attract Gosha so she squeaked it several times, probably out of nervousness. One would think that she had no nerves. Gosha responded to the alien sound by veering off and walking away. He stopped, gazed at her once and then went on. Nina went to the river to call to her friends there, went into shock, and fell to the ground. She recovered quickly and went on subsequent expeditions. She remarked that the Almas moved with the grace of a panther, never stumbling as he walked smoothly through extremely rocky ground. Nina Grinoyova is now a Russian journalist. The expedition leader was duly criticized for using the beautiful young woman as bait for the Bigfoot-type. But like Shamhat, she was successful in bringing a Wildman in. However, leaving a woman out in the woods unarmed to meet a Bigfoot-type is immoral and legally actionable- at least in the United States. Letting an eye-catching woman or man walk around the campsite in the buff, well guarded by men who are experienced hunters, with bear and buffalo guns hidden but instantly available is another thing. I suspect this is being done, but not widely reported. It is such an obvious play as all species have an overwhelming urge to reproduce and will do almost anything to do so, especially the male. Peter Nickerson, 352-359-0850

    Books Used:

1. The Evidence For Bigfoot And Other Man-Beasts (1984), By Janet And Colin Bord

2. The Epic Of Gilgamesh: The Babylonian Epic Poem and Other Texts in Akkadian and Sumerian (1999), Translated By Andrew George

Bigfoot Twists Bear's Jaw Almost Off

Bigfoot Twists Bear's Jaw Almost Off: Story And Nick's Analysis. From Raincoast
Sasquatch by Robert Alley. Published in 2003.
    This event took place near the Porrand Canal on the mainland of South Alaska in 1968. Commercial fisherman Patty [sic] Kristovich, Jr. told the author, Robert Alley, that his father and he were hunting in the timbered flats three miles northwest of Hyper on the Salmon River. It was early morning, and they heard something louder than a bear or moose moving close by. In time, they realized it was circling them so they waited for it to show itself. It refused to and eventually went away. The two hunters looked around. There was no snow to help with tracking. They found no tracks. Patty's father said to him, " It was good at hiding its tracks."
    On another occasion near there, the father shot a brown bear whose jaw was almost torn off. Plus, it had a front paw smashed. There were no wounds on the bear's body or any bite marks as you would expect from a bear fight. Patty said, "It gave us a curious feeling."
    Nick's Analysis: Obviously, I'm going to say that the bear's jaw was probably almost torn off by a male Bigfoot. Below, see picture of two brown bears fighting. As far as is commonly known, no picture of a Bigfoot and a brown bear fighting exists, not even the typical blurry Bigfoot picture. You can see though how accessible the lower jaw of the brown bear on the right is to giant hands with immense strength. Both sides of the jaw could be held and twisted. He does not tuck his jaw in like a boxer but extends it, opening it up for manipulation. The injury was the work of a hand not a paw of a brown bear or a moose antler or a man's bullet. None of these could almost twist a bear's jaw off. Also, the bear's front paw was either smashed by the Bigfoot stomping on it like a Mixed Martial Arts fighter or hit by a large boulder or club wielded by the Bigfoot. An earlier post discussed a giant brown bear in Russia thoroughly whipped by a male Bigfoot protecting his partner and their cub. The Bigfoot used a limb he tore off during the fight. That shows thinking under extreme pressure which is more man-like than ape.
    www.blackfloridapanther.blogspot.com thanks you for your visit. It is generally published several times during the week, featuring a Bigfoot story with Nick's analysis. Peter Nickerson 352-359-0850 or peternickerson12@yahoo.com.