Hour To Take A Different Road

All good things must come to an end. Today I handed in my two weeks notice to the ACLU of Texas and will no longer be working for the organization after that time. This is a really sad time for me - I've worked closely with ACLUTX for six years, and with some of the key people involved for nearly a decade.

What a depressing day. I hope there aren't too many people out there who feel like I'm letting them down with this decision. I know there will be some, and you have my heartfelt apologies.

Grits for Breakfast will continue as always (nobody was paying me to do this, anyway), and I'll likely continue performing work on similar topics over at the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, where I've been officing for the past year.

With all that said, find below the unexpurgated resignation letter I submitted this morning to mi jefe, ACLU of Texas executive director Will Harrell:

Sept. 20, 2006

To Will Harrell and to all it may concern,

Please accept this notice of my resignation as Police Accountability Project Director for the ACLU of Texas, effective two weeks from today. I am leaving both for personal and professional reasons - particularly regarding recent changes in the scope of my work authority that, in my saddened opinion, have rendered it impossible for me to perform my job in a manner required to achieve the Project's goals.

I simply see no alternative, at least for now, but to say "goodbye" to the ACLU, not as a member, of course, but in any official capacity working for the Texas affiliate. Mexican painter Alfredo Casteñeda put the matter more eloquently than I could in his poem, "Hour To Take A Different Road":

The road is shorter,
it has been straightened
and the useless curves smoothed out,
they have made it more logical,
1111111111111111more direct,
1111111111111111more convenient,
11111maybe even more beautiful ...
... but it no longer passes through our town.

I have appreciated the opportunity to work with ACLU of Texas these past six years, the last two as half-time staff. I wish the organization continued success until, perhaps, our roads meet again down the line. Suerte, amigos.

Sinceramente,
Scott Henson
Director, Police Accountability Project