Written by Mike Wolf   

I am being run out town for the sixth time in 7 years.

My crime: being afflicted with Dysexecutive Syndrome, a suite of problems with a specific and rather important area of the brain that together are called Executive Reasoning. These are processes that are involved in decision making and include short term memory, planning, execution, control, and even self awareness and emotional regulation.

Ironically, I was injured, twice actually, in a rental home in Idaho. The house was infested with black mold; though I neither knew it, nor that I had a genetic condition that makes me as sensitive as can be. My intellect and other cognitive abilities began to decline to the point where a genius with a photographic memory became lost for the first time in his life, and had a panic attack, also for the first time in his life. Two weeks later, I would forget about a pot of oil on the stove and would be exposed to lead compounds while extinguishing the massive fire (massive because there were no smoke detectors and no vent hood over the stove.)

I have since been run out of Idaho, Washington, Humboldt County (after nearly dying), Stockton (twice), and now, Bodega Bay, California.

This time around is the most heinous, and the most dangerous to me as it represents a credible threat to my very future.

You see, because of my sensitivity to black mold toxin, I cannot live anywhere that mold grows. I have one choice of where to live: my ship. She is ferro-cement, and I have found a way of making the ship so that mold can never grow on it. I have already begun the treatment, and have to get to Mexico to haul her out of the water so I can finish treating the hull. Once treated, she will permanently exclude mold. After that, I go to South America to harvest Pau D'arco and will mill it and use the wood to build the interior and replace the pilothouse. That wood cannot grow mold. So once complete, and when combined with amenities, clothing, and other aspects of the ship to preclude mold growth; I will be safe, and only on my ship, from black mold.

My efforts to get to safety have been continuously thwarted by people who react maliciously to my disabilities. And every step along the way has been far more difficult than it would be for a normal person not only because I have disabilities, but because people deliberately make this even more difficult for me because they perceive me as a threat, or faking, or whatever it is that motivates people to bully me, take advantage of me, or just plain kick me around.

What has happened most recently has been extremely disturbing, as it has been a county employee, or rather county employees, who have circumvented the law and systematically acted to maliciously treat and financially abuse a disabled person. Given the man's laughing at my car and trailer as he drove by one day, his use of a local con-man to spy on marina berthers in a quiet, close-knit fishing community, and based on the content of letters I wrote begging for discounts; it is quite clear to me that this man is sadistic, like the many sadistic social workers I have run across in my years since becoming disabled (http://voices.yahoo.com/sadistic-social-workers-preying-upon-8546913.html).

When I arrived at the marina, I did so with the understanding that their berthing fee for transients was $20/night flat. I had told them the size of my ship and was quoted $20. When I arrived, after a beating at sea which caused damage I then needed to repair; I was told by the marina that the rate was $60. I was nearly broke, and only went there because I understood the rate to be something I could afford. I only get $1600/month and it was only the 19th and I get money on the 3rd. The rate they told me I would actually have to pay was more than I had. They would not extend a monthly rate. I was forced to write a letter begging for a $20/night rate (http://www.wolveswolveswolves.org/upload/SpudPoint/SpudPointBegging.doc).

While I was being charged $600/month, other transients were being given a monthly rate but on a prorated basis. If someone stayed a week, they paid the rate for their size boat on a monthly rate prorated to 7 days; in other words, a lot less than $20/day. A man whom I later befriended was immediately given a monthly rate, no deposit, and allowed to liveaboard. Yet I was told, almost at the same time, that I could not live aboard my yacht if I paid for a monthly rate.

This is the very definition of discrimination, and it continued, and even worsened. In October, I was supposed to leave, but my crewman ripped me off instead. Then the marina came and told me the "discounted" rate was no longer available to me and that if I wanted to remain, I had to get on a lease and pay a deposit, and tha the lease had to start on the 1st of October. It was the 16th. They did not prorate, but did "accept" 5 days as credit towards the month, meaning I paid $458.50 for the month of October, plus an additional $220 for the 11 days they charged me $20/night for.

I gave the marina the last of my money for the month, and struggled to have enough to eat for the rest of the month, and was left without the ability to make repairs or to find crew.

I would go through three additional crew: one of whom I believe was an informant placed there, I believe, by the Sheriffs department, likely in retaliation for my publicizing their failure to act on my report of the theft (three felonies because it was off my ship, over $1000, and included my medical marijuana) and my having found the thief and with evidence of his crime!

My health began to deteriorate significantly as the boat became infested with mold due to the wet weather. The crew I found never worked out because they didn't understand what I meant by stating that I was disabled with brain damage. They thought it meant I would hand them everything and deliver them in comfort to their destination; not that they would need to work with me and understand that what they observed that was so annoying about me was my disabilities, not me. So without success at finding crew and my health continuing to fail, I had to find a way to save myself. So I went to San Diego to work for some friends while staying in trailers, guest houses, my car; whatever I could find.

And my health improved vastly. I discovered a treatment for the black mold toxin. It worked. I am recovering. But I still need time, and I still haven't found crew. I did finally receive the disability backpay; but it has been all but exhausted fighting this eviction. Once again, the marina has found a way to take the rest of my money and jeopardize my ability to leave even while stating quite clearly that they didn't want me there.

In March, I received a letter, one of many over many months, to my PO Box in Bodega Bay where my ship is located. It stated I was in the rears and needed to catch up. I called, told them I would pay a full months rent and whatever else I could if I had the means. They were satisfied. They cashed the check, then three days later filed an eviction; but served me at every other address they could find except the one they had been using. Is this illegal? No, because I never gave them my new address in writing in a manner in which I could prove to the court that I did so. The law has been twisted to the advantage of the County of Sonoma, who own both the marina, as well as host (and pay?) the judge who heard my case.

I found paperwork on my boat the following month stating I was going to lose my boat. I immediately sought legal help with the Legal Aid clinic, who told me they would help me except at the hearing. They helped me only at the hearing, not even so much as properly preparing an answer. I lost discovery, the ability to collect evidence from the marina; which honestly I never had a chance of having because of how they notified me. I was thus formally deprived of a fair hearing - of due process. This is, then, a violation of due process, a constitutional violation!

What disturbs me most about this is that the marina knew about my disabilities, about my financial situation, and they also knew I was in San Diego and not at my ship. This was a deliberate act. They falsified a court document, something called "Due Diligence" which states that they made every effort in good faith to find and notify me (they had my phone number, didn't call; they had my address; didn't write; they had my San Diego address; didn't try it. You tell me if they performed "due diligence.") There is no doubt in my mind that due process was not upheld.

And at the hearing, I stated to the judge that any decision I made that day, because of my disability and the condition I was in at the time, would be made under duress. Yet I was forced to sign a settlement agreement because I was given improper and inadequate legal advice, and not fully acquainted with the process. In fact, my legal "representation" relied on the opposing attorney for the legal aspects of the procedure to take my ship. They also did not complete my instructions nor their promise for the method they would use to deliver the check to pay off the settlement agreement; which gave me until Friday (4 days after the hearing) to cough up $100 more than I get in a month. I now have just a week to move my ship; which will require at least two weeks work to prepare, if I have help.

I have a plan, but it has holes galore and is not complete - and cannot be complete given my disability. I have been taken advantage of. Read the letters in that folder on my website. The marina knew exactly what to do and how to best take financial advantage of me. I am a paycheck to them, not a human being. This is sadism at its worst. They mean to either steal my only means of survival, or force me to risk my life to save my only means of survival. And all so they can fill the coffers of the same county that killed 13 year old Andy Lopez, and had a County Supervisor who was caught with his pants down on the job (and not to mention are potentially culpable in the death of my first crewman, who died in a car accident after the thief took meth to him.)

I do need help. The help I need is just a companion. That is all. With another brain to help mine, I can do anything. I can do everything I need. But the companion has to be a companion, not a person there for their own purposes. I am not a taxi. I am a human being who cannot think or act alone because of disability. I deserve life just as everyone else does. Yet I am being denied the right to life itself because no one seems to care about anyone but themselves, and most seem to only care about how fat their wallets are. And you who read this who do not learn, who do not help, are right along side that manager, working hard to take from someone who has almost nothing anymore, thanks to a medical condition and a stupid landlord who refused to obey the law.

I will move my ship, regardless. If I have to do it alone, I will. If I perish in the process, so be it. This country doesn't love me. No one cares about me. And it is quite clear that despite all I have accomplished, and even despite all I am capable of doing to help; no one wants me here.

And so I take my leave of you. I leave you with my story, in case you want to learn from it, but more likely so you can secretly enjoy my misery; because I know that reading about how miserable a driven, intelligent, passionate man is makes you feel so much better about your own suffering. What's different between us is, I am offering to help you with your suffering. I have the answers you seek. I can take you to freedom. But that doesn't seem to be good enough; you seem to want it delivered to you on a silver platter by a perfect specimen of a human being who will do everything for you. Sorry, but I'm a little too busy trying to take care of a brain damaged asshole who says he has Dysexecutive Syndrome to pamper you. But maybe if I had a little help...


Update as of June 8th: I moved my ship to a local wharf in the bay, as I was not ready for the open ocean. I was there for 3 days before I was told I had to leave, despite paying for a full month. I was able, with assistance, to get another week before I have to move. The reason I was told to move: the owner of the business said he was pressured to get rid of me by unspecified people.



Dedicated to the memories of my friend David "Wolfenzee" Ewoldt and my friend and crewman Cody Edwards. I'm sorry I wasn't able to be well enough to save you David. And I'm sorry I couldn't get help saving you Cody. I will survive and carry on your memory. For David, I shall place flowers in Panama. For Cody, I shall continue to fight for justice for you and for Andy Lopez to the best of my ability.