My Heart Skipped a Beat…

I teach Sociology at Cal State Long Beach.  I have a picture of Liberty in my office, and on my computer which I look at before each class.  Typically before I start my class I spend a few minutes setting up my computer which projects my lecture notes on a large screen to the class.  The background of my computer has a picture of Liberty standing next to me, at Black’s Beach, San Diego.  The day we took those pictures was such a great day.  We spent the day looking over the cliffs down to the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.  We were laughing, joking, talking about graduate school.  We ate at one of Liberty’s vegetarian restaurants, and spent the evening relaxing in the hot tub; just hanging out. 

The other day as I was setting up for class a student stands up and with a huge smile and points to the picture of me and Liberty exclaimed: “Hey Professor, I saw your friend walking around campus today!”  I froze.  My heart skipped a beat.  For a brief moment, I believed him.  Or maybe I just really wanted to believe him.  In that moment I thought maybe that Liberty really was walking around campus.  For that second, I forgot what had happened to Liberty.  I thought that maybe this was all just some sort of bad dream.  A few more moments passed, and then it hit me, all over again, as I was just about to start my lecture.  It was then I realized that my student had mistaken Liberty for his brother Amit, who incidentally is a CSULB grad student.  I didn’t know what to say.   Fifty students were just staring at me, waiting for me to answer.   I couldn’t speak… 

I miss you Liberty, everyday.  

jake

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I hope you do not mind, but I want to share my most recent painting just to add some color to this page..<3  I visit this site sometimes and still feel your pain..:( I still have a print of Liberty’s painting up in my classroom (high school art class) and I talk to the students about how we must create positive change in times of tragedy.  This is how we must go on.  I hope this gives somebody out there a smile..:)

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Sentencing for Aguirre

Dear Friends of Liberty,

Today was the sentencing for Erik Aguirre.  A guilty plea was entered by Aguirre for the following charges: second degree vehicular manslaughter (6 years) and fleeing the scene of a felony (5 years), for a total of 11 years, the maximum time for these charges.  Aguirre will serve his time at a major state prison, which will be determined next month.  Aguirre will also now have a “strike” on his record.  

I think Liberty would be the first to say that the above numbers are in a sense, meaningless; that a human life cannot be measured in “time served”.  However, with the things that a life can be measured in, Liberty certainly excelled at these things.

Yours, jake

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Court Update

Dear Friends of Liberty,

On Tuesday September 9th, at the Norwalk Courthouse at 8:30 am (6th Floor, Dept. S), all of you are invited to attend court with Liberty’s family.  There will be an opportunity to address the court where you can voice your love for Liberty, or other feelings about what happened if you choose to do so.  A plea bargain will also likely be entered during this day, and the defendant, Erik Aguirre, will then receive his sentence by the judge.  Once this is official, we will post another update. 

Norwalk Superior Courthouse (6th Floor, Dept. S)

12720 Norwalk Blvd., Norwalk, CA 90650

Court phone #: 562-807-7249

No words can describe or sum up the impact of the past 14 months or so, and they have indeed been very difficult for all of us, but Liberty’s amazing essence is still with us all.  I, like most of you, think about Liberty everyday and am constantly reminded of what an amazing and influential life he lived.  If you can’t make it out to the court, maybe you can take some time out of your day to take a walk and reflect on your wonderful Liberty memories. 

Much love & respect to all who have supported the Jaswal family and Liberty’s legacy.

for lib, jake

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Lib’s tree

The other morning, I was having a bad day and was feeling particularly low.  So I decided to go for a walk on campus at UCSD.  As I set out, I decided to go for a walk past Liberty’s tree that had been planted in his honor in Thurgood Marshall college.  When I got there, I saw the new growth of some little green pine cones on the tree.  It was beautiful; it reminded me that each day is a new day and there is always opportunity for new growth.  It put me in a much better mood and made me think of Liberty and his positivity.

I took a picture of the tree, it was taken with my mobile phone so it’s not great quality, but you can see the pine cones.

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Liberty

Linnea and I and some other friends from UCSD went down to blacks beach yesterday to remember Liberty.  It was a beautiful day and it was very nice to sit there for a few hours and watch the waves, the sunset and to remember Liberty.  At one point we saw in the sky that the clouds had shaped into an “L”.  To me it was significant so I took a picture.  I just thought I’d share.

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hey everyone…is anyone getting together to rember Liberty? I can’t believe it’s been a year.

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Tribute to “Agent of Darwin”

James Alvarez, a long time friend of Liberty, honored Liberty forever on his arm in the form of a tattoo.  All those who knew Liberty are likely aware of Liberty’s passion for reason.  Liberty was a strong believer in evolution and embraced our species’ connection to the natural world.   Liberty was also very interested in primates, and was a passionate supporter of the Great Ape Project which is a movement to give great apes ”rights” so they cannot be used for animal testing of any kind (for more info see www.greatapeproject.org). Liberty’s “myspace” handle was even called “Agent of Darwin”.  In light of this, James memorialized Liberty’s passion for rational thought and action with this great tattoo.

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Legal Update

From an article dated 2/05/08:

Driver denies guilt in fatal hit-and-run

NORWALK - A La Mirada man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to running over a man in a parking lot then leaving the scene.

Erik Alexander Aguirre, 20, was arraigned Tuesday at Norwalk Superior Court on charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and hit-and-run causing death.

He remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail. Aguirre’s next court date is March 7.

Prosecutors allege that Aguirre was driving the Chevy Astro van that struck and killed Pomona resident Liberty Jaswal on June 23, 2007 in a parking lot on Imperial Highway.

Jaswal, 28, was going for a doctorate in philosophy at UC San Diego. He played pool that night with his friends and cousin in La Mirada.

Deputies said he was hit by the van while walking in the parking lot. He was then knocked down, dragged about 70 feet then run over.

The van took off. Deputies found the vehicle four days later.

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