Memorial Day 2009

Dear Sis~

Today is Memorial Day and, as is traditional, the TV has been flush with war-related programs. Some of them are historically interesting and informative, while others veer off into glorifying war. As a child, like most kids (boys, anyway) I was all gung-ho about war, thinking it was romantic, cool, macho, whatever. As I grew older, I became immersed in military history and maintained that interest well into adulthood. Even now, I maintain an academic interest, but I long ago quit thinking that there was anything romantic about war. History and experience teaches us that war is ingrained in our makeup - we humans are, without a doubt, a war-loving race, even though we pay lip service to the general concept of peace. I say "we", meaning our governments; the general citizenry in most countries surely prefer peace, yet we elect governments which consistently lead us into war. I don't know how to reconcile that dichotomy. Sadly, America is the premier war-maker among nations...

I was very pleased to read in my USA Today that the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond surprisingly gave some relief to Justin Wolfe, a friend of mine on Virginia's Death Row. I say "surprisingly" because the Fourth Circuit is the most conservative Federal appellate court in the nation. Justin is one of a handful of guys I know on the Row who may be genuinely innocent, and his cries out for relief. The admitted trigger man (who was only sentenced to 30 or 40 years) has repeatedly recanted his self-serving trial testimony that Justin "told him" to kill the victim. There is additional evidence that the trigger man simply made up his story in order to cut a deal with the prosecution (which he succeeded in doing) but the lower Federal court rejected it all. Just as a basic, straight-forward proposition - putting aside whether the trigger man (Owen Barber) lied at trial - you'd think hat society would ques ton a system which allows the undisputed trigger man to receive a 30-year sentence, while the guy who didn't kill anyone (even under the state's theory) goes to death row. This is the result of an out-of-control prosecutor who wanted to make headlines above all else (which he did with this case). This particular prosecutor, who is well-known in Virginia, has put a lot of guys on Virginia's death row, several that are very questionable...

I don't know if you were able to catch a compelling PBS series on TV called Africa Trek ? It's a great series, about a married French couple, Sonia and Alexander, who walked the entire length of Africa from Cape Town, South Africa, northward up the east coast, all the way to Egypt, then across the Sinai to Jerusalem. they walked for over three years, covered about 7,000 miles, battling drought, floods, lions, malaria (which they both caught) suffering much deprivation, all without any support team, filming it all themselves with a little hand-held camcorder. Check it out if you can...

Alright, Sis, that's it for now. Keep your chin up and you heart light.

Love, Bill