Another Case of Injustice in Ohio

I just received an email that brought my attention to a 1988 murder case from Geauga County which captured my attention years ago. The crime scene was familiar territory. I grew up there. It was a part of my old stomping grounds.

Back in 2003 Scene Magazine published an article about the case that made me pause. The justice system was out of whack. Small town politicians were playing politics with people's lives. Evidence was hidden, lies were told, vanity trumped justice, and as a result two innocent men, Bob Gondor and Randy Resh, have spent 16 years of their lives in prison for a crime they had absolutely nothing to do with.

Wednesday January 25th the Supreme Court of the State of Ohio has agreed to hear oral arguments for the case.

We are told repeatedly to "believe in the system". We are told "The system works."
Who is telling us this? The folks who are running "the system".

Please go to the website. Read about this travesty of justice. Offer your support.
Then take a few minutes, and read about the other cases of innocent people who have been wrongfully convicted. It is scary. It is disturbing. It is happening. It is wrong.
The justice system doesn't work all the time, sometimes it breaks down, and when that happens it can't be ignored, it needs to be fixed.

I realize this is not consistent with the usual education topics I write about, but I decided, today this will be an exeception.

Can bloggers make a difference in the lives of these two men?
I have no idea.
All I can do is put the information out here and see where it goes.

I know we have an amazing network in North East Ohio. Bloggers here support each other, read each other, link to each other, and are widely read. We are just beginning to understand how to work our network. We are learning to how wield the power of information and instant communication. We are learning how the ripple of one stone cast into the pool can be amplified and ultimately effect change.
Can we help change the fate of these two innocent men? I guess we will see.

Hard Lessons on Life and Love

"I complained that the road was long until I met a man that had no shoes. I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."

Arabic Proverb

Funny how trivial the daily nonsense in one's life becomes when you are called upon to help a friend whose life is truly turned upside-down. The bad hair day, the late delivery, the grating co-worker, and the traffic ticket would be most welcomed by the patient with a terminal diagnosis, the family evicted from their home, the single parent who loses a job, and the child whose father has been sentenced to prison.

This past month I have been busy learning about the things in life that matter the most as I tried to help a friend whose life was unraveling. Because I only write about my life and my thoughts, I shall not share the specifics.

What I will share is this:

You know all that stuff they say about love, all that feel good froth from greeting cards and love songs and self help books, about love conquering all, and love is all you need?
This month I discovered something rather amazing, even in my own little sphere of cynicism.
Damn it, they are right.

And that is all I can say about it.

"There is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love."

Thornton Wilder

"I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited."

Sylvia Plath