I am so looking forward to this weekend. The weather looks like it will be perfect here in Northern Virginia. This means we can get Ryan outside to take in some sun. It also allows for Sue and myself to take turns getting caught up on some much-needed sleep (I hope). The month of May was incredibly busy, beginning with our all day trip to Clarksburg, WV earlier in the month to tend to some legal procedures. That day, in fact, was the genesis of our tiredness. It drained us mentally and physically.
We have yet to recover.
Also, we must make it our goal in June to get our rest because July is shaping up to be a doozy. If the civil case against Austin Vantrease and Jonathan May goes to trial it will fall in the middle of that month for at least three days. Then, the next week, I’ll be driving to Huttonsville Prison to attend Vantrease’s parole hearing. Because of the remoteness of the prison in West Virginia it is an all-day affair. I’ll leave in the wee morning hours and not get home until late that evening.
It just never gets easier. If only these two violent criminal offenders would just accept accountability…
Wishful thinking!
They’ve been trying to avoid this since the instance they hid behind the dumpster to witness the lifetime of harm they caused. To watch Ryan cling to life as blood oozed from his ears. Then they quietly leave town and must be tracked down 275 miles away in their hometown of Newark, DE. They somehow each find the money to post $75,000 bail (as I recall) to avoid going to jail until the trial, but refuse to offer the resources to pay their court-ordered criminal restitution of roughly $100,000 combined?
I swear, exactly when does someone’s moral compass go so flippin’ haywire? Were they always pointed in the wrong direction? Have they spent their lives calibrated to evil polarity? Why, oh why, didn’t someone… anyone… check this!
Call me crazy, but I believe they are accountable. I damned well know that Ryan would hold them as such. Really, is there anyone with a lick of sense that wouldn’t?
Amen, Paula–well said and from your heart.
Ken, i know these these times with the legal part to deal with are beyond grueling and drain the very life blood from you no matter how strong you are. Just stay the course, i know you have learned to grab 5 minutes on the fly – for ‘resting’ purposes, if you can quiet your mind at the same time – you’ll have to continue doing that to survive all this. I can only pray, and pray double-time, for your continued strength and ability to keep focused, during these trying times. I sincerely hope you have a lawyer who ‘has your back, ‘ who is truly dedicated to you and Team Diviney. You may have to lean on him more heavily right now and he truly has to understand the support you really need from him NOW. Ryan needs you to do this for him. Our prayers will hold you up and the Lord will carry you through – win, lose or draw. Ken, you and Team Diviney are in my heart always and double-time prayers.
Love, Annie
Amen Paula! Good parents make their children be accountable for their actions. My parents made me return penny candy I took from a Woolworth’s store and apologize to the manager when I was young. That made an impression on me! So sad for Austin and Jonathan that their parents are not that kind of parents. Look at the citizens they raised. Drains on society, costly for the state of WV and Virginia.
Ken, there are some people in life who don’t understand accountability until they are old and gray — and even then there are many who still miss it. How does heartlessness form in a person? Where does narcissism come from? How is it that some individuals just cannot accept personal responsibility for their actions … i.e. it’s always someone else’s fault. How did people come to accept the behavior of re-victimizing the victim? When did some courts stop recognizing the need to help and bring justice to the victim rather than protect the offender? It causes me to wonder – at what point did so many let go of a basic tenet of human decency – “whatsoever you do to the least of my brother, that you do unto me.”
I know there are still so many wonderful people in our world just by reading your blog. Ryan’s friends and Ryan himself restore my faith in the good that people do. I thank God for them. Team Diviney as a whole reminds me that strong, compassionate people still come together in a time of need. Unlike VanTrease, May and their families, these folks recognize the necessity to help right a wrong. Alas, I have witnessed many occasions in which parents absolutely refused to acknowledge that their child had done something wrong and should apologize. When did this arrogance and disregard for basic civility begin? When did the notion of “my child would never do that and don’t you dare accuse him or her of it or I’ll sue you!!!” start?
When I was growing up, if a neighbor called up my parents and told them I was doing something wrong, the vast majority of the time I had to apologize. I could also be punished — image that!!! If I had done something so crazily over the top as to visciously assault another person (which in my wildest dreams I cannot imagine) — my parents would have been utterly grief stricken that I would do such a thing — and as God is my witness, they would be over to help the person and family I hurt. And they would make sure I helped too!!! They would not have been able to live with themselves if we didn’t do whatever we could to help right the wrong. They would have felt ashamed.
It is frightening to me that so many cannot distinguish between right and wrong — that some just don’t care or understand the concept of there being consequences for choices made. It almost seems like an inability to show or feel any kind of genuine empathy — akin to how a sociopath thinks. No caring, no concern, no regard for the negative impact on another human being. You see it online, in the classrooms, in the metro stations, at sports events — bullying, harrassment, violence…a complete disregard for the life of another person. God, what has happened and how do we make it better?
Ken ,
Don’t think they were ever taught “accountability” for anything ..Hiding after the horrendous
beating to Ryan, then running home to “mom and “dad and not one penny of restitution! Not Good.
I’m firmly in the ‘lick of sense’ category! Can’t honestly imagine it any other way.
I’ve always heard that there is something good in everyone — WRONG!! Need to re-think this!