Last week my daughter, Kari, celebrated her twenty-first birthday. A landmark anniversary ,for sure. She spent her birthday eve (and midnight when she became legal) in Morgantown, WV, home of West Virginia University where she attends, surrounded by friends. She came home on her birthday to be with her family. We celebrated it with her […]
Austin Vantrease Parole: Hearing Rescheduled
I placed a call to Huttonsville Correctional Center yesterday morning to get the new date for convicted felon Austin Vantrease’s rescheduled parole hearing. The hearing was originally scheduled for last month, but not all the information (e.g., like the behavioral report, psychologial assessment, etc.) was available. As the call was dialing through I wondered when […]
Vantrease Letter Campaign a Success
With the incredible response to Friday’s post, Austin Vantrease Parole: We Must Take Sides, I decided not to put out a new one over the weekend. Even this morning it continues to draw readers. More importantly, it is still prompting people to write to the Parole Board on Ryan’s behalf.
Austin Vantrease Parole: We Must Take Sides
In 1986, Elie Wiesel gave his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech. The depths of his words never reached me until one night some 23 years later. It came in the form of a Facebook post from a person that my admiration has since grown exponentially. Since the day Ryan was brutally beaten, it seems like […]
Surgery Today: Update #2
Be Advised: I included a photograph in this post of Ryan as he appears today. I is really hard to look at and not feel sadness (and anger). It’s 12:45 in the afternoon and we have Ryan back in the ambulance ready to head back home.