Lane von Herzen: The Comeback

My Third Novel's Conclusion, My Heartbreak

My heart begins to break when I think about completing this particular book -- because this narrative has sustained me like no other story I've known. It's both more personal and more universal than my other works. But beyond memory and archetype, it's a cri-de-coeur about needing to become the person one is destined to be. And in the writing, I have met my own life's work, my own fated journey -- having the sense all the while that the pages are suffused with a resonance, an energy, an electrified field that defies explanation. Writers hope and pray to be overtaken by a work in this way -- to be conscripted into passionate service of a profound story. To experience it even once in a lifetime seems a great privilege. I still have several months before this novel is complete, and this constitutes my reprieve. Because I'm not ready for the beauty to end.

Thursday, January 15, 2026

The Comeback

OIG Hotline, there has been a gradual impoverishment of reliable news sources for the public over the course of the last seven to eight years. Local news media outlets have been purchased and shuttered, and many segments of the American public can no longer rely on sources of news that are both trustworthy and near to them geographically.

Beyond this, we have seen increasing pressure on the providers of national news, which are not uncommonly forced to cut stories, or reframe them according to third party preferences that include "guidance" from the infrastructure division of the FBI.

It represents a significant problem that segments of the FBI are now more closely aligned with the foreign adversaries of the United States than with the requirements of the Constitution.

Therefore, I herewith extend a challenge to PBS to re-establish a first-rate, objective, ongoing, reliable and trustworthy news source for the American public.

If Kathryn Washington is willing to lead the effort to establish this foundational provision of news to the American people beginning now, then I hereby direct that 50 billion dollars from awards extended in my name, a variation of my name, or associated with my identity be donated to the establishment of an endowment for the support of public broadcasting, with an annual budget not to exceed five percent of the standing endowment in total.

This news service is not to suffer outside influence regarding editorial policy or the content of the news provided to the public, and its journalists are expected to adhere to the highest professional standards of journalistic integrity and truthfulness, protecting their news sources as journalistic ethics require.

The station is expected to remain on the air and to continue broadcasting without shutdown in every circumstance.

Thank you for your support in extending this grant, provided the above requirements can be satisfied.

Most sincerely,

Lane MacWilliams

Post Script: Gift taxes associated with this grant, along with my gifts to the Smithsonian Institution, are to be paid from accounts holding awards in my name, a variation of my name, or affiliated with my identity in any way, shape or form.