Lane von Herzen: Democratically

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.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Democratically

My husband Ken MacWilliams' FOIA request to the ODNI, along with my letter of two pages, was posted to the Office of the Inspector General Hotline of the U.S. Department of Justice, Ms. Avril Haines, Director of the ODNI, and the Office of Information Management of the ODNI, via regular U.S. mail, in addition to the details of UPS overnight delivery, delineated in the following post.

In a comic aside, my neighbor Rhonda Hyver, whose husband Ron has accepted pay from Infragard in return for engaging in falsified law enforcement reporting for the FBI, raced up her long driveway just a few moments ago with the apparent intent of watching intently while I placed these letters in my mailbox.

It is necessary to maintain one's sense of humor about encounters like this.

Without the malfeasance of the FBI, Rhonda and I would probably be friends sharing a cup of coffee at this moment.

But the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative and the FBI's affiliated "target of interest" program draw billions of dollars in congressional budget appropriations per year. It is fair to say that certain men wish to see those dollar flows continue unabated, despite the fact that they rely on a rather massive program of falsified law enforcement reporting about law-abiding American citizens, Democrats and journalists chief among them.

So, let's see. Will Rhonda allege that I posted my letters to the OIG Hotline and the ODNI "suspiciously"? "Furtively"? "Secretively"?

How about "democratically," Rhonda?

It's our democracy I am attempting to defend through my communications to the OIG Hotline and the ODNI.

Your democracy. My democracy. The democracy of our children and theirs.

For me, this is a worthy, honorable, and heartfelt endeavor.