Lane von Herzen: Is This ODNI Letter Falsified, As I Suspect?

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.

Friday, July 22, 2022

Is This ODNI Letter Falsified, As I Suspect?

I have abiding faith in President Joseph R. Biden and The Honorable Avril Haines, Director of the ODNI, and the investigators of the Office of the Inspector General Hotline of the U.S. Department of Justice.

And because I have that abiding faith, I think this letter, received this morning on my email account lmacwilliams7417@gmail.com, is falsified.

All of the good people above are true advocates of democracy. I don't think that commitment has changed, despite what this letter would have me believe.

I think the FBI planned to make me believe that there was no longer any hope for materials responsive to my FOIA request.

And I think, if they pulled responsive materials from the ODNI addressed to me out of the mail, which is well within their capability, the matter might have ended there.

Except I have faith.

And that faith will not be so easily undone.

Lane MacWilliams