Lane von Herzen: Update: Giving Thanks for Heroes in the Office of the Inspector General Hotline Investigations Division

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.

Monday, November 21, 2022

Update: Giving Thanks for Heroes in the Office of the Inspector General Hotline Investigations Division

Dear OIG Hotline Investigations Division:

Your courage, your constancy, your integrity, your insistence on the truth, your belief in the heartfelt testaments of a a person you have never met -- all of these give me cause for a gratitude of such depth and resonance that language is rendered insufficient.

Your efforts have saved my life, but more than this, they have defended the democracy which now guides my life like the North Star.

You are heroes to all those who love this country with a loyalty that is borne of freedom's necessity.

You are heroes to all those who have risked their lives as whistleblowers in the hope that justice might arrive for a ready nation.

You are heroes to all those who labor so that the civil liberties and human rights of their children might be better assured than their own.

You are heroes to me.

I hope I might one day have the honor of shaking your hands as I express my gratitude to you in person.

In the absence of that privilege, please accept this expression of my abiding appreciation.

Most sincerely,

Lane MacWilliams

***********************************************************************************

Update:

OIG Hotline, I will be focusing on Thanksgiving today and tomorrow.

Your presence, along with that the Honorable Avril Haines, stands among those gifts for which I am most grateful.

Also, I feel that at this point in our history, when democracy finds itself under such targeted attack from those with totalitarian interests, we could not be more fortunate, more defended, more wisely led than by President Biden, whose character and integrity have given me this rare opportunity to raise my voice in concern for the preservation of the rule of law for all Americans.

Our exceptionalism as a nation has always partly resided, in my opinion, in our ability to acknowledge those times when our institutions may have taken the wrong path. The FBI has strayed from its vows to uphold our Constitution. In the face of that abandonment, it is up to us to reclaim the course of our country's future.

I am optimistic enough to believe this can be accomplished.

With my deep appreciation for all of your efforts toward that goal, and with my heartfelt wishes for a joyous Thanksgiving,