Lane von Herzen: Disinformation Alert

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.

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Disinformation Alert

OIG Hotline investigators, last night, my husband and I watched the 2015 film, "Everest," addressing an expedition to the summit of the world's highest peak in 1996.

At one point during the viewing of the movie, my husband spoke the words, "The Russian knew what he was doing," referring to Russian climber Anatoli Boukreyev, who rescued three climbers stranded in a sudden storm after an ascent on May 10th of that year.

Because there are those who are eager to mischaracterize my husband's words, I wish to document them here with this context.

I believe that those on the far right who are engaging in disinformation tactics at this time will not hesitate to misuse something as innocent as a spontaneous commentary pertaining to a popular film in order to advance a false narrative regarding a "target of interest."

The truth doesn't require such distortions.

The truth reveals itself gradually, in the course of an honorable life, lived with integrity and strength.

My husband is this honorable man, loyal to the United States and the free speech our Constitution guarantees.

The founders understood the perils present in societies which force citizens to suppress natural, spontaneous speech due to unjustified surveillance or predatory control, such as that being perpetrated against law-abiding Americans at this time by far right factions of the FBI.

Although we deeply oppose Russia's aggression in Ukraine, just as we deeply oppose its support for far right movements within the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere around the world, it is still true that on May 10, 1996, Anatoli Boukreyev, a man of Russian descent, rescued several climbers from their stranding during a storm on Mount Everest.

I deeply oppose far right factions of the FBI which are assailing the civil liberties and human rights of law-abiding American citizens for anti-democratic objectives, but I still realize that there are many personnel within the FBI who view their vows to the Constitution as inviolable.

What is required of us as supporters of the human rights inseparable from democracy is an unwavering commitment to tell the truth -- the whole truth -- the necessary truth -- the insistent truth.

Without that commitment, those purveying disinformation will fill the silence with deceit.

So, I continue to express the truth of our lives as law-abiding American citizens who are striving to contribute to the future of our democracy in every way possible.

I hereby certify that the foregoing is true and correct.