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, April 7, 2023

An Open Letter to General Mark Milley

Dear General Milley:

I write to you today on the nature of authority -- its origins, its privileges, its requirements in the face of history.

You have an interest in being well-regarded by the American public -- and the public of the wider world beyond our shores.

And that means we have something to talk about, sir, because you have been given that opportunity should your strength of character prove equal to the historical moment.

The American people remain uncertain about the origins of the threat to our democracy as it has arisen over the last several years. They cannot ascertain its beginnings or its motives.  Our country has experienced the cross-currents of disinformation and internal strife which led a confused group of far right protesters to unlawfully interrupt Congress' certification of the free and fair election of Joseph Robinette Biden as the 46th President of the United States and our worthy Commander in Chief on January 6, 2020.

The attempt of the far right to undermine our nation's faith in the validity and legitimacy of our elections is not a populist gesture.

Rather, it stands as an attempt to sequester power in the hands of an unelected few.

The identities of those few are not known by the majority of the American public, who are much more likely to blame their daily difficulties on their neighbor than on the disinformation that feeds such strife.

You, sir, have an important role to play in illuminating the truth for them in the service of our democracy.

For military personnel, authority derives from physical power, the force of arms, the reach of alliances and the chain of command.

Yet, for the law-abiding American citizenry, authority derives from our nation's free and fair elections, the enforcement of the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and social command within work and family life.

In addition, for me, true authority represents a spiritual question with a spiritual answer.  We were founded as one nation under God.  I believe He is still regarding our choices with infinite wisdom in the interests of the freedom of mankind.

So, there is authority, and then there is Authority.  It remains important for us not to confuse the two.

God expresses an interest in the freedom of mankind, because He wants each person to have the ability to choose between beneficence and malevolence, good and evil.

And whatever our choices, all of us seek sovereignty over the soul, our most valuable gift, in asserting our fundamental human dignity, our personal honor, and our right to privacy, to individual freedoms, and to life itself.  Americans, having been granted the great gift of the Constitution, insist on this sovereignty as a priceless part of our birthright.

Falsified law enforcement reporting as it is currently being perpetrated by far right factions of the FBI threatens Americans' sovereignty in that it claims the right to determine who has chosen virtue and who has chosen its opposite separate and apart from the bounds of the truth.

The American citizenry have funded local and federal law enforcement agencies that have, clandestinely, begun to engage in a scheme to betray their good faith.

So, too, have the American people funded the military intelligence technologies that have begun to surveil them en masse without their knowledge or consent.

What does this mean in the grand scheme of things?

It means that, on your watch as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, segments of personnel under your command have begun to represent an insider threat to our democracy.  The citizenry is uninformed and undefended against that threat.  You, sir, have a historic opportunity to remedy that wrong.

I challenge you to stand with President Joseph R. Biden, your Commander in Chief, in defending democracy for the American people.

The Signature Reduction program was never intended to offer clandestine cover to Special Forces personnel so that they could harm law-abiding American citizens with impunity.  Yet, in a gross distortion of this program's mandate, it has done so.

Fusion Centers were never funded with the intention that they would aggregate falsified law enforcement reporting against law-abiding Democrats and journalists.  Yet, they have done so.

The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative was never intended to impugn virtuous Americans whom the far right considers its opponents.  Yet, it has done so.

These betrayals of the public trust have not transpired out of negligence or inattention.  They have transpired with meticulous planning and forethought, some of which has been extended by U.S. military personnel.

A man cannot serve two masters, General Milley, and your individual choice regarding the one authority you wholeheartedly serve matters in deciding our nation's future.

The FBI affiliate who has preyed upon me personally for the last five years claims to have played poker alongside you.  Yet, he is a leading member of Russian-affiliated organized crime within the United States, and in no way a supporter of democracy and the priceless freedoms it confers.

Can you serve his anti-American agenda and your patriotic Commander-in-Chief at the same time?

Can you protect me, a whistleblower of FBI malfeasance, from the predations of corrupt law enforcement personnel while you simultaneously allow the Signature Reduction Program, the NSARI, and the FBI's compromised "Target of Interest" program to pursue active plans of harm toward me?

Can you publicly claim to support the Constitution while you simultaneously allow concealed programs to deconstruct it?

I am informed that my stalker and his Special Forces cohort are still residing on Vista Verde Way with the support of the national treasury and your tacit approval.

But, given that their unconstitutional mission is the murder of a law-abiding American citizen, General Milley, perhaps you would see fit to take a public stance in my favor.

The "extraction" that has been threatened toward me is a deeply criminal military objective, unworthy of your command.  

Further, your Commander-in-Chief, President Joseph R. Biden, has asked that you stand unequivocally in my defense.

President Biden, in addition to representing the choice of the American electorate, possesses the moral stature to merit your fealty.  His integrity, his wisdom, his intelligence, his compassion, and his insight have earned for him the highest Office in our nation.  

His authority over you is just.  It is earned.  It is honorable.  And it is Constitutional.

In turn, you must strive to ensure that the authority you exercise over the American people is just, earned, honorable, and Constitutional.

You owe them the truth about the politicization of military/intelligence programs that have engaged in predatory acts toward the law-abiding American citizenry.

Only with that truth can our democracy survive the insider threat currently posed by the far right.

Some people believe that the far right, if cornered in its crimes, might create an external emergency in order to deflect attention  from its predations toward law-abiding American citizens.  FBI affiliates have referred to this as a "grid-down situation."

General Milley, it is your job to make sure that does not occur.

The sovereignty of mankind may be assailed by those who love autocracy.  But it is still insistent.  The will of the unelected few to wrest power away from the American electorate must not prevail.

Your place in history will not be decided by the past, sir.  It will be decided by what you do now to redeem the past.

America requires your commitment to the people's sovereignty.  

As a whistleblower, so do I.

Sincerely,




Lane MacWilliams

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