A Thought Or Two, And Then I’ll Leave It Be For Now

I’m kind of slowing down on posting about the Henry Granju case for a bit, not because it’s not important, but right now the family is sort of regrouping regarding their efforts and going on with daily life as best they can – which I know is hard and there’s nothing about “getting back to normal” about it – as well as Henry’s mom preparing for the new baby about to arrive, and having some minor difficulties in recent days.

That’s not to say I don’t still think there’s something horribly wrong with the way the case was handled by authorities – and I’m certainly not the only one, and not the only one with Knox County ties or in Knox County. For now, I guess pending the actual final autopsy results, anyone that’s been following the situation’s just kind of in a holding pattern. Really the only thing I have to say at this point is that I still stand by pretty much everything I’ve said thus far and, frankly, no matter what the outcome is – there’s just no getting around the fact that many, many aspects of the situation just plain really reflect poorly on KCSO’s part.

For now, I’ll leave it be with a couple of fantastic links:

• First to a really great article that uber-talented music writer Steve Wildsmith of The Maryville Daily Times wrote here (and about which Henry’s mom, Katie, posted some more about here);
• And then a link to Katie’s post with information about the memorial scholarship fund and a link to Knoxville music legend Carl Snow’s wonderful song he wrote for Henry, “In Lieu of Flowers”. Carl has set up a way people can donate $1 to the scholarship fund by downloading the song, which is absolutely beautiful.

Steve and Carl are both really good guys who hang out at one of the same Knoxville-related online spots I hang out in a bunch, and I found both of these gestures just very touching, kind, and thoughtful. Steve’s article is a really good read, as is Carl’s song a good listen. Have a box of Kleenex handy.

For now, thoughts and prayers continue for the Granju-Hickman clan. It’s hard enough dealing with the loss of family – much less one’s child – and I know their struggles with how the case has been/is being handled are far from over. They are such good people and they, and Henry, deserve no less than to see justice prevail somehow, some way. The biggest crime of all is that those who so savagely assaulted that young man are still out on the streets and in public, somewhere, nearly two months after the attack – and that fact right there should be more than enough to give any citizen pause to question why that’s so.

Next Things Next: The Truth Is Out There – But While We’re Waiting, Make Sure That If You’re Going To Get Yourself Killed Or Maimed In Knox County, They Have A Weapon In Their Hand First

Today, 18-year-old Henry Granju’s life was celebrated by his family and friends and all who loved him throughout his life, as well as many more who cared a great deal about him – some that knew him, some that didn’t. And then he was laid to rest by those same people, which is something no mother or father of an 18-year-old young man should have to do except in nightmares – the ones you have while you sleep as well as the ones that sometimes, unfortunately and horrifically, happen that you can’t wake yourself up from because they’re real.

I didn’t really realize until late in the morning, while sitting here today reading and writing and thinking about Henry and his family and the then-upcoming service, what day it was. Today’s one of those several days throughout the year that have a special meaning for me.

I lost three very special people to me when I was still a teenager (or just barely not one). Three boys my age, all gone from this world before any of the three turned 21 years old. Two at seventeen, one of which took his own life and is much missed by so many. Another killed in a horrible accident when we were 20 years old – my dearest, dearest, very best and closest friend in my lifetime, and the one who really pretty much was my real “high school sweetheart”, as opposed to the one I very narrowly missed winding up married to.

And then there was the other one, who was killed in a terrible car accident when we were seventeen, during the same summer that the other 17 year old took his own life. He was the first of the three that died, and he and I were also very close.

He was also a very, very troubled teenager. There wasn’t an addiction – at least not yet at that point, or not that I was ever aware of – but I’d heard things. And besides that, he just had a lot of teenage problem type stuff going on at the time – some very extraordinarily so, really.

We had been separated for almost two years at the time he died because my family and I had moved to another town, and most of what I was hearing was being filtered back to me through others. But the troubled time and problems started long before I ever moved – a lot of them, to this day, I’m probably still the only other person alive who knows what some of those troubles were.

Things that I heard about later were disturbing enough that, at one point, I’d written several letters begging him to just come on up to where I was now living, telling him he could live at our house and finish school up there with me – all this without having consulted my parents, but I just figured we’d deal with that when and if he ever arrived.

My letters went unanswered, phone calls were never returned. I only saw him twice more before he died – once only for a moment, across a crowded gymnasium at a high school graduation; and shortly afterward, the other time, and only for a second. I thought I had dreamed it, because I was asleep. I hit the ground running to the driveway, just in time to see the vehicle with that other’s county’s plates swing out and take off up the street.

A handful of weeks later, he was gone forever.

Should I have told someone, an adult, all I knew? Probably. Would it have made a difference? Probably not. He had already made the choice not to accept help when he could have. The accident that took his life truly was just that – an unfortunate accident. But if it hadn’t been that accident and that night, there would have been another one – or something far worse than just a tragic teenage car accident.

Today, he would have been 44 years old, like me. But he, nor the other two, will ever be middle-aged like me, or old like I will (hopefully) be someday. They’ll always be seventeen, always be twenty.

Is that why I have been so wrapped up and vocal in my support of Henry and his family? Because I couldn’t save my own dear friends as a teenager that needed help, and lost another soon after? No, not really. Certainly their loss has affected my life and how I live it irretrievably, but this now is not because of that and them. Nor is it because of the “there but for the grace of God” aspect for me and PC, and the fact that my significant other was once a teenager very much like Henry, and very much struggling with the same demons of addiction.

And of course, yes, certainly it has something to do with that I know this family – without having had the opportunity of meeting any of them in person to date, yes. His mother and stepfather have been active in sort of the same circles online as me for many years now, but we also share many of the same friends and acquaintances both online and off – many of whom I’ve had to watch struggle with their sorrow these past several weeks, as well as that of Katie and her family. I’ve literally watched the Granju kids grow up in photographs and anecdotes for ten years now, both publicly on Katie’s blog and her writing, as well as slightly more private “among friends” type settings.

But my sorrow and – yes – anger and outrage now is not just because of that, either. It’s because what’s been happening in Knoxville this past almost six weeks – and especially right now – is terribly wrong.

I don’t really know what to say about the appalling statements that came out of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office last night. Much as I said earlier today, most of this appears to be a poor attempt at spin on what I’m sure has been somewhat of a PR nightmare for KCSO this week – but it was a horrifically boneheaded move in execution, timing, and content, and one they may very well not be able to recover from.The effects are likely to be a lot more far-reaching than anyone down there predicted, and it might be time to step back and cut their losses on this one.

Once again, Aunt B. has already outlined a lot of what was on my mind this morning about it all. And better, and with less of my rather habitual and usual rambling.

Here’s the thing – when you do something stupid, it’s usually best to just step back and admit you did something dumb, apologize, and move on and get back to whatever it was you were supposed to be doing.

But NOW – as if there wasn’t already plenty enough stuff messed up and wrong here – they’ve added yet ANOTHER factor to the mix of messed up stuff about this entire situation.

Now, everybody’s been made aware that if you’re in Knox County, and someone beats you nearly/almost to death with their hands and fists instead of a weapon – not only even if you die, but especially if you die – KCSO’s not going to do a thing about it unless they saw it happen. And if there’s no “weapon” but hands and fists – it’s only a misdemeanor.

The tire iron, as declared now by the KCSO to be fictional, not withstanding – this is what they said:

Because no weapon was used in the assault on Granju, the attack would be a misdemeanor offense. With Granju’s death, any chance of prosecuting the two assailants has passed.

“The only way we can charge in this kind of misdemeanor is if it’s witnessed by us or occurs in our presence,” Jones said.

Huh????

So, okay, let me get this straight. If I’m in Knox County visiting family, and someone – whoever - decides to beat me with their fists, and I wind up in the hospital for over a month with a skull fracture, a broken jaw, and a closed head injury, and am going to be significantly disabled probably for the rest of my life – and then to top it off, I die about five weeks after I’m admitted to the hospital -

Nobody’s going to do anything about it? Because that’s pretty much what that statement above says.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a 5’2″ female and I don’t weigh very much, and I’m not terribly strong. Someone would probably have a bit of a tough time doing any significant damage to my significant other without a tire iron or other weapon because he’s an athletic type who works out all the time and in excellent shape for a dude in his forties. But me? I can’t even get anywhere arm wrestling him, I have like ZERO upper body strength. Most men – and women, for that matter – could wrap their fists around my wrists two or three times over and still maybe have room left over for more.

Somebody could kill me easy without a weapon – absolutely no doubt whatsoever. But it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a pathetically weak little shrimp like me, athletic and strong like my other half, male or female, 100 pounds or 300. There’s people out there that could kill or severely injure anyone, no matter their circumstances, without aid of a weapon.

What they said was that if someone kills you or me, or almost does, and there’s no weapon involved, and it doesn’t happen in front of them or in their presence – they won’t do anything about it.

Makes you feel really safe now, right?

Is it that way all over the state of Tennessee? Is it a flaw in Tennessee law? I don’t know. Possibly. It shouldn’t be that way anywhere. That much is clear.

But in any case, Knox County law enforcement’s now made it abundantly clear, in print, that’s the way it is up there and they won’t do anything about it.

No weapon? Aw, too bad. Sorry about your kid’s broken skull and closed head injury. Sorry your kid died, but there’s no weapon, so you’re out of luck.

Whether that “fictional” tire iron (or any other weapon, for that matter) turns out to actually exist in the end of the full and complete investigation or not – one horrible truth has already come out, and that’s the apparent fact that nobody in Knox County is going to be held responsible for your death or severe injury if there’s no weapon involved and it doesn’t happen in the presence of KCSO law enforcement.

I have a pretty good idea of what Henry’s parents are feeling about all that, because I know how I would feel if my significant other and I were being told the same about his parents, his brother and sister-in-law, his grandmother – all of whom live in Knox County. Except as horrific and bad as that would be – I can only imagine the pain of losing an 18-year-old and beloved son must feel about a million times even worse.

KCSO all but called Katie a liar last night in that statement. In their version of the story, no tire iron or any other weapon exists, among other information as set forth by Katie and the family that last night’s statement has refuted.

Even if it someday proves to be correct that there was no weapon – that still doesn’t make any of this all right. Not by a long shot.

KCSO’s latest actions are, at best, appalling and unprofessional – and appear to be rather spiteful, from much of the public view. That’s disappointing to see from any public service agency – anyone, anywhere, anytime.

The preliminary autopsy results were just that – preliminary. There’s still forensic investigation left to be done, and many folks are of the opinion that some of the statements released last night regarding the preliminary autopsy results were both premature and unwise. Many (including, obviously, me) suspect that someone’s going to have to eat their words, so to speak, at some point in the future.

The Knox County Medical Examiner’s office has been afforded a great deal of respect by the public – especially in recent years over the Christian-Newsom case. While the preliminary autopsy results in Henry’s case were disappointing and baffling, there are many out there who still have some faith that Knox County’s highly skilled ME will find the truth – the real truth – before it’s all over with.

Katie Allison Granju has her son’s medical records, which she has stated publicly clearly state – in regard to Henry’s condition – terms such as skull fracture, broken jaw, closed head injury, and other severe injuries. And Knoxville has a host of highly trained and skilled physicians who, no doubt, can identify such injuries when they see them.

As for the, now as per KCSO, “fictional” tire iron/weapon? Who knows.

And in any decent society, who cares whether it’s a tire iron, a 1000-lb. grand piano, a baseball bat, or a hand and fist?

There’s something terribly wrong with this investigation. Even the naysayers out there who generally come out of the woodwork rushing to defend Knoxville and Knox County law enforcement every time anyone questions anything at all about anything have said as much. There have been several comments in various places stating that it appears someone’s lying, or that it looks like something’s being covered up.

What do I think?

I think there’s more truth out there somewhere, and hopefully it will all come out someday. And probably when it does, whatever comes of it won’t likely be favorable at all towards the current administration of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.

Whether or not the current administration of the KCSO can bounce back and survive after the unfortunate errors in judgment and boneheaded moves that have been made this week – I guess that will remain to be seen.

Some folks who didn’t know anything about Katie, Henry, or the case until it hit the news this week are projecting that the medical records won’t be released; that the family will ask for privacy; and that this will all just go away. Maybe Friday night, KCSO hoped it would all mostly go away and out from under the microscope too.

Those folks don’t know Katie very well. And – I’m going to make a guess here – might have gravely misjudged, underestimated and failed to predict just who all might be fully in support of seeing that this family, and Henry Granju himself, get the justice they deserve in this case.

That’s just a guess. A not entirely uneducated one, no – but a guess all the same.

I just hope that the family, many friends and loved ones, and everyone else who loved and cared about Henry Granju were able to not let the ill-timed and absolutely appalling latest developments in the case cloud their celebration of Henry’s life earlier this afternoon. Many there were friends and acquaintances of mine as well, but everyone there, whether I knew them or not – virtually all of them were in my thoughts today, and still are. Henry’s loss has been an incredible loss to so many, and it’s been heart-wrenching to watch the suffering of so many, both those I know and those I don’t.

I hope everyone was able to get past the unnecessarily negative new turn of events today to find a little peace. By all accounts I’ve heard thus far, they did, and it was a lovely service and gathering after – despite KCSO’s horrible timing this weekend.

When it comes down to it, though – it’s just that it was a memorial service that should have never had to be arranged and carried out in the first place.

And especially not with thugs still out there on the streets of Knox County – somewhere out there – probably looking for the next person they can carry out such brutal and savage acts of violence on. Especially now that everyone knows that as long as you do it where law enforcement can’t see you, and you don’t use a weapon – you can get away with it.

After all, that’s the message the Knox County Sheriff’s Office put out today. They said so, right here.

And of all the many and varied points of information in that article last night, that’s precisely the one people are probably going to remember the most – and for a long time to come.

First Things First: Down Here In Tennessee, We Call That Shameful

So, right around the time I was reading the rather absolutely appalling latest from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office via the Knoxville News Sentinel online in the middle of the night last night, so was Katie Allison Granju reading it somewhere online on her computer.

Seriously – who’s in charge of protocol, PR, and spin control at KCSO? If it’s ultimately all up to the Sheriff himself, surely they also have some legal eagle on that payroll that says things like “Maybe you should wait ’til…” or “I would advise holding off on that until…” and whatnot. Or if not an attorney, I would guess that they probably have (as most such state and county and metro agencies do), some PR person for whom one of their primary roles in their job description is advising “yes, this is a good idea” and “uh, this is not a good idea”.

Maybe they should hire me – someone with ZERO experience other than several years of voluntarily unpaid stuff that’s been mostly me helping out musician friends – because even I, in my complete and utter ignorance about law enforcement public relations, would have had at least a shred of good sense not to:

1. Release a new public statement on their most recent findings and autopsy results to the press before notifying the listed next of kin or a family member of the deceased of the results;
2. Release said statement late on Friday night (the time stamp on the KNS article was midnight EST) when they know good and well the family is laying their son to rest on Saturday.

The first – if not a legal issue and an outright violation of something – it’s overwhelmingly a questionable move, and most definitely highly unprofessional no matter how you look at it. KCSO has obviously taken the offensive regarding this case, but that shouldn’t just give them carte blanche to ignore what is obvious to anyone with a working brain the more appropriate thing to do in such a case (and, I suspect, is probably in their protocol and someone just chose to ignore it or find some excuse not to follow it because they were pissed off).

The second is just plain a matter of class and decency. Since it was at or almost freakin’ midnight on a weekend (Friday night) when that statement was released to the press – it could have waited until Monday. Or at least Sunday, or – at the very least – late Saturday afternoon or evening, and AFTER Henry Granju’s memorial service, to release those results to the press, especially since obviously no one was going to notify Henry’s mother or father of the results first before making them public. No class – no class at all, and most well-mannered human beings with any class and decency would agree.

KCSO may well have been within their rights to do both – releasing the statement publicly without talking to the parents first, and releasing it however and whenever they wanted to. Does that make it right? Heck, no, not in any decent society.

Which I’d like to think, simply by virtue of being down here in the South, we tend to at least handle some stuff with a little more care, sense and common decency than some other places maybe do sometimes. It shouldn’t be that way, no – everybody everywhere should have common decency – but still, we in the South do tend to do a little better than some at treating “acting decent” as sort of an unwritten law that pretty much just everybody knows. (Though obviously not everywhere in Knox County, huh…)

And whether or not it was within their rights to do both, it doesn’t change the fact that their actions still appear questionable on a moral and ethical level (at the very least) and completely without class, and are going to appear to anyone with (A) sense and (B) any interest in this case in support of the family (and probably some who weren’t, or didn’t really care either way before) to have been exacted the way it was on purpose, and out of offense at perhaps feeling “under fire” right now.

It’s simple, really. Very, very few people are going to look at the news of the preliminary autopsy results this morning, when they open up their paper or turn on the morning news, and NOT think:  You know, that could have waited until Henry was laid to rest today. People that knew him or his family, people that don’t, and pretty much everyone else with any sense of common decency.

Even those who really aren’t and haven’t been interested at all in the case and don’t/haven’t care either way -  it’s not going to go unnoticed to a lot of them either. Totally besides the people that were already mad and upset about all this stuff with Henry’s case yesterday – there’s going to be heads shaking and “tut-tut”-ing all over East Tennessee (and elsewhere) who couldn’t have cared one way or the other all that much yesterday. Guarantee it.

Then there will be those who learn that the latest results were released to the media without notifying either parent first, and that Henry’s parents found out the latest results just like the rest of us did – and pretty much most every one of those people is going to think, well, THAT was a shoddy (I’m trying hard not to curse here) thing to do.

Especially to a mother and father who are laying their dead child to rest today.

Come on. PR/Spin Control/WhoeverPerson (or the Sheriff, if it was ultimately up to the Sheriff) should have known all that. It ain’t rocket surgery (borrowing a favorite phrase from a favorite friend) to figure that one out. It wasn’t a matter of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t, damned whatever you do” with this particular piece of the whole shebang.

It’s just plain common decency, class, good morals and ethics. That’s all. Nothing more than that. Well, and professionalism too, yes.

Yeah, a lot of people were going to be upset and angry and outraged about that press statement anyway, no matter when nor how it was released. No doubt. It probably wasn’t going to calm too many people down too much.

But releasing that statement to the press before notifying the parents, and releasing it mere hours before Henry’s memorial service – on a weekend, late on a Friday night, no less – instead of waiting until Monday? Or at least Saturday afternoon or evening after the young man was laid to rest?

I grew up with an absolutely darling young lady who was plenty book smart, but just had absolutely no common sense whatsoever. Some people are just like that.

And some folks, bless their hearts – we all know the odd person or two or three who just wouldn’t know the difference between class and no class even if they had to spend twelve years studying that and only that. Even people who act without class at times usually really do know the difference. But still, there’s some out there that really and truly just don’t know any better.

Perhaps that’s the case here – that someone just doesn’t know any better and wouldn’t know class if it bashed them in the head and gave them a skull fracture and a closed head injury. If so, what do you do about that, other than hope one has advisors around that can discourage such a massive faux pas before it gets out, which obviously isn’t the case here.

But whatever the case may be with how and why things went down as they did, the problem NOW is this – the majority of folks out there are going to look at what’s happened overnight and see that press statement as either a deliberate, offensive move on the part of the issuer, or a move made totally without class, ethics, or decency. Most people will see it as both.

Whether it was truly deliberate or not is beside the point. And it’s too late to take it back – and really, any more spin or damage control on that’s just gonna make it worse. This kinda thing is just one of those things you really can’t fix – not in the public eye – other than maybe apologizing and moving on from there.

And even if those responsible just really and truly didn’t know any better – I can’t imagine that someone that DID know better didn’t advise them against it, and advise them to wait.

You have a county agency up there that has been under fire for a good while now for things completely unrelated to this particular case, and even more under the microscope this past week because of this case – and somebody makes a boneheaded move like that last night?

If the good people of Knox County decide they’ve finally had enough – and a whole lot more of them are going to be outraged this morning when they weren’t at all yesterday, and the rest are gonna be a lot more outraged than they were yesterday – those responsible for issuing that horribly ill-timed and poorly handled statement to the press aren’t going to have anyone to blame but themselves. Period.

It really just all boils down to one word, which is the one my Grandmama probably would have been shaking her head this morning and saying, were she still alive and reading that press statement hours before that young man is being laid to rest – “Shameful.”

My grandmother would have said it, my great-grandmother would have said it. Your grandmother would have said it too probably, or something like it.

Point being – so, probably, would have their grandmothers and great-grandmothers too.

In Which I Ask, “How Is Beating Someone With A Tire Iron Not A Criminal and Arrest-Worthy Act?” – More on the Henry Granju Case

So I woke up today to find this flood of online stuff just everywhere – so much I couldn’t really keep up with it fast enough, and I haven’t even made my way over to Facebook today yet – mostly stuff resulting from the KCSO’s most recent announcement regarding their stance on the investigation of teenager Henry Granju’s death and the preliminary autopsy results, which set off  another firestorm pretty much around the globe, and rightfully so.

Also this morning, which I didn’t read until after I woke up today, Henry’s mama – who has tried extremely hard throughout this entire ordeal to be as patient, polite and respectful towards law enforcement as possible – expressed her disappointment with KCSO’s most recent statement on the case:

I am disappointed that… the Knox County Sheriff’s Office chose to release a statement in response to media coverage of Henry’s death in which they stated that the “preliminary investigation shows no evidence of homicide as a result of an assault.”

As a mother who has lost a child, it is certainly tempting to get into a point by point refutation of KCSO’s statement; I won’t do this however, because I do not wish to sully or interfere with their ongoing investigation. Suffice it to say, however, that the “preliminary investigation” to which they refer has been extremely disappointing at this point despite my own active efforts in following leads, talking extensively with witnesses, and BEGGING authorities to follow leads I’ve provided. Let me also say that as I sit here next to my dead son’s medical records that refer to “assault,” “skull fracture,” closed head injury,” etc it’s hard for me to understand reasoning that assumes at this point that the assault he DID experience in the 24 hours preceding his ER admission has no relevance to their investigation.

I have been trying pretty hard as well, though not always wholly succeeding, to hold my temper in deference to the family – especially in dealing with the species of troll that is an entire species unto itself and tends to feed mainly off newspaper and TV station websites. Trolls are trolls and always have been, but that particular breed of troll is always astounding in their sheer fortitude and need to expound on every single thing and towards everybody no matter what the subject, and almost always negatively or insulting. It’s absolutely amazing sometimes what people will say from behind the protection of their anonymous usernames and their keyboard. (I can assure you there is nothing on this blog nor anything I’ve ever written anywhere else on the Internet that I have any qualms about saying to whoever’s face, and nickname aside, I’m pretty non-anonymous after 15+ years of relatively high-profile activity in online music sects as well as elsewhere.)

In any case, yeah, all that happened today, and frankly – and especially since Katie publicly expressed her disappointment with KCSO’s statement – I’m not going to bother trying much to hold my tongue in check about it anymore.

People (mostly trolls) are coming to Katie’s blog and asking does everybody expect law enforcement to just “drop everything” to investigate this?

Drop everything? How does waiting almost five weeks to make any major moves on this investigation constitute “dropping everything”?

Can someone explain to me how five weeks (going now on six weeks) constitutes expectations of “dropping everything” or asking for “immediate answers”?

And the only other thing I really have to say today is pretty much what I said this morning before I went to sleep, in a discussion in response to a mutual friend’s similar statement.

Granted, I’m no expert. But I don’t get where you get to just walk around free for over a month when you beat someone nearly to death with a tire iron – AND there are witnesses.

Henry’s drug overdose is totally a moot point. How is that tire iron beating NOT a criminal act?

How in the world is beating someone brutally and violently and nearly to death, and to the point where it causes a jaw fracture, a skull fracture, a closed head injury and other damage NOT a criminal act? And how is it not reason enough to pick someone(s) up off the street, when you already have their names?

The fact that Henry eventually did die notwithstanding – I am really, really having trouble wrapping my brain around why his three assailants weren’t picked up WEEKS ago and charged with attempted murder, assault, WHATEVER. At the very least. Something.

They’ve had their names for weeks. They’ve had witnesses’ names for weeks. The people who beat Henry with a tire iron are still walking around. Why is what they did not criminal enough to pick them up on reason of beating someone with a tire iron alone?

For that matter, it’s been going on six weeks since the assault. They could be in Timbuktu by now, this much later.

I’ve seen people picked up and hauled in for far, far lesser offenses – if not almost immediately, within days - and I just don’t understand.

If there were NO witnesses it might be a little different.

But this makes no sense to me. Henry’s drug overdose is totally beside the point. Violent criminal activity took place and there were witnesses, yet these people are still walking around going on five, almost six weeks later. And weeks after their names, and the names of witnesses, were given to KCSO.

By the family, no less. Perhaps KCSO needs to budget some of their 2010 salary budget to pay Henry’s family for doing an important part of the investigation for them.

Bottom line – a kid was beaten savagely with a tire iron.

The fact that he also overdosed on drugs is a moot point.

How is that savage beating NOT a criminal act?

And how is it not worthy of arresting someone(s) for committing it – whether someone’s dead or not?

All along, the family has been unbelievably patient. They never expected “immediate” answers or for KCSO to “drop everything” to investigate.

But five weeks later – going on six weeks – that is NOT “immediate”. Nor is it “dropping everything”.

Whatever the autopsy results show – and even if the medical examiner declares Henry’s death is not a result of the beating – as long as those people walk free for that brutal, savage and violent beating – the world is being told that it’s okay to come to Knox County and beat someone bloody until they’re nearly dead.

The young man’s drug overdose is beside the point here.

Until and unless someone(s) is/are held responsible and accountable for this beating, it must be okay to beat someone with a tire iron in Knox County. Or hey, if you do it – you’ll have several weeks to get away somewhere else, and therefore maybe get away with it.

That is the point. And it’s sickening.

I never really worried too much about my family, future in-laws, in Knoxville’s overall safety much, to be honest. Having lived down here in Crime Central as long as I have, Nashville and especially Knoxville always have seemed so much better in this regard. But this situation really, really gives me pause to be a whole lot more concerned about my people up there than I ever have. My family, my people, my many friends who are Knoxville and Knox County residents and tax-paying citizens.

In any case, that’s all I’ve got for right now. My head feels like it’s going to explode from all this stuff.

I just do NOT understand how and why that beating with a tire iron is not a criminal act.

Or not criminal act enough for someone to actually DO something about it.

I just don’t understand.

Aunt B. says some of my same and similar thoughts today much more eloquently than I ever do right here.

The inimitable Les Jones blogged about Henry’s case today here.

Michael Silence of the Knoxville News-Sentinel and Katie’s associate Shane Ryne have compiled fine lists of all the other blogs writing about Henry’s story and his case here. At last count I saw, Shane had compiled the list from 87 blogs, many with multiple entries.

Michael Silence also announced today that he will be writing about the avalanche and outpouring of support worldwide in blogs and social media networks regarding Henry’s story in his Sunday column for the KNS.

On another note, I know I mentioned the other day that I thought it was pretty downright not smart of KCSO sitting on this case for over a month as they did when they had a distraught mother on their hands who was not only well-known in Knoxville media overall, but a former employee/online producer (and not all that long ago for either) of the Knoxville News Sentinel and TV news station WBIR. I failed to mention at the time that Henry’s father is the director of a Knox County agency.

To their credit and as far as I’m aware, I don’t think either of them tried to use any of that to any advantage, and they have certainly been more patient with law enforcement through this ordeal than I probably would have been. But I do know a little bit about how violent crime investigations go and that information about the “alleged victim’s” (yes, I’m using that term loosely) parentage should have been turned up in any decent preliminary investigation almost right from the start – as well as the fact that it’s just plain common sense that someone down at KCSO most likely knew that info anyway, or someone who did know would likely have made someone aware of such a thing at some point. Come on, Knoxville is NOT that big of a town.

I guess that just goes to show you that obviously no preferential treatment is afforded anyone no matter who they are – nor am I saying there should be. But it does seem pretty ridiculous when you look at it (an acquaintance was not quite as kind, calling it “downright stupid”). If I’m Knox County law enforcement and I have a kid beaten nearly to death on my hands in the hospital with a severe head injury, and I find out not only is the kid’s mother a former KNS employee and WBIR producer, but that the kid’s dad is director of a county agency? Uh, yeah, I think I’m not going to be too lazy with that case, if it were me.

I’m sorry. I have dear, dear friends – especially two who are like little brothers to me, even though they are far from little anymore – who are police officers. I worked down at the record store many years ago with one of the finest Memphis PD officers I have ever known, who worked down there to make some part-time money. I know of other law enforcement officials who have been kind to people I know when their colleagues weren’t. I am not anti-law enforcement.

But much as Aunt B. said – things have become very strange in the case of Henry Granju. Something is obviously terribly wrong.

If I go beat somebody nearly to death with a tire iron tomorrow, and someone sees me do it and knows my name? I don’t expect to have more than a day or two – if even a whole day – to be free and out walking on the streets.

That makes sense.

What’s happened with Henry’s case doesn’t. Not at all.

I can’t do much. I am very sad that I can’t get to Knoxville for the memorial service on Saturday, but I’ll be there in spirit.

I can’t be there for hands-on support and can’t help cook meals and carry the other Granju and Hickman kids around to where they need to go, and get pianos tuned and arrange for musicians for Saturday, and all the other absolutely wonderful things so many others I know have been doing all along throughout this ordeal and doing now this week. All of these people are just absolute angels.

I can’t donate much money in Henry’s memory for the memorial scholarship fund, but I’ve sent what I could. And probably will continue to for a long time to come, and send much more when I am able to. I frankly cannot think of a more appropriate fund for PC and I to set aside any philanthropic funds we are able to for, for the rest of our lives – and the fact that it is in honor and in memory of Henry, even better. “There but for the grace of God” for us and all that, as PC was Henry at that age – we were just fortunate that he lived through it, and that his parents were able to afford treatment – which is what the Henry Louis Granju Memorial Scholarship Fund is for, for families that can’t afford to put their teenagers through drug and alcohol treatment. We also have another family member who’s been through the same terrible struggles. For us personally, it’s an entirely appropriate charity and we will support it indefinitely.

So I can’t do much. But I can blog, and use various other social media to keep Henry’s story out there, so hopefully other families won’t have to suffer this same tragedy. And to keep it out there until this case is fully, thoroughly, and finally brought to justice.

So that’s what I’ll do, because it’s all I can do.

It’s been five weeks. Going on six weeks. No one’s ever asked for anything “immediately” or to “drop everything”.

And even if they had, “immediately” and “now” has long since passed, these five – almost six – weeks later.

When the people responsible for savagely beating this young man with a tire iron until he was nearly dead – and who now has died – are off the streets, then maybe I’ll really sleep again instead of waking up every five or ten minutes.

How that brutal and violent beating was not a criminal act worthy of hauling someone’s butt into jail – as soon as their names and the names of witnesses were known – is something I am just not ever going to understand.

First, The Good Part

Somewhere in my WP drafts getting dusty and still unfinished, I have several posts – including the long-delayed Alex Chilton related one, one about the flooded and destroyed Opryland Hotel and the realization  (something I’ve known for a few years now, but haven’t written about) that I’ve been wrong all along about who my REAL “high school sweetheart” was, and a few other odds and ends and mostly goofy stuff.

But all that’s on hold right now because, honestly, I’m just too frustrated and aggravated – and yes, a little bit angry – over all that has transpired over the last couple of days in the wake of Henry’s death. And, naturally, so terribly sad and heartbroken for Henry, his family, all of their friends – many of whom are also my friends and acquaintances and people I’ve known for many years, whether just online or off. It is absolutely killing me and breaking my heart to see folks I’ve known for years, who’ve known the Granju-Hickman clan for years, preparing to go to his memorial service on Saturday. Or people like Henry’s former guitar teacher – who doesn’t know it, but he’s an old pal of my significant other – just now today finding out that Henry had passed, and horrified. It’s all been so heartbreaking to watch.

And I’ve seen a lot of angelic, wonderfully kind and generous and thoughtful acts among that same group of folks too, some that have just taken my breath away at how sweet and thoughtful they have been through this ordeal. This particular tribe of Knoxvillians and Knoxville-related folks, most of whom have been yakking with each other much of the last decade – we’re kind of like a dysfunctional family and there’s plenty of infighting just like most slightly dysfunctional families. But when someone’s been wronged or hurt, or something terrible has happened – man, to see the whole bunch come together as they have is just something amazing and life-affirming.

Watching “the blogosphere” come together as they have in such loud and vocal support of Katie and her family – and not just the Nashville-Knoxville-TN-etc blogosphere this time, but literally ALL over not only the country but the entire planet – again, amazing and life-affirming.

I just wanted to say that before I went on to the next subject on my mind, because my next thoughts related to this situation aren’t too terribly pretty and I didn’t want to spoil this with those. Out of something so horrible and so tragic, good things have sprung like that, and like the memorial scholarship fund Henry’s family has set up. Everything is awful right now, but out of such awfulness springs such kindness and hope that it’s just breathtaking.

In Lieu of Flowers for Henry

There’s probably not too very many that come by here these days who aren’t already fully aware of this situation, so feel free to skip the rest of this post if you’re a Nashville/etc/TN blogger or a KnoxBlabber. I’ve just been feeling somewhat frustrated and helpless for the past month, and especially now, that I couldn’t do more to help regarding this situation. There’s folks I know in Knoxville that have been up there busting their butts and hands-on helping – whether with food, helping get kids where they need to go, other stuff – and I wished several times the past month I hadn’t been on the complete other side of the state still, and could have maybe done at least something to help.

But now there’s something I can do, which is help spread the word about the scholarship fund being established in Henry Granju’s memory, and help spread Henry’s story so maybe it will help others not have to go through the horrors this family has gone through in the past five weeks or so.

Those of you who are parents (or even if you’re not) who aren’t already aware of this heartbreaking story… I’d like to introduce you to Knoxville blogger Katie Allison Granju & her wonderful son, Henry. I’ve watched Henry & his siblings grow up in photos & stories for about the last ten years in Knoxville-based forums that their mom and stepdad have been active in, as well as Katie’s blog. Their folks and I share several mutual friends in Knoxville; their stepfather (and father of the youngest sibling and one that’s due to be born in about a month), Jon, has been my “go-to” guy about various techy and WordPress questions on several occasions; and this family’s just plain good people.

So if you’re not already aware and haven’t been there before, I encourage you to visit Katie’s blog, and read a little. Or read a lot. If you go back to posts at the end of April and read forward, you’ll pretty much read Henry’s story in its entirety.

If Henry’s story saves even just one family & their child from a similar tragedy, that’s a blessing in the face of this terrible thing, and I encourage anyone to share it with others… especially your kids, if you have kids. If you read and think “Not MY kid”… I guarantee you his parents never thought something like this could happen to their kid, either. If you haven’t had “that talk” with your kids yet (or heck, even if you have), they’re probably really never too young or too old these days.

If you feel compelled to do more, the scholarship fund info is in the memorial service announcement in the June 1st entry on Katie’s blog.

I’m a pretty seasoned veteran when it comes to having witnessed firsthand how lives can be destroyed by stuff like this, but this has just been so terribly heartbreaking to watch happen, even for me. It’s just ripped my heart out these last several weeks and especially this weekend, when the worst news there could have been came. I don’t think I’ve ever been as shocked in my life as I was when the Facebook alert popped up with the news early Monday evening. The medical person that spent 25 years in healthcare knew this could happen… but I just never really once thought he wasn’t going to walk out of that hospital and go home, someday. Even when the long-term prognosis was looking pretty grim in itself, I just never thought at all it would turn for the worse like it did. Not when he’d made it as far as he had.

I’ve probably seen thousands of pictures of all of Katie’s kids in the past nine or ten years, and read millions of various anecdotes about them since 2000 or 2001 or whenever I first landed on the old forum the Knoxville weekly used to have. I’ve never met them – and now, sadly, will never meet Henry.

But I know one thing for sure about Henry – he was extremely, extremely well loved by virtually everyone ever that knew him. I bet I have heard and read a million times in the past decade what a sweet child, sweet boy, sweet young man he was, from hundreds of different people. And I know he fought so very hard to survive this horrific nightmare.

I’ve been so sad and heartbroken for Katie & Jon and their whole family, but my heart aches a bunch right now for the many friends of theirs up there in Knoxville that are in so much pain right now too, the ones that have been up there helping out and so many more, several of whom I’m acquainted with through the forums or elsewhere. I’ve seen people kicking themselves, right after Henry was hospitalized, who’d just seen him shortly before then and wished they’d talked to him about their own past problems, thinking maybe they could have made a difference. Things that have just been so very much even more heartbreaking. This has been such a terrible loss for so many.

I guess I would be remiss in not commenting on the fact that I’m pretty angry too, as the Knox County Sheriff’s Office basically sat on this investigation for over a month and only now – with Henry’s death, and a short article about the investigation hitting the local newspaper last night – does it seem to have suddenly have a fire lit under it. Katie wrote several days ago about having called to find out what was going on with the case, and basically being told nothing much had been done and there wasn’t a victim if Henry couldn’t be interviewed (which he couldn’t, due to his severe head injury).

Not only that, but the family had already provided them with names of witnesses AND the names of the assailants. And STILL they’d been more or less sitting on the case for over a month.

Pretty deplorable – and to me, not terribly smart, considering that the mother of the “non-victim” is not only well-known in Knoxville media, but a former employee of both the local daily newspaper AND one of the larger TV news stations. I can’t imagine that someone down there didn’t know that – or at least not been made aware of it by someone that did know. And I don’t think Katie ever tried to play that card – as far as I can tell, she didn’t want to bother them and hadn’t called KCSO until the recent call, when she was just incredulous to learn nothing much had been done.

But the whole “no victim because they can’t be interviewed” thing is definitely a significant misstep. (I’d have liked to have seen someone try to tell Gary Christian that his daughter wasn’t a victim, since she couldn’t be interviewed…? Come on.)

Anyway, whatever the case – whether you just read over at Katie’s place, whether you share Henry’s story with others and/or your kids, whether you decide you wanna do more, or even if you just hold on to some good thoughts for them all or say a prayer – thanks for keeping all these good folks in any thoughts & prayers (if you pray) that you have to spare. They could really use them right now.

(And if by chance Katie’s blog is down again – I think after the blog got linked by the New York Times reporter that wrote in May about Katie going public with Henry’s situation posted an update yesterday and after Heather (Dooce) Armstrong posted the link on Twitter, as well as some other links going everywhere on Tuesday, the bandwidth limit got overshot by a long shot and the site was suspended most of Tuesday, but the issues seem to have been resolved now – but anyway, in case it’s down again, here’s the memorial fund info from Katie’s blog, please feel free to pass it on):

Our family is starting what we hope will become a permanent, endowed fund that will provide scholarships for families who cannot afford to pay for needed drug and alcohol treatment programs for their children. In lieu of flowers, we ask that you remember our boy and his struggles by considering a donation to:

The Henry Louis Granju Memorial Scholarship Fund
c/o Administrator: James Anderson
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
2000 Meridian Blvd.
Suite 290
Franklin, TN 37067

The State of Volunteer State Dudeblogging

I had had this rather damning post on the backburner in draft for some time where I was going to cry and whine and moan about the fact that “most” of my fave Tennessee dude bloggers that I’ve been reading for years had pretty much hung up the keyboard.

But then since I originally started that post and left it sitting in my drafts eight or ten months ago, two things have happened. First, two of the ones I was going to pout about most  – CeeElCee and FreakyWeasel – showed up again. Yay! (Well, actually FreakyWeasel never left, just nobody told me he’d relocated. I went to his old blog one day and was shocked to find him gone, and when I asked about it, everyone was all quiet about it like it was some big conspiracy so I didn’t ask again.)

And though it’s been a while now since his return, Roger also came back, which made me and a large portion of the regional blogosphere all happy and stuff.

Anyway, then there my other discovery, when I got to looking at my blogroll – I discovered less of the dude contingent had dropped out than I’d really realized, which I suppose part of the reason it seemed to be like “all” the men had quit was because so many of the ones that went MIA were just huge favorites. Still, there are loads of dudes I like to read still out there – Mike, Michael, Christian, Joe, Jack, Jackson, Kleinheider, Jon, Michael Silence, Chris, Jeffraham, Sean, Wally, Mack, Frank, Rob, and Ron (who’s not a Tennessean but we kinda adopted him), to name a few. And a few more I’ve picked up along the way, like Steve and Steve.

And then there are some that aren’t writing much lately, but still show up from time to time and I’m thankful for that – LeBlanc, Jon, Slarti, and the very much missed (and not Tweeting lately either!!) Hutchmo. I’m glad you guys are still around, I wish we’d see more of you though. And these two, too.

So I guess my originally months ago intended post about how the blogger women were kicking the men’s butts bigtime by still going at it when all the dudes had quit is unwarranted and unnecessary now.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t miss the heck out of reading Sarcastro, Knuck, Rex, and Kerry Woo any less, even though three of the four still entertain me on Twitter regularly. (ADDED: I knew I’d forget someone here – Russ. Who also still entertains me on Twitter regularly, but still, dang it.)

If somebody misses reading you, I bet you’ve still got something to say. Sigh.

Seeing Justice Served: Let’s Do the Right Things on BOTH Sides of the Mississippi

Here when, in a few hours, a Knoxville jury will begin deliberations on the sentence for convicted murderer, torturer, and rapist Lemaricus Davidson, I’m reminded of some rather interesting new info I came across while browsing around the ‘Net a few weeks ago regarding a very, very old case that’s still sorta in limbo to this day.

More than likely, unless you’re from around here, you probably didn’t hear about the West Memphis Three case until the documentary Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills was first aired on HBO in 1996, a broadcast that kickstarted a wave of national attention like a snowball rolling downhill that still kinda continues to roll and grow as time goes on.

I was right here in Memphis in 1993, in my late twenties and working down in the Medical Center, and remember very well the morning I sat down at my desk and flipped open The Commercial Appeal to do my usual quick morning skim of the news to find that they had discovered the mutilated bodies of three young boys across the river in West Memphis. I was usually the last one into the office every day, as most everyone else came in before I did, so the rest of them already knew and had already talked about it, so after a couple of “Yeah, I know”s and a little small talk, I was pretty much left alone with the horror of it all the rest of the morning. Nobody really knew what to say anyway.

Then there was the shock of the arrest of three other West Memphis boys – teenagers – and nobody really knew what to think. I’d never in a million years say Memphis and the Metro Memphis area in general was a place of “innocence” – probably not ever, really – I think probably throughout history it’s always pretty much been the “harder, tougher, meaner sister” to its three other large siblings in the Volunteer State. But back then things were not quite what they are these days, we weren’t quite as overrun and (sadly) numb to crime here as now – I seem to recall it was not all that long before this incident that some official was claiming publicly that there wasn’t a gang problem in Memphis. In short, people as a whole could still get really shocked here as one big group and community. Maybe not so much now.

So as I said, nobody really knew what to think – and therefore, I think probably a whole lot of us at the time just let the media do the thinking for us. I pretty much thought they were probably guilty – these kids, these teenagers – because the local media (all outlets) pretty much said so. And they were mainly publishing what they were given, what they were told – you can’t blame them all that much, really. Especially since as time went on, things got more and more convoluted – documents went missing, potential suspects inexplicably never followed up on – that case was a great big mess, but most of us who were just occasionally following it on the TV news and in the paper weren’t all that aware of that either – how messed up it was – until much, much later.

So from 1993 to 1996, I really never once thought to question it, what I and everyone else was told. They said the teenage boys were guilty, and pretty much everything we in the general public had been exposed to up to that point in the papers, on TV – they looked pretty guilty. Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley got sent away to the penitentiary, and Damien Echols landed on Arkansas’ Death Row, and that seemed to be pretty much that.

And then Paradise Lost aired for the first time, and sometimes I wonder just how many people besides me in the Mid-South were sitting in their living rooms shaking their heads and going, “Waaaaaaait a minute…”

Mara Leveritt’s book about the case, Devil’s Knot, as well as other books and articles, just added to the mix of questions and doubts. Leveritt was one of the local media on the case in Arkansas at the time. By the time I got around to reading her book, I had seen the documentary and had read more and more convoluted stuff about the case coming out of the local media, so a lot of the things in her book weren’t a surprise or anything new, but the book certainly further outlined just how screwed up the whole case was. (Not to mention this one simple fact – how many people end up on Death Row or incarcerated for life with NO physical evidence linking them to the case?)

I’ve been blogging since February 1997 and I could be wrong, but I think today is the first time I’ve ever written anything about this case. For a long time still after the documentary aired – well, those boys from West Memphis just weren’t a real popular topic around these parts, or maybe I should say there was still a lot of intensity on both sides of opinion when it came to the West Memphis Three. I remember witnessing a debate on the subject among a group of people downtown that nearly dissolved into a fistfight, years after those kids were dead and years after the others were sent up to do time.

It’s kind of funny now, as times have changed – really now the thought of mass public hysteria about Satanism and sacrifices seems as dated to me now as ’80s Brat Pack movies and big hair and mullets. But this case hadn’t been the first in this area to get all that mass hysteria and suspicion flowing – it was one of three or four big ones all around the same time, if I recall right – it was kind of a big deal, back then. I don’t think I ever felt like I was afraid, per se, to say, “You know, this stuff is starting to sound like maybe it didn’t really go down like they told us it did in the beginning.” But still, given what is somewhat of a Southern trait and tendency to just keep your mouth shut when things are intense or inflamed – sometimes it just seems best to do just that, and I think probably a lot of folks around here did that for a lot of  years, after that documentary started putting questions in people’s heads.

And I’m sure there’s still some out there that think the boys – all grown men now – were guilty as hell and are right where they should be. But I just can’t imagine there’s a whole lot of people, other than those that were very close to the case and relatives, that didn’t start to question and wonder about it all after Paradise Lost.

Or at the very least – and this has really been my own personal feeling all along – I can’t imagine that most weren’t convinced that they deserved another trial, a fair one. That’s what I’ve said, in private company among family and close friends, all these years. Maybe they are guilty – I don’t think they are, but maybe they are – but the trial and investigation that sent them up was rather abominable, a great big giant convoluted mess. They deserved another, better, and more fair trial, at the very least. Especially since it put one of them on Death Row.

And I guess that’s one of the reasons the West Memphis Three case came to mind this week, while I’ve been closely following the trial of the ringleader in the Christian-Newsom murders in Knoxville. There’s been no big major-release documentary (yet) of this particular case like in the West Memphis one, but the Knoxville News-Sentinel put together a small one that was excellent, Death on Chipman Street, and there’s loads of video, transcripts, articles and all kinds of other stuff to be found among the Knoxville media. Between reading and viewing a lot of that, and now having watched the majority of Davidson’s trial and most of his brother’s trial -

Well, it’s rather stunning when you compare the two cases, the two trials. I’m sure they’ve had their fair share of problems up in Knox County with that whole thing, but just comparing them on the surface, from the point of view of the general public, a bystander looking on – that Knoxville case is running like this fantastically organized, well-oiled machine in comparison to the disorganized and dysfunctional mess that investigation and trial in the West Memphis case was years ago.

What kind of nudged my interest into seeing what was new with the WM3 case recently was a sort of accidental discovery of something I wasn’t really looking for at the time. If you watched Paradise Lost and/or the sequel, no doubt you remember John Mark Byers, stepfather of one of the victims, the “crazy wild man” from the documentary who was once himself a prominent suspect in the case, even after the West Memphis Three were convicted. His enormously angry and enraged presence fairly dominated both films, especially the first one. A great big and imposing guy, he repeatedly and very loudly and vehemently called for the deaths of the accused. His rage was so visibly huge, you didn’t have to use your imagination much to figure what would happen if he could get his hands on any of the three, and get away with it.

When I rather accidentally came across this site and this blog a month or so ago and learned that even Mark Byers – of all people!!!! – now thinks that Echols, Baldwin, and Misskelley were convicted by mistake and should be set free or at least get another and more fair trial, I was just blown away. Who would have ever, ever thought that this man, who ranted and raved on camera at great length and in very great detail about his hatred for the three convicted and the horrendous ends he wished upon that time, would do a complete, 100% turnaround and now be in support of seeing them freed?!?!?!

That’s when I knew the doubt that had been nagging at me in the back of my head ever since the documentary aired in 1996 was there for a reason and rightfully so.

I should pause here and add that I mean no disrespect to Mark Byers here by bringing up his past behavior. Quite the opposite, in fact. At the time, way back when, I felt so sorry and such sympathy for all of the parents, including Byers, but anyone who saw the documentaries witnessed how over the top he was at the time; and then when there were several turns of events that pointed the finger in his direction over possible guilt, I thought that was credible at the time (and one of my relatives was convinced upon seeing the first film that Byers did it, not the teenagers). The fact that he’s made it through many difficult years and hurdles, mostly all the while with thousands of people suspicious of his own innocence in the case, and not only past all the rage towards the convicted but this 100% turnaround supporting them in their quest for a new trial – sheesh, my respect for Byers has increased immensely.

In any case, so many lives have been lost needlessly here. Stevie Branch, Chris Byers, and Michael Moore – the “real” West Memphis Three – should have never had to die as they did. They should be young men in their mid-twenties now, but nothing’s ever going to bring them back and they are forever eight years old. Melissa Byers has passed away since, never knowing (if I’m not incorrect here) that new information was going to surface that would point guilt in a completely other direction from the three convicted in the deaths of her son and his friends.

And then you have Damien, Jason, and Jessie – now all in their thirties – locked up over 16 years now with 16 years of their lives gone for all practical purposes. And Damien’s physical life hanging in the balance on Death Row.

Here in a few hours, we in Tennessee are going to find out what’s going to happen to Lemaricus Davidson, whether it’s life with parole possible (51 years minimum due to his convictions, so it might as well be life without parole, really), life without parole, or death. I don’t really think, especially after this week, that there are any lingering doubts or questions in anyone’s mind that the right person’s been convicted in this case. People may continue to argue the outcome of today’s (hopefully it will be today) sentencing, but the Christian and Newsom families feel justice has been served, and one way or the other – one of those three ways – Davidson will be off the streets forever, whether totally or theoretically.

I’m okay with that. I’m all for it, really.

But the West Memphis Three case – there’s too much doubt and too many questions in this other one, here to the west. Not only that, but new doubts and new questions – and new evidence – that have yet to be followed up on fully and followed through. If Damien, Jason, and Jessie were to win their freedom with a new trial – or if the new leads and evidence don’t out the real killer or killers – that would mean the killer’s still out there. I’m not really okay with that – who would be?

And you know, even still – maybe they did do it, the teenagers, when they were teenagers. Sure, I don’t think so, obviously, but that possibility is still out there.

But I think we should find out. And do it right this time. Give those men a fair trial this time – one that’s not an unholy mess and circus of disorganization and dysfunction and mishaps that get pushed aside just for the sake of convicting somebody - and go from there. Wrap up this case for once and for all, as cleanly as the Knox County folks just did with theirs this week, and see what the outcome is this time.

What a horrific mistake it would be to execute the wrong man for this awful, horrible, tragic and terrible crime. It would be equally awful and horrible and tragic and terrible as the little boys’ murders themselves, as would letting two other men sit there for the rest of their lives if they didn’t do anything wrong. It’s already been almost 17 years, almost 14 of which have now been shrouded in an incredible amount of doubt and unanswered questions.

Without another trial, and a fair and better one this time – or without seeking out the answers to the questions all the new evidence has brought up – if Damien Echols is put to death without any of that happening, none of us may ever find out in our lifetimes here on earth whether the wrong person was executed or not.

I’m not okay with that. We might all be dead and gone eventually without ever knowing the truth, if that happens.

But that doesn’t make it all right to just go ahead and do it right now. I’m not okay with that at all.

(I’m posting this without proofreading it, but then again this post has been simmering in the back of my head for about a decade now, so hopefully I got it sorta right.)

So Not a Professional Photographer, But Hey

So check this out… a few weeks ago I had some postage stamps made at PhotoStamps.com with this photo, which is one of several I took at Eagle Rock in the Great Smoky Mountains near Knoxville and Maryville about three years ago.

Today I was notified that it had been selected as a candidate for the PhotoStamps of the Year contest.  If it’s one of the three finalists for the month, then I get a framed commemorative sheet of the stamps, and then entered into the Grand Prize contest for the year.  If it wins, then it goes on exhibition at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.  Neat, huh?

Collectively Broken?

I know most of you probably read or heard about the church shooting in Knoxville this past Sunday. I’ve been trying to find the words to comment on it all week, but it’s really been difficult to put thoughts into words in this case.

Different people I have discussed it with have been most struck by different things about it. One was horrified that such a thing happened when children were on stage performing a play. Another has not been able to get the thought of the child who was covered in his mother’s blood out of her head. I was particularly disturbed by the irony that one of the victims wasn’t a member of the church, but of another church in the community, and had come to the church that day to see the kids’ play, and the fact that some of the other victims were visitors from out of town (I heard anyway).

And I guess one of the most disturbing things of all to many people is the fact that obviously you can’t even be sure you can feel safe in church anymore. Of all places.

I think of the church I grew up in – a small town church, but there are many big churches with large memberships in town and the town’s not all THAT small anyway – however, the church I grew up in was pretty small compared to most. Even with a full house, someone with a gun could have taken out the entire congregation and any visitors in a matter of minutes. That just makes my blood run cold and sends shivers down my spine.

As a kid, I spent literally hours in that church, and quite often by myself – with an adult on the grounds, yes, but not necessarily in the general vicinity where I was or even in the same building. But who wouldn’t have thought that wasn’t safe?

I also lived my entire life until I went off to college in houses that were never locked – not my home, not my grandparents’ – unless you went out of town on vacation, and maybe not even then, because it really didn’t matter. From around the second or third grade on, I walked home from school to a home that had been empty and unlocked all day long, and usually spent another two or three hours alone in the house until my parents got home from work. We didn’t lock our cars; we didn’t have to.

And nobody would have thought twice about the fact that I spent countless hours walking or bicycling around the neighborhood or all the way to downtown by myself, also from a pretty young age. Even when 8-year-old Cary Ann Medlin’s body was found raped and mutilated in the woods in a nearby town when I was 13 – a tragedy that Newscoma, my age and growing up in the next town over at the time, referred to the other day in her own thoughts about the Knoxville shootings – still I continued to hoof it around town by myself all the time, albeit with probably some stronger cautionary words about being careful and watching out for myself. Heck, at 13 years old, that was prime time for me walking downtown every week to spend my allowance at the music shop on records and that week’s issue of Rolling Stone.

But you really didn’t HAVE to worry about not being safe, not then, not there, and not even all that much even in the bigger cities. In 18 years, there was the Medlin case, there was the Marcia Trimble abduction and murder in Nashville that was such unusual and big news that, I guarantee you, every single native Tennesseean still alive that’s over the age of 40 not only remembers her name, but can probably tell you exactly what she looked like. Because stuff like that just didn’t happen, not as a rule.

And people in small towns didn’t go around killing each other. I recall one big nasty murder in the county when I was a child, and one when I was in high school. One was killed by someone who had previously worked for him, the other was shot and killed by a man he knew over some argument. Two – TWO – murders in two counties in 18 years.

And now there’ve been more murders than I can count in both those counties over the last ten, fifteen years – not every day, no, but far, far more than two in 18 years, and many of them seemingly arbitrary or random. Kids get abducted and sometimes wind up dead, and it’s still shocking, sure, but not like it once was. Another school shooting happens and you’re appropriately horrified, but no longer all that surprised.

And now people are walking into churches on Sunday mornings and shooting and killing people. If you can’t be sure you’re safe in school, or in church – where, then, can you feel safe?

Of course, now I live in a city where murders happen every week and I hear gunshots pretty much every day just about now, so I’m even more numbed and jaded by the constant influx of violence and crime. But that’s why the horrible things that keep happening back home – and even in Knoxville, which is not crime free, of course, but nowhere near the percentage Memphis is – that’s why these things bother me even more. Stuff happens here that’s not supposed to happen up there, or there.

Would the church shooting have been as shocking and people so horrified if it had happened in Memphis? Sure, of course it would have. But I don’t know that many would have been all that surprised, sad to say, especially the rest of our fellow Tennesseans. People from up yonder where I’m from, other than a very small handful, they don’t come to Memphis to shop or to see doctors or for entertainment like they used to. They go to Nashville instead, or even just to Jackson. It’s really pretty sad.

I am grateful that nobody I knew was at the church the other day in Knoxville, but plenty of folks I’m acquainted with did have friends or family that were there, and even one or two that are members that weren’t there that day. That doesn’t make it any less disturbing or sad.

And when I heard from someone in Knoxville about a comment someone they know made – someone who is a member of a large Baptist church in West Knoxville, and quite possibly the same one my future mother-in-law attends every Sunday – the comment being something along the lines of well, you know those people in that church practice witchcraft – I just felt sick.

My future mother-in-law – the Baptist churchgoer – used to be involved in programs that were held at the TVUU church weekly, and had just been telling me on the phone the day before what a nice church it was, and how lovely and wonderful all the people she knew there always had been. In fact, it turns out one of her other sons – one of my future brothers-in-law – used to be a member of that very church.  Maybe still is technically and still on their rolls, though he doesn’t really go anymore.

Witchcraft. I mean, please. Granted, it wasn’t the Baptists or the Methodists or the Presbyterians or a super well-known sect, and it wasn’t even the Catholics, who goodness knows have been accused of lots of whacked out things in thousands of years. But witchcraft? Don’t be stupid. Google before you go shooting off at the mouth. I mean, Wikipedia’s right there.

The ignorance in this country seems to be at an overall all-time high, and safety’s at a premium, obviously. If you can even say safety exists anymore, when you can’t be safe in church on Sunday.

People are having to choose between buying groceries and putting gas in their car, and at the same time, people are getting laid off from their jobs left and right, businesses are closing, and not too many that still have jobs are reporting that their salaries are going up along with the cost of everything else that’s going up.

When does it all end? Where does it stop?

There’s an election coming up, but is anybody who could really change things really going to do something about it all?

I wonder. Something’s got to give. When things break, you fix them. Are we, collectively, broken enough yet?