Delayed Justice

Periodically, I have been monitoring the blogging session at MSNBC that followed the airing of the Dateline piece on Janet Chandler. It’s amazing what people will say. I’m sure there are those who will find anything I say here deficient in content and execution. There have been some rather pointed comments concerning the need for capital punishment, a lot of chatter about Cheryl Ruiz and her expectation that the piece really was going to be all about her, or that there was going to be a subsequent piece. Well, NBC eventually had to take down her comments; they were pretty crude. One commentator, White Elephant was urging NBC to follow up with another piece that told MORE of the story. Initially, that was the plan: a two-hour segment. NBC was nervous, though, and found the two-hour cut too graphic to start at 8 p.m. (Chicago time). Then, too, NBC buried the program on the Memorial Day weekend. The piece still garnered 6.2 million sets of eyeballs, even though it was second to a rerun of Numbers.

Finally, producer Jack Cloherty took a few paragraphs, the first time in all the blog, to state that NBC had no further plans to do anything more with the story. Jack’s comments gave me the courage to post there. Here’s what I said:
Message #155
08/26/08 04:53 PM
Dear While Elephant and others:
I have purposely held back from posting; there have been a lot of things said here that are far, far, far off the mark. You are correct, though, that there has been a lot of prayer around this case. I am the filmmaker. Prayer started when I first heard about this case; I began by praying that I would clearly understand what I was being asked to do and that I would be given the strength and intelligence to do it. Once I involved my students, WE prayed about this case. And there was a small army of prayer warriors who prayed each and every day for the investigators once the cold case was launched. We had custodians, teachers, administrative law judges, nurses…hundreds of people who prayed for justice for Janet AND for the well being of the detectives and the administrative staff behind them. They all paid a dear price. The investigators are men of deep faith and we have prayed together, cried together, and they have helped to deliver justice. They ARE heroes, but so are the prosecutors who took on this case.
Yes, I’d like to see about six more people charged in this case. But that decision rests with the attorney general’s office. Donna Pendergast is wise and loves justice. The case is still open and the future is unknowable.
Oh, one more thing: the producer got it right…and not just “almost right.” …One hundred percent. I watched and marveled at what he managed to do in 38 minutes. It was the story, accurately delivered, proportionate, informed. He deserves high honors.
Of course there is more to the story. The ins and outs confirm to my thoughts that God’s hand has been on this from the beginning.
Do we follow up with the next installment? Believe me, the thought has crossed our minds.
Cordially,
D

If you want to read all the stuff it’s here:

http://boards.msn.com/MSNBCboards/thread.aspx?boardid=474&threadid=677936&boardsparam=Page%3d13

And the garden this morning was glorious. I trimmed back rambling roses that had threatened to choke out the more elegant (expensive) roses. Evidently, a rose is not a rose is not a rose. And the roses, to vent their displeasure, have left my arms deeply scored and bloody.

Oh, the days fly by.  Yes, still in the garden mornings.  We’ve had a cooler wave of weather and it’s amazing to stand in the yard when it’s downright chilly and watch the dew glisten on the grass.  The ducks are just off shore in the bayou and they let me know when I get too close for comfort.

We’ve had-for years-an off-and-on leak around the fireplace.  We contacted a roofer who was recommended to us and he tore into it last evening (it’s a little job to be fit around others he working).  He found what I suspected: ants chewing merrily away.  Well, they really weren’t so very happy when we dispossessed them of their home.  The roofer says that if we deprive them of the water that’s ben leaking in, they’ll move out.  We also liberally sprinkled diatomaceous earth in the attic area.  (Can’t use poisons around the house if there is any alternative.  There usually is.}

Making the environment inhospitable has ramifications that go far beyond this hearth.  In an article by Kathy Barks Hoffman that appeared in last night’s Muskegon Chronicle (and elsewhere via AP) was the news that Michigan Supreme Court Justice Clifford Taylor has so far raised MORE THAN 1.5 million dollars  (http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/evermoreexpensive_court_races.html) for a race that so far is uncontested.  There was a notice in the Grand Rapids Press this past weekend of a fundraiser to be held in that fair city, hosted by former ambassador Peter Secchia and that would feature the appearance of former Michigan Governor John Engler.  It was Governor Engler who is responsible for the packing of the Court with his appointments either to the high or lower courts.  Justice Taylor was and continues to be a beneficiary of Governor Engler’s efforts.  Our system allows for this kind of support and I don’t mean to suggest there is something underhanded about it.  But I DO question the commentary in the AP story by one Dan Pero of the American Justice Partnership.  Mr. Pero “Makes no bones about the fact that his group wants to get more business-friendly judges on that courts. … ‘Business groups have engaged because they finally got tired of being slapped around…and seeing hard work in legislatures overturned by activist courts.'”  So, we want to elect judges and justices who have a proclivity for something other than the letter of the law? The starts to resemble activism in my eyes.  And, note, too, the Dan Pero and Governor Engler go back together a long, long way.  …Years and years (http://www.legalreforminthenews.com/leaders/Pero/Pero_bio.html).  I’m thinking this does not bode well for us, and the fact that Justice Clifford Taylor is NOT distancing himself from this kind of rhetoric concerns me.  I fear we might be depriving us lowly ants of the kind of sustenance we need-fair courts-to thrive.

Twenty-one days…that what it takes, says my friend Lynn, to create a habit from a practice.  Now, he was talking primarily about trumpet playing but he allowed that the effect crosses all kinds of behaviors.  The garden, for instance.  I have tried this late summer to rise with the sun and be in the garden early…digging out overgrown beds.  I have been lax enough to allow a particularly invasive grass…the same kind that edges the bayou..to get in there.  And it’s tenacious.  The roots form a real mat and the shovel-sharp as it is-sometimes requires several foot-pushes to make it through.  And then getting the dense roots stands as a challenge.  The grass is stunting the roses…those wonderful red, red signals that were specifies by my late sister-in-law.  She said if we planted these from the Rosarium at Bayfields we’d have a 60-mile-an-hour display…you know, something that you’d drive by at speed and say “Wow!”  Well, in the first place there’s no road…just a fence about 40 feet in front of the bayou and we discourage boat traffic tearing through this no-wake zone.

In the second place, these roses have never done all that well.  I expect it’s the care they’ve not received, including not protecting them through Michigan winters.  But when they bloom, it’s red, something that really catches my eye (I love red in a garden).

So, what’s a filmmaker doing enthusing about mornings in the garden? Just this: once out there I feel like I’ve accomplished something.  And more and more I find a garden the metaphor for life.  We DO reap what we sow. And if we tend our gardens, that space immediately around us, it flourishes.  And we should prune and weed out that which is destructive to our wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.  After, it’s not all about us.

Busy weekend, busy Monday.  No contribution.  During the weekend I was on the road, playing music at McKenna’s in Lakeview.  About once a month I go up there to play with a dear friend of mine.  This guy is 84 and is one of the best stride pianists I’ve ever heard.  He’s got a left hand from God.  So, there are just the two of us, me on trumpet and flugelhorn and Bernie on his little piano.  We position ourselves at the front of the bar and dining room and play for three or four hours…all old music.  Bernie came up in the Bronx and he traveled all over studying the great players.  One of his heroes is Teddy Wilson.  The patrons at McKenna’s are a lovely bunch and they welcome us again and again.  And they pay attention, sometimes calling out requests.  There are some nights when most of the performance in programmed from the floor.  Suits us, as long as we know the tunes.

You know, it’s commencing to get serious when the average age in the band is 71 and there are 132 years of musical experience…and there are just two guys.

These are the things that keep belief alive and well.  For more than a year I’ve been searching for the 1936 South High yearbook from Grand Rapids.  I wanted to see what the page Mina Dekker’s picture.   Oh, I’d seen her individual photograph; her brother, Adrian, had shared that with me and I have it scanned for the film.  But I wanted to see her face among the others, alphabetically listed, neatly lined up.  Who was she among her peers?  While the newsworthiness of the film is the manner of her death, even more important is her life.  I have heard something about that from her brother and from her best friend.

The Grand Rapids Public Library has a wonderful historical collection and Karolee Hazelwood and Rebecca Mayne…and others…do wonderful work to make materials available.  And while they have the 1935 edition, and the 1937 edition…1936 had eluded their efforts.

Imagine my amazement when someone else we interviewed for this project told me about seeing such a document.  The matter came to light when she was talking to an older friend who was curious about the case and who had deep Grand Rapids roots.  And my interviewee send me the link to an on-line scan of the page with Mina’s picture, right after Lois Eleanor DeBruin and right before Maxine DeMartini.  See for yourself:

http://www.kent.migenweb.net/schools/southhs/1936/sr-ca-dev.html

Special thanks to my friend who found and sent this (I never would have been able to find it on my own) and thanks to ES who took the time and trouble to scan this in.  Well done and VERY helpful.  I take this by its very nature as a miracle.  Oh, yes, of course I believe in those.

There, such as it is for now, the film Conflict at the Court is up and I think it’s viewable.  Have at it.  If your connection or computer are a little slow, this may be too big and we might want to post a smaller version as well.  We’ll see.

Another beautiful morning in the garden, cleaning out an overgrown weed bed.  I managed to finish a segment of perhaps sixty by five feet.  Oh, I didn’t start it this morning; instead, little by little, the way most projects are completed.

Paying work has kept me hopping.  Last week I managed to finish one project that had been running into its third month…and we made the deadline in good order.  Today, more edits with another client on a project that is almost done.

In September, I’ve been invited to attend the TriMedia Festival in Fort Collins, CO.  I’ve never been to a film festival before and I trust this will be both pleasant and informative (for me OR the audience).  The pleasant part is that the organizers are interesting people who bring enthusiasm to the gathering and they seem down to earth.  Then, too, the festival is about film, television, and theater, so there is breadth there.  They describe themselves as a calm Sundance.  As I said, this will be a first for me.  I entered one other local fest and the film Who Killed Janet Chandler? didn’t make the cut.  I expect I’m more or less on my guard about filmmaking and filmmakers.  The whole process seems to take on such self importance.  And I suspicion that I could be in the thick of it with the rest of them…looking down my supercilious nose.  That’s the fear: I am not as strong or independent as I’d like to think I am.  If I can stay centered I’ll be fine. Prayer time. Like so many other things in life, this is an inside job; it’s really not about “them.”

During the past year I’ve been working on what I think is another justice issue: the state of Michigan’s Supreme Court.  I sat down in February of 2007 for a conversation with Justice Elizabeth A. Weaver and she dropped the dime on the court…on justices indicating that they will sign on to opinions of the court BEFORE hearing scheduled oral arguments before their assembled number.

Beyond that, there has been a long antagonistic history among the court members.  Justice Weaver has been the target of a gag order that flies in the face of judicial canons.  The problem is really an old one: power blocks form mostly along party lines.  Now, Justice Weaver has run on a Republican nomination, but there are four super Republicans…each appointed to judicial office at one time by former Governor John Engler (not all to the Supreme Court).  This power block has had a field day.  The latest debacle is the removal (after the over-hasty appointment) of Macomb Country’s Chief Judge of Probate.  Oh, what a mess, something the Justice Weaver saw coming and urged the court to forbear in making the appointment in the first place.

Justice Weaver’s motto is Do Right and Fear Not.  I have had to take courage from that a time or two in this process.  After all, what average citizen wants to antagonize the majority of his state’s Supreme Court? These are not people you want on your case…literally and figuratively.  But do right!

The film that came out of all this ran a little more than an hour and it was sent to almost all the major newspapers and TV stations in the state. NOTHING!  The reaction was stunning in its silence.  I called a few folks and they said things like: “She’s just whining.”  “This is nothing new.”  “Get back to us when you have some real news.”

Okay.  My thought is that in this day of declining news budgets and newsroom personnel, there really is nobody to take this on.  And it’s a complex issue…very complex.  So, it’s not going to be covered.

Honestly, I did not want this to have to wait until the upcoming election; I am neither a Republican nor a Democrat (although I tend to vote Republican more often).  Nor can I understand how the Republican Party didn’t haul Chief Justice Clifford Taylor aside and take him for a little trip to the woodshed.

I am going to post the film on this website for free viewing.  You decide if you want to watch it.

I hope to have it up by the end of the week.

D

Sometimes living the dream takes a little work (every time, I’m guessing). One of my dreams has been to get up every morning full of enthusiasm. Well.  But the last three weeks have seen me in my garden with a cup of fresh coffee, edging beds and taking out weeds that have remained unhindered for a couple of years.  There really is something about watching the sun come up over the bayou.  This morning, for instance, the Grand River (the state’s largest) was warmer than the morning air and the mist was rising.  Dogs Gracie (full name Gracie Maybelle Wigglebutt) and Jack (just Jack) were out waiting patiently for their breakfast as I started work.  They were hunting, hunting, hunting, although Gracie is not above laying in the dirt right where I’ve dug.  She’s not afraid of the shovel or the four-tine garden rake.  She should be for accidents DO happen.

Another area of improvement is this communication. I have no idea who is out there, whether what we’re doing matters to you or is only of passing interest.  Well, I may be paraphrasing T. S. Eliot here when he said “For us there is only the trying.  The rest is not our business.”  Russell Kirk so agreed with Eliot: bloom where you are planted, do what you can.  Take the cash and let the credit go!”  The latter, always with a twinkle of mischief.

Today, I’m about moving along a couple of projects toward completion. This is paid work for which I am most grateful; I seem to have the best clients in the world.  They are creative, innovative and eager to use the tools that advance story telling.

So, any frustration centers around my use of time.  We are very nearly done with the shooting for the next murder investigation, that of the 1938 beating of Mina Dekker.  The files sit there a silent reproach.  How do you all get the really important stuff done?  All of it?

D

From time to time is would be good to connect in a more personal way.  I’m thinking that may come in the form of a blog.  And, I would encourage you to respond…send me an e-mail at david.schock@delayedjustice.com.  In the first place, I’ve been a writer enough years to know that I can’t catch all my typos.  Then, too, arthritis doesn’t help on the keyboard.  I’d like to read some of your observations with the thought that the best of them will go up on the site.  I am not about to turn this site into the kind of free-for-all that’s overtaken the NBC Dateline site.  Wow!  Oh, yes, believe me there is plenty more about the Chandler case to be said and I’m trying to figure out how to say my part.

What do you think?  Are you interested in the second part of the documentary?  Consider that the original film was 82 minutes and theDateline piece-after commercials-was 38 minutes.  There is a lot that’s been left unsaid, no matter how good the piece was (and it was just excellent).

And you have to know that the work we’re doing here really doesn’t begin to pay for itself…yet.  Maybe we just don’t know how to go about that, but I’d welcome your thoughts.  Our most recent film, Finding Diane, cost in the neighborhood of $100K in time and out-of-pocket costs.  We’d have to sell a whole lot of copies to make it go.  Ideas?  I have one, but I’ll wait to hear from you first.

D