January 29, 2011 — Dateline takes on the Jabalee case

MSNBC’s Dateline has taken on the Oct. 6, 2006, murder case of Ronald (Sr.) and Christine Jabalee.  Just in case you missed it last night you can read the transcript of the show here.  (NBC is not making this available to watch on line, perhaps a new policy.)  I have had the occasion to watch NBC up close and  personal when that organization chronicled the Janet Chandler case.  These folks are careful, careful, careful as they do this work.  In the Chandler case episode, Conspiracy of Silence, the producer was Jack Cloherty.  (He’s now with ABC producing for Pierre Thomas.)  At the very least this is worth a read  and a wonder.  It’s also an example of beautiful writing and producing.

January 27, 2011 — Russell Vane pleads to the murders of Kathryn Darling and Diane Holloway

Yes, yes, yes, yes!  Two more murders solved with the admission yesterday by Russell Vane that, yes, he killed both Kathy Darling and Diane Holloway.  The solution of these cases has been long awaited…35 years in the case of Darling’s murder and 31 years in Holloway’s.  And the work of the Kent County Metro Cold Case Team in Grand Rapids and the effors of the prosecutors concludes the wait.  The team is led by State Police Sergeant Sally Wolter and she was joined in this efforts by Erika Fannon, A.J.Hite, Tome Nawrocki, and Ben Cammenga.  We know others…many others…helped.

Reporter Barton Dieters has been on this story for a long time.  His Grand Rapids Press account of the in-court admission by Russell Vane is more first-rate writing.

YES!

January 17, 2011 — If evil seems to win, read this letter from a Birmingham jail

Yes, this is a holiday set aside to honor the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.  Last week I had the opportunity to read afresh his letter written when he sat in the Birmingham jail.  Imagine, if you will, what it felt like for Dr. King to linger there, under arrest.  Was he discouraged by that apparent overwhelming authority that shouted with its every action that he and his cause would not prevail?  If he was, still he didn’t give up or give in.  We need his courage, his conviction.  Wherever there is injustice…let there be truth telling.  And hope.

There is no such thing as false hope.  It may be disappointed, delayed, indefinitely postponed, but hope is real.  Dr. King knew that.