Who Is Kevin Willing?

How much can you truly know about the background of people you come into contact with each and every day? Do you ever wonder where they came from, or what they've done in the past? Take, for example the case of Kevin Willing, a man who, last I knew, was living in the Chicago Suburbs and worked for a comapany called Traffic Control & Protection. How many co-workers, friends, and customers of the company know that when they deal with Kevin Willing they are in the presence of a man who brutally beat to death a 4 year old child?

Back in 1993, Willing was at home babysitting his fiance's two children when Samantha wet her bed. Willing began to beat the child, who eventually died from the injuries she sustained. In court, the defense managed to convince the jury that Willing never intended to hurt the child seriously and that her injuries were accidental (perhaps Kevin is unable to control his fists). Rather than first degree murder, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to a pathetic 10 years, of which he served three.

Now he is free and living a normal life. He comes and goes to work. He gets together with family. He can enjoy a summer afternoon. All of these are things he denied to Samantha and her family for ever.

Recently I was told by a friend that our society has "courts of law, not courts of justice," and that is certainly true. Kevin escaped justice, serving only a few years for beating the life out of a defenseless child. He was ordered to pay restitution to his former fiance and some other family members, but the court allowed him a very generous payment plan in which he made periodic installments of less than $30 until the balance was paid. Talk about adding insult to injury; the court ensured that for several years the family would be reminded of their loss and the lack of justice in the form of checks (some members share of each payment was less than $5).

The defense attorneys seem rather proud of their role in denying justice to a dead child. They have reprinted news articles of the case on their website: here, and here.

During the trial Kevin was portrayed as stressed by financial obligations of his new wife and kids, the defense brought in psychologists who testified that Kevin Willing was "mentally slow" based on an evaluation when he applied to be a St.Charles, IL police officer. So, if you are stressed and an idiot you are allowed to kill someone! Perhaps that's how Ted Kennedy got away with it.

Samantha would be a young woman today. Perhaps in college, perhaps married. We will never know, because all the potential she posessed was robbed from her and those who loved her by Kevin Willing. Kevin Willing, who today is free to marry, to raise children even; children who are in danger of being treated by their father the way he treated an innocent child more than a decade ago. I guess we can only pray that Kevin Willing is not stressed the next time he is around children - as for the mentally slow part- I doubt there's much hope.

Meanwhile, the family has been through hell; on the anniversary of every birthday they feel their loss. On the anniversary of her death, they relive the pain and recall how they were denied justice. For them there was no first day of school, no visits to the zoo, no school photos, no park district soccer team, no prom, no graduation, no giving away the bride, no waiting for the arrival of grandchildren. All the while, Kevin Willing goes about his business each and every day and I wonder if he tells those he meets what kind of man (or sub-human rather) he really is. How many suspect that when they shake hands with Kevin Willing, there is blood on those hands?

Doesn't seem fair does it? But, who said life was fair? So, if you happen to meet a mentally slow man, currently around 40 years old, whose name is Kevin Willing, who may be putting out road construction barriers labeled "Traffic Control & Protection" (if he still works for them); introduce yourself and congratulate him; after all not many of us can list on our roll of achievements the item "I got away with murder."

Hang 'em!

Some new news about the pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Seems six of them were captured after they fired on a German naval ship they mistook for a commercial vessel. Read more here.

Silly, stupid pirates. I say, since we are dealing with a group of people who, like the terrorists, live in a fantasy world that has yet to catch up to the 20th century; let's deal with them the old fashioned way. In the good old days, captured pirates were hanged aboard ship!

Thomas Jefferson certainly knew how to handle the Barbary Coast pirates - build a navy, sail into their home ports, bombard their cities, sink their ships and kill them until they stopped their nonsense.

Respect For the Arts in Palestine

A group of Palestinian musicians playing in a concert to honor Holocaust survivors in Israel. Ahhh, that sounds like a liberal's dream. A symbol of hope and reconciliation.

Well, that's not how the powers that be in Palestine see it. According to this Jerusalem Post article authorities of the Jenin refuge camp have disolved the orchestra (aptly named the Strings of Freedom) and barred their orchestra teacher from returning to the camp. Her apartment has been boarded up.

According to the article, Palestinian authorities distributed leaflets throughout the camp condemning the event and calling the participation of the children an act of exploitation. One thing's for sure, the Palestinians would never dream of exploiting children. Never, ever, EVER!

An Arab-Israeli woman who helped organize the concert has also been banned from entering the camp. Funny how the left goes nuts when Israel erects a wall and checkpoints to keep out suicide bombers, but the Palestinians restrict freedom of movement for those guilty of much more terrible crimes; like organizaing cross-cultural music concerts.

Open your eyes people, the terrorists are Islamofascists and do not want peace - they want submission. Reaching out, understanding, empaty and idiotic video appeals with Farsi subtitles won't change that.

Proud Dad

So it's been ages since I have posted to this blog. Life is way too busy. But I just have to post about my son Josh. This is his Senior year and after a tumultuous Junior year we have seen Josh mature by leaps and bounds. A teenager who quarrelled with us incessantly about "living in the moment" when we tried to discuss his need to be preparing for the future came to us a few months ago with a big dream for the future. He wanted to be a U.S. Marine.

We visited the recruiter and learned about the Delayed Entry Program and Josh is signed up and ready to go. He is focused and committed like I've never known a kid his age to be. Needless to say, I couldn't be prouder.

Just one problem, and it is heartbreaking. During our first meeting with the recruiter the issue of Josh's asthma came up. I soon found out this could be a major hurdle in his ambitions to become a Marine. We met with his doctor and he passed a pulmonary function test with flying colors. We had high hopes that this would be the end of it.

Well, Sunday night Josh went up to Milwaukee for his physical and ASVAB at MEPS. The ASVAB went well and he exceeded his score on the practice test he took at the recruiter's office. But the asthma issue reared its ugly head again. The doctors want to see more medical records.

Josh is worried, and we are worried for him. He will be sorely disappointed if he cannot pursue this dream and as a parent that is a hard thing to watch. We are, of course praying that all goes well. But, from everything I am reading this asthma issue is a big one for aspiring enlistees. Best case scenario, all goes well and after graduation we will see our boy go off to boot camp and three months later we will see a Marine emerge at a graduation ceremony in San Diego. Worst case scenario, we do our best to teach him that disappointment can build character and that God has other plans - and that his plans are good.

In the meantime, we pray that Josh can pursue this noble passion that he has to serve his country. Then we will start praying for his safety once he has obtained that goal.

What's Happening?

Well, I have written several posts alluding to the fact that I have been feeling a growing calling regarding school and young people in our community, but I haven't written anything in awhile. So, here is a bit about what has been going on.

Chesebro Elementary School in DeKalb is the school with the highest percentage of low income families and poorest academic performance. That seemed like a good place to start. But how? Several months ago I attended a men's breakfast at our church where the topic of a panel discussion was service. One of the speakers was Tony Danhelka who runs a ministry for kids from high-poverty neigborhoods along the Fox River. Riverwoods Christian Center started as a camp ministry but has grown so much. Now the ministry supports community advocates who work in these communities year round and the summer camp program reinforces and supports the work of these advocates.

After hearing Tony speak I contacted him and set up a meeting. From that meeting I was introduced to the concept of Christian Community Development ministries and was informed of the work being done by Community Christian Church in Naperville through it's Community 4:12 ministry. I met with Kirsten Strand from that ministry because her model of doing community development through a school seemed like a good fit for what we wanted to do here in our town.

Tony and Kirsten were so kind in sharing their advice and stories of how God has worked in the communities they minister to. The next step was to speak with the Pastor of the DeKalb Campus of Christ Community Church Larry Breeden. Larry was also very supportive of starting a ministry to serve this school's population. Larry introduced me to Cory Webster, who is in charge of Community Impact for our campus and things really started to move.

Our first project was a pancake breakfast at the beginning of April. Our church donated all the food and working with school staff we offered the families a very inexpensive breakfast with all the funds going to support a fifth grade field trip. The church also pitched in matching funds and it was a big success. Not only did money get raised so that all kids could participate in the overnight trip regardless of their families' resources. But the school community and the church were introduced to each other, laying the foundation for more projects.

Earlier this month the church organized a bike rally at the school on a Saturday morning. North Central Cyclery pitched in to help with free bike tune-ups for the kids and we had a bike raffle and a skills course. It was a fun event for the kids.

While all this was going on the school had a couple of families that had some pretty serious needs. One family was having financial problems and the school referred them to our church for some assistance. Later, there was a family that recently had a fire in their home and the church has been collecting supplies to help them replace some of the household things that were lost.

I also met with Larry Stratton, the head of Community Impact for Christ Community as a whole. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to be part of a church that values outreach to the community as a top priority. As Larry Stratton puts it "good deeds lead to good will, which leads to the opportunity to share the good news."

God is so good! For years I had a helpless perspective that nothing could be done and these problems were all too big for us to make a difference. In a way I was right. But they are not too big for God! Once we started to take a few steps it was amazing how God provided the advice, the resources and all that was needed to do the work! I can't wait to see what He has planned next as we continue to work with Chesebro!

Talkin' Bout My Generation

In November of 2006 I wrote a post about
The Gay Lobby's Plan B. Basically I argued that the debate over marriage being between a man and a woman could become obsolete, because the transgender movement is out to eliminate man and woman as a way to identify people at all. Now here is an article by Patrick Finnessy, director of the Office of the UIC ( University of Illinois at Chicago ) Gender and Sexuality Center.

In it he claims:

I'm still not certain I understand why not. Why be so headstrong and insist upon living in a dichotomous world? Black/white, gay/straight, male/female. Certainly, real life is grayer.

He is referring to the pregnant man. Mr. Finnessy sees all of our gender identities as social constructs rather than an issue of nature. Now, you can go read my earlier post to see where I stand on this politically. I'm feeling in a silly mood and want, instead, to resurrect an idea I first put forth in that post.

Nature says I was born in 1969. But I feel I truly identify better with people of an earlier generation. In fact, I identify with the Greatest Generation. One of the most fulfilling parts of my professional career in the museum field was interviewing WWII vets for an exhibit I worked on in 1995.

My values are not always in step with "my generation." According to the media and social scientists, I am part of "Generation X." I remember when Kurt Cobain put a shotgun in his face and pulled the trigger. Media types said that the spokesperson of Generation X had died. Thing is, I was pretty unaffected by his suicide. I certainly didn't feel my role model and spokesperson had died. I pretty much felt, "well, there goes another drug-addled, idiot celebrity."

So, if people can change their gender identity in spite of nature, why can't I change my generational identity? Isn't the calendar just a social construct? Why should I be forced to conform my aspirations, hopes, dreams, etc. to the whims of my birth year?

I call on others to rise up and join me. You know who you are. You look back to the good old days and wish you had been part of them. Well, I say we demand that society give us that recognition.

Therefore, I demand the following:

1. That I be accepted as having been born not in 1969 but in 1919, and that my birth certificate be so altered to reflect my generational identity.
2. That I therefore be permitted to draw full social security benefits due a person who is 89 years of age.
3. That I be given a senior citizen discount at restaurants and any other retail establishment offering such discounts.
4. That I be eligible for medicare to pay for one of those nifty scooter things that they advertise on TV.
5. That employers, government agencies and others stop demanding that we disclose the utterly meaningless and highly offensive dates of our birth on job applications and other official forms.

I will add to this list of demands soon, but it is nearly time for my nap. But before I go, I call on those in the transgender movement to recognize the plight of all of us who are oppressed by the tyranny of generationalism and the generational discrimination that runs rampant in our society. Our cause has no celebrity spokespeople and we suffer largely in silence. No doubt there are many who will ridicule our plight. But I am confident that our cause is just! There are some in our movement who are multi-generational, identifying with several generational groups. Theirs is the right to live as they feel they are meant to be, not as society would force them to be!

Who will join with me?

Quick Post

Ok, with regard to Obama and Rev. Wright. Would the media coverage be any different if it were a candidate who turned out to be a 20 year member of the Westboro Baptist Church? Especially troubling are the recent revelation that the Church gave space in it's bulletin for a piece of Hamas propoganda. I think Obama has to answer for why he has been part of congregation whose leadership seems very cozy with a bunch of throat-slitting, suicide bombing jihadists. How many times will we have to hear Obama over the next few months have to denounce specific comments/actions by his church? I have a feeling we've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the radicalism and hatred that poured out of that pulpit. As far as I am concerned, to listen to it for 20 years is to endorse it. The Bible warns us to turn away from false teaching and hold to the true gospel of Christ. If Obama takes his faith seriously he should have left that church when it became evident that it's leader had deviated so far from the truth; for his church is at least as errant as Westboro and loyalty to it is just as repulsive.

Can we question their patriotism when it turns out that three liberal democrats had their trip to Iraq prior to the war funded by Saddam's intelligence service? Read more here. Jim McDermott has been referred to as "Baghdad Jim" for years and now we all know that while he has ranted about our nation committing acts of alleged torture, he was the guest of the very intelligence service that it is known beyond doubt ran human beings through industrial shredders, beat and mutilated women and children and raped women while their husbands watched. How dare he? American history has no equals for this level of treason by a sitting member of our Congress. These are not patriotic Americans. These three were willing agents of a tyrant, giving aid and comfort to the enemy while using their positions to do harm to our own foreign policy. Sadly, they are not the only members of what is a fifth column in this nation. We have CAIR, Hamas supporting pastors (see above), celebrities, and many more who desire to see our cause suffer while ignoring the threat that jihadism poses to our nation. It is disgusting.

Here We Go Again

Yet another gang-related act of violence in our community! The problems seem so overwhelming. We've had a massive fight at the high school during a fire evacuation a couple of years ago. Later, one of those involved shot and killed another gang member in town. There have been tons of smaller fights. We've had drive-bys, a mid-day stabbing next door to where my two youngest kids go to school.

A week ago I was so encouraged by the fact that things are starting to move on the effort to get something going in the local school that has the highest rate of low-income students and a high level of social and behavioral problems. I had recently met with several people involved in really great community development ministries and was inspired. But today I'm slipping into a what's the use attitude. Have to fight that.

This latest incident needs to be one more reason to press on, not a reason to throw in the towel. Have to remind myself of the Love In The Name Of Christ training last weekend and remember that God is putting the pieces in place for community development to take place. It's hard sometimes, and sometimes I feel like being Jonah, and climb the hill to watch Nineveh go up in flames. Difference is, I live in this Nineveh and so do my kids.

Corrected and Reflecting

I have deleted a post, actually more of a rant, on the Avery Doninger case, which you can read more about
here. This is yet another case of litigation between parents and schools over disciplinary action taken by the schools. Anyway, I slammed the parents in this case pretty hard. A commenter pointed out that the news articles I had based my post on left out some important facts. And, in a number of areas, he was right. Worse, my tone was harsh and unfair.

I still do not feel this should be viewed as a censorship case. A dispute at school over a battle of the bands event spilled over into a blog post in which a child threw an online tantrum calling school officials "douchebags" and asking people to send mass emails to administration officials. The school responded to the disrspect shown and now it is in litigation - which seems to be the new American way.

My frustration with such issues stems from recent efforts to try to organize volunteers to help out in a local school where discipline is a major problem (think knives, gang assualts, arrests, threats against staff and epidemic rudeness and disrespect). I am hoping to start up after school programs and eventually mentoring type programs.

My emotions on this swing back and forth wildly. On the one hand my heart aches for these kids who are obviously not taught simple manners and civility and have so many problems at home. On the other, I can't resist the urge to think these kids need a good swift kick at times. What is worse is we are a fairly small midwest communtity and you wouldn't think we'd have to deal with so much of this. As for the teachers and school staff, how can they do their real jobs when they are constantly dealing with disrespect, abuse, and even violence? And this is an elementary school.

Sometime's I want to throw up my hands and scream "If the parents would just parent, the school's wouldn't have to." Of course, we are talking about parents who themselves were from less than ideal homes, who deal with economic hardship, addictions, and some are just plain too selfish to invest in their offspring. Government gets involved: courts, family services, social workers, etc, but they cannot hope to deal with the basic moral root of the problem.

For years I've heard people say "you can't legislate morality" and yet that is exactly what we are being forced to do. It seems that without morality, you have no choice but to legislate it, or litigate it. But the moral compass that guides free people to live responsibly and in a civil manner cannot be imposed. So "freedom" becomes divorced from self control and we see the government forced to deal with things that people should have worked out on their own.

In my liberal days I felt that government programs could solve things, and elevate people to a better life. Wealth needed to be redistributed and then we'd see all sorts of social ills disappear. Well, that hasn't happened. Decades of such programs have destroyed families, neighborhoods and schools. Then I became a hard-core conservative and felt that government had failed (still believe that) to deal with these issues and that people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and if they fail, too bad for them, they had their chance.

Now, I find myself moving into a new perspective. Communities need to solve their own problems by addressing issues government can't and shouldn't. Churches need to take the lead, because they can mobilized the physical and economic resources to meet immediate needs. But, and more importantly, they can build relationships to address the spiritual, emotional and moral needs that are at the heart of poverty, addiction and self gratification without responsibility that leads people to wrongly execute their rights to the detriment of themselves and others.

Well, that pretty much became another rant I guess. I need to keep on guard and not fall back into the judgmental stuff, which is all too easy to do.

Sitting Out

Today is the special election to replace our Congressman; former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. Hastert's resignation led to a special primary last month. It also led to today's election to determine who will hold Hastert's seat until January when we get to have yet another election between the same two candidates we are voting for today(aren't we lucky). So, ever since the Illinois primary we here in this district have been treated to endless mailings, automated telephone solicitations and radio spots for (or should I say more appropriately - against) Jim Oberweis and Bill Foster.

I've heard lots of people, in apparent frustration with politics, say there is no difference between this candidate and that. Well, when it comes to tactics, that is sure true in our race. The negative campaigning is utterly disgusting and the millions that both of these self-serving, power hungry men are spending so they can take and spend our money is nearly criminal. If either of these men actually gave a hoot for the people they hope to represent, they would show some honor in their public rhetoric. I'm not exaggerating here folks, the ads these two are running sound an awful lot like the kind of bickering and name calling that went on between my kids when they were younger (only their arguments actually had merit).

What I can't understand is how the people they hire to be voice talent in their radio spots are willing to prostitute themselves for such ridiculous tripe. These things aren't too far from the types of parodies of campaign ads I recall from Saturday Night Live back when I still allowed cable television into my home. I don't want either of these low characters representing me.

So far I can sum up their campaign material with the following:

Jim Oberweis: Bill Foster wants to personally kill our soldiers, fund Al Qaeda and has even made a pact with Satan to raise your taxes to pay for public works projects in Hell.

Bill Foster: Jim Oberweis is secretly an agent of the Chinese communist regime and all of the milk in his dairy business comes from illegal immigrant cows; and further more, he's a really mean, big fat liar

I've actually received three calls within a 15 minute time span today from the Illinois Republican party reminding me how important it was for me to go out and vote for Oberweis in the special election today.

The way I see it, there is no lesser of two evils to vote for in this race. So, instead of voting, I will spend today on other pursuits. This morning several of us from church prepared breakfast for folks at our local homeless shelter, I have some work to do on another church project, I want to spend time with my kids, and then I don't know what else. But the thought of wasting even half a minute casting a ballot for either Jim Oberweis or Bill Foster is about as appealing aswatching Michael Moore eat.