I wrote the following Submission on April 15, 2016, for OWN. The response? Crickets. I also reached out from time to time since 92 or so, to OWN. I have also reached out to KTIS and other Christian organizations, usually to no avail. I’m on God’s Path and can’t complain about the quality of my life or Sacred Path in the slightest. People that never give up occasionally get traction, so we’ll see where it goes.
Here’s the Submission I sent to OWN (I would do a better job if I reached out again, but I actually don’t trust OWN anymore. They seem to have been swallowed up by big media and the money therein is not to be shared with the likes of me, apparently:
”My last crime was robbing a store (2nd Degree Robbery with a knife) in June 1985. My other major offense (August 1977) was stealing a car after stealing from a store, resulting in my hitting a pedestrian and running over her baby in a stroller, killing him. I knew the police were looking for me (but not in visual pursuit) and I certainly wanted to get away before being found. I was also under the influence of alcohol. I plead guilty to Manslaughter with culpable negligence. Other crimes, both as an adult and as a minor, were Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle. I now speak for MADD to stop alcohol-impaired driving. I also talk to a wide variety of offenders to keep them from making decisions that might harm them or others. I also talk about forgiving oneself, no easy task, but accomplished in great part (sometimes I struggle, but I no longer am suicidal).
I work for a company helping offenders on probation to secure employment or housing. Ironically, I am myself limited to low-paying positions, and find myself living paycheck to paycheck. I'm 59 and if I don't turn it around, I will die in poverty and have nothing in this world to show. I feel my emotional & spiritual life is a success in many ways, but as the saying goes, if it took a nickel to get around the world, I couldn't get around the block. I have been speaking publicly for 25-years and hope to make a living from speaking, but no one wants to pay me. They are happy to take my services for free and I am glad to help, but I feel devalued & disrespected.
As for family, it is just a word. I have siblings and relatives but I feel little connection to them, as I was in foster care, group homes, and pretty much "State Raised". I consider AA my family, but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings by saying that in front of relatives.
I am working on writing books but get depressed with every contact of judgment and rejection by others. I feel trapped by my emotions and reactions to what others think of me.
I am now friends with Sherrie, the mother of the child I killed, as she has forgiven me. It took years for her to get there and maybe would have never done so, were it not for her daughter driving under the influence and crashing, causing minor injuries to others. Sherrie realized her daughter could have killed someone and she reevaluated her lack of feelings of forgiveness and reached out to me.”