March 14 Manifesto

"Turn from me now, but always hear

The muted laughter in the dew

Of that one year of youth we had

The only youth we ever knew...

Turn from me now or you will see

What other years have done to me."

- Sara Teasdale

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I know a woman who once did something many of us have done: she invited her daughter's college roommate on a family vacation. While that lovely young woman, an only child, was in the care of her family, the unspeakable happened. The roommate was murdered. It was another "perfect storm" of a tragedy like the Duke Hoax; the kind you count the steps to...over and over again. Any slight variation, any step off that fateful course, and the terrible consequences that lay ahead ... might never have come to be. But in life, unlike the movies, we have no theme music to warn us of impending doom or of evil lurking ahead. So, one family was forever shattered and another forever haunted by this random, hideous event.

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At a lunch one day, I listened as this woman went through the steps and the awful progression of events once again. There were so many "if only's". "If only" we had done this or had not done that. "If ONLY," she'd say, forever trying to understand why Fate had singled them out. Small decisions, inconsequential in the daily lives of others who sail through unscathed, now, in retrospect, seemed to her looming and large. But, in truth, everything leading up to the tragedy was very ordinary. That is what really befuddles us, and seems so unfair. Others had made and still make those same little decisions every day without consequence. There is just no way to know, to protect ourselves, or warn those we love. It is the very ORDINARY underpinnings of tragedy that are so compelling, and so cruel. We hand our child the keys to the car, we wait a day to visit the doctor, we leave the back door unlocked, we invite a friend on a vacation, we plan a Spring Break party as countless others before... and after... and around us have done as well. Most times ... nothing happens. This one time ... disaster ensues.

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Ultimately, there is no way to understand where the lightning of fate strikes or why. I suppose one just learns to accept and endure. There are no other human options.

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"The moving finger writes , and having writ, moves on.

Nor all your piety and wit, can call it back to cancel half a line.

Nor all your tears wash out a word of it."

So ... as we approach the one year anniversary of the Lacrosse team party, it might be tempting to pose our own "What if's?" and "If Only's." If only the team had never had the party, or someone other than Crystal had been given the, um-m-m, "performance obligation." If only the local and national media had provided fair and accurate reporting, instead of creating a racial fairy tale. If only the hometown and Duke faculty potbangers had resisted a rush to judgment and self-congratulation, as they created the "Castrate" signs, vigilante posters, and the infamous"Listening" statement.

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If only there had been a proper investigation, proper notetaking, proper legal procedures.

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If only there had been an ethical, honest district attorney in charge.

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One year ago, most of us thought newspapers researched the facts of a story BEFORE they reported, accepting some responsibility for accuracy. We thought university faculty would never publicly trash their own students in order to trumpet their pet theories. One year ago, we thought police took notes contemporaneously, not crafting them into a novelette months later. We thought "open discovery" meant "open discovery," not a GO Fish expedition few folks can afford. We thought district attorneys were the Good Guys searching for truth, not Media Grubs who view indictments as political ploys to win voting blocs in losing campaigns.

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Now, on these counts and more, we know differently.

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Now we know Nifong.

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Now we've experienced the Hoax.

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But, one year later,... all the "What if's" in the world won't "cancel half a line" of this sorry story. So we need a new line of questioning instead. We ask now HOW LONG must we wait for justice in North Carolina? We ask HOW LONG must we wait for justice for Collin, Reade, and Dave? We ask ourselves WHEN does this become not just Nifong's Hoax but Easley's Hoax as well? How much longer do his Special Prosecutors need to sift through Crystal's fifteen versions of events, and analyze the Lacrosse Team DNA that DOES NOT exist among all the multiple male DNA that DOES! We wonder..how much longer till we can anoint the Governor, the silent Senators, the North Carolina political elite ...all "Enablers" as well? How much longer must these families and the team be asked to bear the burden of this false, political persecution? We ask not "What if?"....we ask "WHEN? WHEN? WHEN?"

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In my heart, this anniversary brings other questions as well. I wonder about Collin, Reade, Dave, and all their teammates. What have the effects of this long year of trial and travesty meant to them? Do they now find it hard to trust in institutions and individuals alike? I pray that somehow all of them, in time, will see this year in balance. For every hostile stranger who carried a "Castrate" sign, wrote a scathing, inaccurate news story, or played fast and loose with our justice system and its supposed protections, I hope they will remember other strangers who wrote a letter of support to a newspaper, or posted in their defense on a message board, or contacted their Congresspersons demanding justice. I hope they will see that although Nifong's magical media tour duped the public at the outset,..... his (and Crystal's) "Fantastic Lies "could not withstand the onslaught and scrutiny of the "little people" who rallied to their cause. A few good reporters, a few great professors, and a bunch of bleating, beat-down-the-door blog hooligans joined together to make a Holy Uproar to expose this Unholy Hoax. For every stranger who betrayed these boys and their own intellect and principles for bigger audiences, or their own bias,... for a little more power, for a shot at a civil suit, a chance for more funding, or for a gig on some morning gabfest, there were TWO strangers who stood with them, because they cared about Truth. For every stranger who piggybacked on the Hoax tragedy to promote SOMETHING for their piggy little pockets, there were two who sacrificed by setting aside the time to support these innocent victims and our system of justice. When Collin, and Reade and Dave recount the cruelty of this year, I hope they don't forget to factor in all the legions of us who truly cared! We pray that will help somehow to assuage the hurt and balance the incredible hypocrisy.

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So, as the Anniversary approaches, we recommit ourselves to the cause ahead: to Collin, Reade, Dave, their families, and their teammates. But we abandon the "What-if's?" for all time. We forego any further apologies as well. It's been a long, sickening, soul-wrenching year. Any small initial sins have long since been redeemed by the rigorous toll of this travesty imposed on the innocent. These are three REAL young men, not convenient symbols in a half-cocked meta-storyline! It is PAST time for the Hoax to end! Justice demands it end now!

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It has been written to "beware the ides of March."

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On March 14, our patience ends.

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On March 14, this becomes Easley's Hoax.

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On March 14, it becomes apparent that justice has been denied or derailed or is politically unavailable in North Carolina.

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We pledge to redouble our efforts. We will sharpen our wits and our words. We will unsheath every social and political sword available to us.

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Blog Hooligans, ....on March 14.... as Tony Soprano might say... "We take to the mattresses."

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And as Shakespeare might add..."Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war!"

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Joan Foster