A Christmas Gift

Dec. 8, 2013: 6:15am: Listening to "1 More Day" by a group "10 years"

The month of December has started to turn into something worthwhile to me. My dad turned 58 on the 2nd. My brother Jesse (half brother) turns 37 today, Christine will be 57 on the 12th (she's my family in Italy) her youngest Chiara (a beautiful name but she prefers her nickname "Didi) she will be 19 years old on the 18th. We celebrate Christmas on the 25th, my mom will have her birthday on the 26th & last but definitely not least, my Aunt Cindy has her wedding anniversary on Dec. 31st. I know that this will not be posted online in time but I wish you's all a very Happy Birthday & I love everyone of you's and wish you's the best in life. My family & friends are what matter to me & if I can do anything or say a few words that make a difference in their lives, I try to. They do so much for me & I just want to thank everyone who has been there for me. I spent the last week worried about my little brother, JJ. Now let me tell you about him. He is 34 & has had a rough life. I never thought he would quit the drugs. Like so many of my family members & friends, I thought the heroin would kill him. But then he met Rachel, & she saved him. Then they had baby Lucy he never looked back. My brother has become the man I knew he could. No more drugs, no more crimes, & he is a great father. I love hearing him tell me stories of baby Lucy. The last one was of how she loves to watch the train go around the Christmas tree & she goes "choo-choo" every time it goes around. So adorable she is. But my brother JJ is a good man now & what happens to him on the way home from work on the night before Thanksgiving? Come on give me a guess. He gets pulled over, they run his name & what pops up, an old arrest warrant for not paying "restitution". So for 6 days my brother sat in the Carbon County Jail not knowing what's going on, not knowing if he would lose his job, his home, his world. Finally, after 6 days they take him to court & the judge releases him immediately. He owes $4,000 in restitution for stealing a car in 2003. Yes he committed the crime, he owes someone but who & why put him in prison for a week just to see a judge? He is on payment plans paying back old fines for other places. His address is on record. Why not send him a certified letter stating he has a court date or he has to pay something soon or be arrested. Why make him lose a weeks pay, almost lose his job, all just to say, you owe us money & you'll have to come back to court in 2 weeks & we'll set up a payment plan. Our system is seriously flawed. Our federal government & probably the state governments too, they all have a million committee's & sub-committee's that study everything & anything. & believe me, these people are paid a lot of money to do these studies. Why not take all of the thousands of studies that have been done on the criminal justice system & start realizing what the problems are & start fixing them. I recently wrote about the wrongful conviction rates. Most of them are from jury trials. Our system is built on human compassion or revenge. I do not personally believe in the word "justice." Who are we to enact justice.

To me it means revenge. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with revenge but I think we use the word "justice" to make ourselves feel better. Our local, state & federal governments know what the problems are but they haven't bothered to attempt to fix anything. They are more concerned about their perks, per diems, gifts, that everything else is forgotten. You can walk up & give a politician $100 & it's considered a gift & he/she does not have to report that to the IRS. But you give a waitress/waiter a $5 tip & they're required by law to report all tips. So what's the difference? The difference is that they are politicians, the ones who wrote these laws & they wrote them for themselves to benefit. There are only a few who are not corrupt. But from what I have read, see on the news, & experience in life, most politicians are corrupt in one way or another. My dad had to pay $200 to get my brothers car out of an impound lot. It was there for 1 1/2 days. I'm in prison, I have nothing else to do but sit back & observe. I was always told, watch, listen, & learn. Well I'm sorry to say that it took me all these years to learn that it works. So many things do not make sense to me but no one in power is willing to fix them.

I've been rambling out of frustration but I forgot a great piece of news. This is my Christmas gift; I spoke to my brother JJ & he told me that Hannah told him that her work is going to pay for the trip. Hannah got it approved so that her work will pay for my mom & JJ to fly to Cleveland so that they can spend 2 days with my daughter Krista. JJ has never met her & my mom hasn't see her granddaughter since 2006. I look at Hannah, & I put her beauty aside, & I see a gift from God. He brought her into my daughter's life to help her & in turn she is helping my entire family. This is a gift for me too because my mom & brother get to see my daughter. They'll have stories to tell me, they'l tell me what they learned about Krista & I'll get a ton of pictures of them all together. & for my mom this is going to be very emotional. I have a wonderful loving mom & she needs some happiness in her life. I can never thank Hannah enough.

This will be another Christmas without my Justine. She loved the holidays so much. She made them so special. I love her & miss her so much. This is why I cherish my memories.

Well I guess that's all for this week. I thank you for reading, I look forward to your comments & hope to hear from my readers soon. Take care, God bless & have a happy holiday. Ciao. PS: please read the page that follows.

Buon Natale
(Merry Christmas)