My profile of Cleveland Ward 6 City Council candidate John Boyd just went live on the Christian Science Monitor Web site. The story is teased on the front page of tomorrow's print edition and will run on page 20 as the Backstory feature.
The Monitor also includes a two-minute audio interview with me, which was nerve-wracking on a Sunday morning when the whole family is home, but ultimately a very cool experience.
Thanks to Bill Rieter, whom I've worked with many times on Catholic Universe Bulletin stories, for being available to shoot photos on short notice.
UPDATE 4/21 / 8 am: I had hoped the article would generate discussion, but that seems to be taking place this morning over at Writes Like She Talks.
13 comments:
Totally awesome! Congrats.
Thanks, Jill.
Wow, Wendy! Nicely done. Hope you're having a good day. Amy
Thanks, Amy. And thanks for your tips on working with CSM. :)
A very good story Wendy, and here is my post on the Writes Like She Talks blog...
Great story about redemption, and I hope it works out for John Boyd.
One point; the discrepancy about the crime may not be a discrepancy at all as the grocery store may have been also a numbers house.
As a reformed criminal—thief and robber—who served 12 years in maximum security prisons, being released in 1969, going to college and receiving my masters in public administration and now developing leadership tools for reformed criminals through my nonprofit organization, The LampStand Foundation, I am aware of the difficulty John will have with the election and its aftermath, but with his personal history related in the excellent CSM article, he is obviously a person of some grit and will deal with those obstacles as he has dealt with the other barriers—justifiable ones to be sure as the community should be wary of a former murderer and criminal—to becoming a person of worth and dignity.
Criminals can transform themselves and when one does so, all of us who can, should be supportive of him, if for no other reason than to give the larger social aspects of the rehabilitation effort the support it needs.
David,
Thank you for your comments. You are correct in that the store was part of a numbers house, which is why they were robbing it in the first place. I'd like to explore the underground economic culture of numbers houses for a future story.
Your organization looks very interesting. How did you find the story?
I receive criminal justice related newsletters and it was in one of them, Crime & Justice News at http://cjj.mn-8.net/login.asp?loc=&link=
A good way to look at the history of numbers is to watch a couple of movies, one about Bumpy Johnson, the king of the numbers in Harlem, Hoodlum, and the recent one about his successor, American Gangster, both true to life, though filtered through the Hollywood treatment.
That's an interesting newsletter. Thanks for sharing the link. And thanks for the tip on the numbers movies.
My pleasure, and good luck with your writing...btw, I also recently submitted an article to the CSM,last Saturday, an opinion piece about the death penalty.
Nice job on this. I've sent it along to Mansfield Frazier, who edits a newsletter on community re-entry for former convicts.
Thanks, John. I'd be interested to hear Mansfield's thoughts.
Great job!
Thanks, Becky. The best part is that I've got another assignment from CSM!
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