A Friend Seated As a Stranger

Hotep,

A conference room bearing frigid temperatures is the setting for my bi-weekly forums with the Hidden Voices Foundation.  

Discussions of injustice and redemption are common themes amongst colleagues meeting on the wrong side of the prison wall.  To the eyes of authorities figures we are seated as strangers, engaging in an experiment where logical explanations are few.

By the time this goes to press, our social trials will be a year old.  The earliest results support my spiritual theory of true friendships being predestined – not manmade. How else can we explain a condemned Mann befriending someone who once supported the usage of capital punishment?  Common logic would also deem a genuine bond between a victim eyewitness and a suspect seated at the defense table to be highly unlikely.  Yet it happens for reasons unknown to basic human understanding.

My friend, Mrs. Jennifer Thompson – Cannino is a New York Times bestselling author.  After reading her memoir, “Picking Cotton,” I was deeply moved by the experience of shedding a dark period in her life only to emerge as a ray of hope for those who have been blanketed by the injustice that plagues the North Carolina judicial system. 

Her story involves Mr. Ronald Cotton, a victim of a wrongful conviction.  His case was the first of its kind, in the sense of North Carolina permitting DNA testing to have the final say in what many believed to be an open and shut case.  Eleven years after Jennifer’s life was altered by a man she believed to be Ronald Cotton, DNA evidence set a historical precedent that is now the foundation of a genuine friendship between the two.  Word is bond.

Jennifer is a magnetic element in North Carolina’s Innocence Commission and now dedicates her life to the elevated side of the disturbingly imbalanced scales of justice.  In my opinion, admitting you are wrong retains a high social value. 

Conversing with such an individual regularly has helped me to broaden my degree of objectivity, concerning the furor and malicious attacks stemming from a victim’s family support system.  I also understand how incompatibilities between strangers can lead to productive and meaningful friendships.  Feel me?

W2TM is a platform where the talk of injustice is the common lingo, but in no way is this atmosphere foreign to “the profound nature of human grace and the healing power of forgiveness.” As a writer, it is my due diligence to expose the masses to the education within “Picking Cotton.” As a friend, I am honored to just say, thank you Jennifer.  Your truths are saving lives.  Ya heard?

Congratulations are in order for Mr. Ronald Cotton, for maintaining and moving forward with your life when it could have been so easy to live in neutral, while blaming the world for your misfortunes.  I thank you for not being that brother.  Na mean?

And last, but not least, I would like to thank Ms. Erin Torneo for the design behind this story’s influential structure.  Your writing is a service to the world.  I pray that your motivation for doing so continues to flourish because “Picking Cotton” is the type of change we need in this world.  Keep punching those keys, Erin.

Nuff Said,

MannofStat

Copyright © by Leroy Elwood Mann