Mar 1, 2011

The return of the Justice Journal in April 2009

I am bringing back an old  post revolving around the beginnings of the tragic Petit crimes with a link to a paper called the JUSTICE JOURNAL- The Journal was a print and internet monthly newspaper started and run by the man who published Vanity Fair for years, and was president of Conde Naste, Mr.  Doug Johnson

 I had a wonderful opportunity to meet and speak with Doug after the publication came out,  I'd been solicited by his long time colleague friend and general editor Ted Holcomb to write the piece. The Paper which was very well liked was forced to temporarily close down due to Mr Holcomb, who did a great deal of editing and wore many hats for the journal, was in the midst of battling serious cancer and

Ultimately I chose to write the VERSUS column because I knew the newspaper was  passed out to every one of the Connecticut Legislators- including every Senator and as such, I decided if even one of them read my piece, it might just give one of two pause and hopefully change a mind or two.

Here is the link to the pdf document itself that the magazine was translated into online as it is really not meant to be an online paper, but print. I have about 10 copies for friends and relatives at home, as it was my first officially printed commentary. The link is below the post and on the title header.

Unfortunately, you must open up this link and go all the way to the " Versus" section which starts on page 6 and one should read all the entries to get a feel for the whole issue and who was weighing in on it and  how they were weighing in at the time. Then follow it to my commentary on page 22 entitled "deal away a crime system must change" That title was the editor's idea not mine -  In fact the publisher had originally written me and " CT News Junkie' asking us alone to partake in a pro/con on the three strikes legislation and when he didn't get a fast enough response from Ct New Junkie, which was a very successful CT based Blog, the temporary editor turned the whole column into a free for all of sorts, and it really lost the whole notion of a pro/con commentary., There are some senators and other prominent sorts that weighed in, and my poor opine wound up on page 22!

I was new and got the bum's rush just a bit but I still got my newspaper space and as the paper was given to every legislator  I wrote my heart out. Also making me feel slightly better was the fact that my opinion piece was sitting next to some weighty sorts.  Have a read--hopefully it;l; bring back the intensity which we all were feeling back then. Lets not lose that conviction.

April 2008 (2.6 mb PDF)