A letter to President Obama

Today I wrote a letter to the President. Not a letter actually, but an e-mail of sorts entered on the White House "Contact" page. We'll see what happens. I'm not sanguine about my prospects of getting to sit down with him, of course, but by now I'm used to getting no or simply unhelpful responses from any person or agency in the government. Writing letters is just something I do, and I've finally decided to take it to the top.

I've also been wanting to post a request for all of you who were dedicated readers before last April and who continue to check on a regular basis. There are any number things about Whit I could post, but I just don't know what you would find interesting or rewarding. Letters he wrote? More photos? More background about Whit? Anything at all? I feel almost guilty that so many of you keep checking only to find nothing new. Or if it's something you'd like me to respond to privately, please feel free to send me an email: jeff.transtech "at" gmail.com.

Here is the text of my letter to Obama:

Dear President Obama,

This past April 4, 2009 Whitney Smith, my only son, apparently took his life. He would have turned 25 on April 10. At the time he was an inmate at the Federal prison in Terre Haute. I say "apparently" because in the intervening 6 months I have tried unsuccessfully to obtain a copy of the Bureau of Prisons investigation of his death. I asked the warden. I wrote the offices of Sherrod Brown and Steve Driehaus, my Senator and Congressman respectively. They eventually informed me I would have to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I did so, and the BOP has refused to share the report of my son's death.
I am not writing to ask your help on obtaining the report, but rather to request an opportunity to sit down with you for 30 minutes or less and tell you about what's wrong with our Federal penal system, and how inhumane at worst and arbitrary at best the treatment of prisoners is, beginning as early as the decision as to where to place a just sentenced individual.
I would like to add that Whit had been in solitary confinement for the 15 months prior to his death, and allowed no visits or phone calls. There is more to that than you can possibly imagine.
Full disclosure: I am a registered and liberal Democrat, but I do believe that some people belong in prison and a smaller number should probably never see the outside again. Whit and I knew his incarceration was appropriate. But he was supposed to come home in 3 more years. The old law-and-order refrain "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" disturbs me. Those people have no idea what doing the time really means in a Federal prison, nor do they care.
I would be grateful for the opportunity to share not only my grief, but also my experiences with the Bureau of Prisons. I would fly to Washington at any time.

Sincerely,
Jeff Smith

Super Friends gathering

In the days after Whit's passing I was fortunate to have a group of close, empathetic friends around me. Right then it occurred to someone that this core of people represented what could be truly called Super Friends in the same sense as Whit applied it to his own friends and the blog itself. We have gathered twice since then, most recently this past weekend at my sister Carolyn's home in northern Ohio. It's a time to remember Whit and reaffirm the bonds we feel between each other.

One of the Super Friends also invited two of her brothers to the gathering. Although I had never met the brothers, the knowledge that one of them lost a son to a heroin overdose a couple of years ago made it natural to include them. Rafe (Raphael) and I felt an immediate bond, and will soon be sharing things about our sons with each other - poems "Little Rafie" had written, a printed copy of Whit's blog for Rafe.

I had wanted to do something special for this 2nd gathering, and found just the thing at a nearby micro-winery. In addition to making and selling wine under their own label, they offer the chance to make and bottle your own, including all the instruction, materials and equipment. After 8 weeks of fermentation, my brother Emory and I bottled and labeled our results last week and were able to give a bottle to each Super Friend. The label I designed is based on a photo I took for Whit in 1998. He and I were on the way back to Howe Military School, where he attended 8th grade, when he noticed a weeping willow tree next to a pond on someone's property. He was so drawn to this scene that he made me get off the road and backtrack to take a photo. I never did learn exactly what it was about this that drew him to that image so spiritually, but I had kept a print to give him when he got home from Terre Haute. Now it seemed like a fitting basis for the wine label. The symbolism is there on many levels of course, including the obvious one of loss and grief common to several cultures; just consider the book The Weeping Willow: Encounters With Grief which appeared in 2007.

I'm attaching an image of the label.

There will be more gatherings of the Super Friends. The next one will be here in Cincinnati, and I extend an invitation to anyone who felt especially close to Whit. Just contact me.

Jeff

Another letter from Tiny

I've been writing back and forth with Whit's closest friend from Terre Haute, Tiny. He's pictured in the photo of the "Superfriends" in the blog. I am happy to report that Tiny has finished his Federal sentence and is now in an Ohio state prison near Columbus, expecting to go home (near Dayton) in December. At his request, I have been sending him (printed) installments of the blog; Whit started the blog while in the hole, and he and Tiny rarely saw each other during that entire time. I've also visited Tiny in Columbus, and a good friendship is developing. He's a terrific guy, and I can see why he and Whit were so close.

Tiny writes the following in his latest note:

Hi! I just want to write and let you know I appreciate you coming to visit. It let me get away from this place for a while and it was good to be able to talk about Smitty instead of just having things keep bouncing around in my head. I got the latest blog entries yesterday and it gives me something to look forward to, which isn't always possible in a place like this. Reading the blog I found out something I didn't know: Smitty had told me his mom had been killed, but the blog explains all that, I just assumed it was true.

Well, that's about all for now. I hope you have a safe trip to Vermont and back. Write soon.

Your friend,
Tiny

Terre Haute
July 2006