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                                                                             Dec. 25, 1999

Dear Son Jason,

     How is it possible for me to express my sadness, my grief, knowing full well that
my oldest boy endures behind bars in a prison cell? Words written within the English
language cannot express the anguish I feel deep within me. But it's not just I who
struggles with this current dilemma,  for there are others who pray and hope for your
well being. We all hope  by the grace of God and with your own strength, that the time
will pass quickly. I hope that you will  utilize both the long days and nights  to
understand where you have made your mistakes, and then not  repeat those mistakes
for the second time. For it's true, man has made laws, and then man does punish his
fellow man if those laws, or  ordinances  are broken.
     Sometimes we are  given a second chance in life. Sometimes there is no room
for mistakes. Daniel Hornbeck has made his last mistake, and there were others that
perished instantly that October night with him. I had a second chance  to turn things
around, and though it was not always easy, I did indeed pounce on that chance. Like
you, I got off to a shaky start in life.
     I quit school, school was boring,  I wanted to party. I wanted a snazzy, bright,
car with a healthy hoard of cubic inches under the hood that roared like a lion, and that
belched  grey smoke like an angry volcano at the rear tires with just the slightest  tap
of the throttle. The hell with all the rules, the hell with speed limits, I said. I don't need
insurance.  I can drive as I please. I can make those carburetor secondaries open up
like the jaws of a crocodile and then force those 400 cubes to drink that blue Sunoco
260 like a thirsty man in a hot desert. I can do anything I want, and whenever I want.
I'll never get caught. The rules apply to everyone else. Certainly the rules of life, and
the laws of men  didn't apply to me. After all, I was  strong, invincible, and I felt like
I had all the answers.  I knew more about physics than Albert Einstein. After all I knew
how to pull a hole shot, crack a gear, and take a corner on two wheels. What did
Einstein know about momentum and forces behind the wheel of a new, yellow,
Firebird?  The truth is, I did not have the answers. Later, I got caught, and the laws of
gravity and nature did indeed prove the likes of Einstein correct. For the physicists
have said, once an object is set forth in motion, that object tends to stay in motion. I
believe it has something to do with inertia or something like that. I know this much.
You can't take a curve at high speeds in a Firebird on damp roads banging a gear when
the intended speed limit is only 40 miles per hour. I paid dearly for my mistakes, for
I lost everything. I lost my drivers licence. My once gorgeous Firebird was now a mass
of  twisted yellow metal laying in a muddy ditch, and I didn't have  adequate insurance
to cover the damage. The car was totaled! I had no money in the bank.  Furthermore,
I had been in jail, and I was a high school drop out  heading nowhere.
     Shit, and more shit, and yet another wheel barrel of shit. I thought I knew
everything, and the truth was I didn't know shit!!! But a day came whereby I reflected
back on my mistakes, and then I decided to do something about it. Though it wasn't
always easy, I turned my life around with hard work, and common sense. I learned to
listen to my parents for they were older, and they both possessed more wisdom than
I. And I learned how to drive the speed limit and obey both the laws of men and
physics. I went back to school and graduated with good grades. Later, I continued on
and went to college even though I was working full time.  I worked long, honest,
hours and paid my own way. Never again would I race about the streets in flashy
expensive cars thinking the rules applied to everyone else but me. I also made sure that
my auto insurance was paid for in full, and  I carried full coverage to boot. I bought the
ugliest car ever made. I bought a 73 Gremlin. Though it truly was ugly, I could afford
the car, and I could afford the insurance for that little six banger that would putt down
the road and meow like a kitten. But the car always got me from point A, to point B,
and it always took me to my job.
     When I lost my Firebird, I almost lost my life. At about 70 miles per hour my
pretty yellow Firebird  slammed into a cold, black, flatbed  truck that was parked along
the side a curve near the rail road tracks. I hit that truck ass end first. Had the angle
been just a little different, I would have gone underneath it, thus slamming into the rear
axle.  Therefore, instant death would have resulted, perhaps decapitation. As it was,
the force of  my Firebird wrangling with that flatbed and tractor at high speed and
hitting it backwards caused the bucket seat to collapse as flat as the slate on a pool
table. I was catapulted into the back seat. Glass and fuel was everywhere. But
somehow there were no sparks and I wasn't turned into a crispy strip of bacon.  My
car somehow spun down the length of the flat bed and then stuck the tractor's fuel tank
front end first  shearing it off.  I then bounced off the tractor and shot across two lanes
of oncoming traffic landing my bird cockeyed in a ditch filled with cattails and muck.
          All this, because  I had it in my mind to throttle up the rpm's and thump a gear
or two on a mildewy night. In the end it was I who got thumped, and I figured it was
about time I change things around in my life less I keep getting thumped. I was given
a second chance to turn things around, and I jumped on that chance willingly.
     Therefore Jason, be not deceived, and learn from my history, and from your own
history. Don't keep on making the same mistakes less your life is wasted behind bars,
or that death sneaks up behind you when you least expect it. No one wants to see your
bones  planted deep in the ground. Hearken unto  my words that likewise you see the
light, and that you willingly jump on the second chance for a quality future, and life.
For I know that which I have spoken is the truth, and these words are  intended for you
to absorb, because you are my son, and I speak with love, and for your well being.
     Here now before you is your second chance Jason, there is time for change. But
if you will not listen to my words, then your fate  is long term jail, or a premature
death. The quality of your life will be what you make of it. There is no such thing as
a quick buck, a free lunch, or an easy ride. The successes of life are achieved with hard
work, diligence, and setting goals. Work should always come before play, not play
before work.
      Jason, you can turn things around. If I  did it, then so can you! But the free
lunch is over, the party is over, it's time to grow into a man. The jails are full of those
who thought they could scam the system and eat of a free lunch. You must  rise up
with a stiff neck and get these problems behind you. Then, day by day, you must work
hard to change  your very own destiny so that you may savor the sweet fruits of your
labor and thus find the rewards in life that I want so much for you to have. If you work
hard, and obey  the rules of life, then you will do well, and drink the  nectar of a happy
life. It will not always be easy, for there will be disappointments along the way, but if
you will be persistent with your goals, then I'm confident that you have what it takes
to  be a winner.
     Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about. Most of these teens were
guys I went to school with. Dave Fulton died one night of a drug overdose. Ken
Kremlic died one afternoon when his motor cycle left the road and hit a tree at about
70 miles per hour. His forehead struck a tree limb about 4 inches in diameter with such
force that it broke the limb. I can't think of his last name anymore but he was in my
metal shop class. His first name was Rick, I can still remember his face from that class
in the 7th, or 8th grade. After high school he started selling drugs. He was found one
night in Pontiac. He was stuffed inside the trunk of a car, bound, and shot in the head.
Jim Jerret, was killed before the age of 18 one-night coming back from a party as the
car he was riding in was broadsided. Someone ran a stop sign. Another guy I knew of,
pulled an insurance scam. He buried his 70 Roadrunner  in a deep hole, claimed it was
stolen, then collected the insurance money. He was caught and sent to Jackson State
Prison. At age 17 the Talbot boy who lived just down the street from me was stabbed
in the heart over a heated argument with another teen over a girl. Talbot was stabbed
in his own yard and died in the arms of his weeping father. A man here at GM that I
work with had a son 19. On Monday his son was scheduled to take a bus  to Fort Knox
Kentucky. The young man had joined the army. However, the Friday before that
Monday he went to pick up a pizza with a few friends at a pizza parlor. There were
some other teens there at the pizza shop. Somehow, an argument occurred. One of the
teens grabbed a 13-inch butcher knife from behind the counter  and stabbed my
friends' son in the chest. He died the next day. Another man here at work that I know,
has a son in Jackson he has been there several years. It seems some kind of drug deal
went bad. Someone got cheated out of a  marijuana.  So a carload of buddies drove to
a house to kick some ass. However, someone pulled a gun, shots were fired, and then
someone lay in a pool of blood, and was  dead. There was no intention of murder, but
it happened. The young man I'm speaking of never even got out of the car, to go into
the house, but because he was there, and in that car, he was charged with murder, and
is serving a life sentence.
     So then Jason, I hope this letter gives you some insight of my fears for you, and
likewise shows you how things  can go wrong. Choose your friends carefully, and then
jump on that second chance that you have been given. I'll be seeing you soon. Hang
in there Jason, I know  how tough things are for you, but you will get through this, and
you will be a winner, a survivor. My thoughts are with you daily.

                                                               Sincerely, and with love,

                                                                                          Dad