I had a blog all written out earlier this week containing some personal thoughts on the upcoming execution of Elijah Page.
I write these things out on the computer and was in a hurry as I was copying it over to the Keloland web site and somehow hit a wrong button and the entire column disappeared.
I did all the usual procedures to retrieve what I’d written but it was gone..a couple hours work..phhhhhht.
I quickly concluded that it wasn’t my computer incompetence that caused my profound ponderings to be wiped out..it was divine intervention.
God, Himself was watching out for me. He knows I don’t take criticism well and that the piece I’d written was sure to bring down the wrath of some of you dear readers and hurt my tender feelings. So, for my own good, He worked a mini miracle and sent the words off to some electronic trash bin.
The number one question I hear these days is, “Doug, how do you like retirement..do you miss working at KELO?”
The usual answer is..”I’m liking it fine and, yes, I miss it sometimes.”
But historic events like the Page execution really get my juices flowing and it was tough to not be a part of our excellent broadcast coverage.
It’s probably just as well, though, since these are some of the trivial things that crossed my mind as I watched at home from my easy chair Wednesday night:
I wonder if Page, who wasn’t religious, had any talks with members of the clergy in his final hours. Any last minute conversion… just in case he was wrong about the Almighty? I couldn’t hear the question but did someone ask coroner Brad Randall during the briefing if Page was a Muslim and how that would affect the autopsy to which Muslim law apparently opposes? That was a new one on me.
I wonder if they make jalapeno poppers with cream sauce..part of Page’s rather sizable last meal..right there at the prison or did they order take-out? From where?
Did he eat fast or savor every last bite?
Did they bring the ice cream with the meal or keep it in a cooler so as not to melt?
Did anyone one else think it looked odd to see a bunch of people sitting in lawn chairs across from the pen like there was going to be a fireworks show afterward?
Was I the only one who was a bit surprised that Page’s elderly father who gave Keloland’s Lou Raguse the tearful interview, is also the father of that cute little baby whom he brought to the penitentiary to cheer up his condemned big brother? If, as his father said, Page was remorseful at what he’d done, why didn’t he express that when asked if he had any last words? Was anyone else wondering if Dottie Poage, mother of murder victim, Chester Poage, was ever going to speak when she stood silent for so long at the briefing podium?
Were you, like me, shocked at the eloquence of what she had to say when the well-chosen words finally came?
In her face you could see the pain of seven years without the son she bore and loved…the agony of knowing how he suffered and died.. and perhaps a bit of the guilt for being unable to convince Chester to choose his friends more wisely.
But there was also a look of relief and satisfaction at having witnessed the demise of one of her son’s murderers. You could also see a determination in her eyes that she will be there again to see justice carried out if and when Briley Piper meets the same end.
