Mr. President: Pardon O. Henry !
This Thanksgiving, presumably, the President will engage in the annual silliness - the turkey pardoning exercise - at the White House. The already obnoxious exercise took on a bit of an age when, for a long period of time, the President had granted more pardons to turkeys than he had actual human beings.
One year, President Obama quoted the great American short story writer, O. Henry. A year later, the U.S. Postal Service created a stamp commemorating what would have been O. Henry's 150th birthday. Punch line is O. Henry was a convicted felon who spent time in prison.
So was just about everyone who knew O. Henry- including his daughter! Only a few people knew about the matter because his shame was so great that he hid it as best as he could. By the time he died, he had led a life of such positive repute, many refused to believe he could have been correctly convicted. But, he was. And, after he was sentenced under a mandatory minimum sentence statute, O. Henry became a model prisoner. He was paroled early and, afterward, showed every sign of what an intelligent person would call "reformation" or "rehabilitation."
President Obama should grant a posthumous pardon to O. Henry this Thanksgiving, and add some serious, needed, substance to the dreadful turkey pardoning gig. Read more here.