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Please click on this link for the latest posts. This site cannot hold anymore photos and I have a lot of pictures to post. See you there!!!

But just reading the history doesn’t give you a sense that there is a large story here. But to David Seidler, who had a stammer himself, the story of a king overcoming such a problem was huge. He wrote the story, showed it to his wife and she had him rewrite it focusing on the relationship between the King and the therapist.

He finished it in 2005 and in early 2006, the process to get it on film started. It takes an amazingly long time. But it is a lot of money to commit to something that you just never know.

So the Queen, it is reported, and J and I saw the film the same weekend. We know we enjoyed it and word has that she did also.

The King died on Feb 6, 1952 and the current Queen took the throne. Speaking of a long time!!!

The girls were visiting the other night when the idea came to them that they should spend the night. So they did. But they didn’t have any nightgowns. Didn’t matter. They slept in the Y shirts. At breakfast they discovered we didn’t have whipped cream or chocolate chips to decorate their pancakes.

Didn’t matter. They managed the decorating with orange slices and bananas. Pretty creative and delicious!!!

1. Happy Birthday to Jennifer and Craig and Spencer and Brittany – lots of February birthdays and Valentine’s Day and J’s birthday later!!!

2. The Iowa Cold Case web site is here – http://iowacoldcases.org/

3. J is at a Stroke clinic at the Franklin YMCA. When she first mentioned that she was going to a stroke clinic I wondered why. Yesterday when she mentioned it to 4 other ladies at the Y, they all said they should go to it also – they all four had suffered strokes – they thought the same thing I did. J’s stroke clinic is for swimming!

4. I received an email at work from the two managers I work for and with – “we want to discuss production opportunities with you at 10 a.m. in K’s office.” I thought maybe I was in line for a different job. I was wrong – it was a discussion about doing a better job at what I am currently doing!!

5. We have dodged the latest snow. We have cool temps and rain, enough to keep from having to do yard work!

6. Just sent an email to our local legislators to allow wine sales in our grocery store. When I am at the store and they ask if I found everything okay, I reply I didn’t find any wine! The effort falls on deaf ears in the legislator. They listen to the liquor lobby and not the citizens of the state.

7. I was to wear red to work yesterday – support the Heart Association efforts. I wore the “I climbed the Great Wall” sweatshirt. Janice and Ruthanne both bought sweatshirts at the site where we climbed on the wall. They don’t wear them. Yesterday was a good opportunity to do so. Lots of conversation and I even shared some pictures which I accessed through the Shutterfly account. It was a good trip! Plan to email our former school principal in Taiwan to say hi and see if she needs a couple ‘old’ teachers. But then again, maybe not, makes me tired thinking about it!

Here is another scholarship for the class and future classes. If you want to donate money to the school on a regular basis go here. This particular scholarship has a sad beginning but hopefully it will result in several happier endings…

Family Establishes Valerie Peterson Memorial Justice Scholarship

A new scholarship in Valerie Peterson’s memory has been established at the Manson Northwest Webster Junior/Senior High School in Manson, Iowa.

The college scholarship of $1,000 is offered by Valerie’s sister, Eileen Peterson, and brother, Cal Peterson, for a student from Manson High School who plans to study and make a career in law enforcement, criminal forensics or law. The scholarship’s goal is to increase the number of individuals in Iowa professionally trained and working in criminal forensics, law enforcement, victim support or law.

The criteria and granting of the scholarship is based on career plans to enter the fields of criminal justice, forensics or law, and takes into consideration prior volunteer work with crime victims or families of victims, plans to remain and work in Iowa in the justice sector, and other student scholarships.

Valerie’s case remains unsolved and was recently reviewed by the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation’s Cold Case Unit. The case is listed in the Iowa Cold Case database, on the Iowa Cold Case website and in the national database for Unsolved Mysteries and America’s Most Wanted.

There have been tremendous strides in science and testing procedures allowing old criminal cases to be solved. Paint scrapings in Valerie Peterson’s case were tested at the time but damaged due to the infancy of the science in 1971. New procedures, such as DNA and chemical testing, assisted in the recent arrest and case resolution in a nearly 40-year-old unsolved case by the Iowa Cold Case Unit.

The DCI’s Iowa Cold Case Unit is currently funded through 2011. Many Iowa counties now have victim assistance counselors to help families face the emotional challenges during case investigation and through trial. This was also non-existent in the 1970′s. The Valerie Peterson Memorial Justice Scholarship’s goal is to support all of these types of efforts in the justice field.

For more information about the scholarship, please call the Manson High School at (712) 469-2245 or e-mail Manson Principal Shawn Holloway.

Some don’t always get the chance…

Manson, Iowa

Breaking Through Walls of Silence and Shame

May 6, 2010 | By Eileen Meier

My only sister, Valerie Peterson, was killed 39 years ago today on a Thursday afternoon.  She was just 8 years old.

We had been late that morning — in a rush out of the car for school with no foreshadowing of the terrible events that would happen that afternoon. No goodbyes or looks backward. The events that followed that afternoon are as clear in my mind as they are this afternoon — what happened, who was there and what was said. I got up the next morning hoping it had been a terrible dream but instead realized a nightmare.

At the funeral home I remember a clock ticking loudly during long silences of the arrangements, how my sister’s face had been disfigured by hitting the truck after she flew up in the air, and the coldness of her body. My brother took me to get a black dress in town. I never found one. I only remember the silence of the clerks and the news announcements on the radio about my sister and reward information.

I remember going back to school for the final week but no one said anything — as if I had been out with a cold. I picked up my sister’s books and belongings from her classroom and was handed them in silence. That silence continued by members of the community who had information about the crime and refused to give it to law enforcement.

During the years that have followed, I cannot explain the amount of pain in me or for my family because of her death. The hours spent with law enforcement and DCI about evidence and the hope for a conviction has been agonizing. The pain and anger have never lessened despite the passing of years. I have a difficult time talking about her death even now without feeling utter despair and overwhelming grief — a deep wound that has never healed and never will. The despair is not only about her death but also that there has been no conviction despite strong evidence.

I recently asked again for her case to be re-examined. Hope never fades that the person will have to publicly face what he did. Homicide is defined as the act of killing a human being. Having my sister’s case defined as anything less than homicide is a travesty of justice. My sister is dead because of someone’s actions. I was once told by a law officer that the only thing that could be done against the person who killed my sister was issuance of a traffic ticket. That is wrong. My sister was not powerful or influential but a human being who deserves justice and whose life was worth more than a traffic ticket.

I went to law school because I wanted to work in human rights. Working in Bosnia tore my soul down but built it back up — giving me an inner strength from what had transpired there. The massive genocide and senseless killing, rapes and destruction was overwhelming, but seeing a country try to build itself up despite faltering steps helped build a resolve in me that it is right to hold people accountable for crimes no matter how difficult, uncomfortable or how long it takes. My work in Nepal on legal and human rights reform filled me with resolve that with even small actions and changes in legal assistance, the courts and police can make huge strides for those who need justice the most. I will soon be in Iraq or Afghanistan for work that will focus on human rights and assuring access to law for victims, women and children.

The determination I have to see justice for victims or those unaware of their rights, as well as having justice upheld despite overwhelming obstacles has been a result of feeling wronged, powerless and insignificant by the criminal justice system, the law and community. Those are harsh sentiments but honest. Victims of cold cases, their families and all victims need their cases treated with diligence and equality by the legal and criminal justice system and not herded into silence and shame.

I will no longer go away and be quiet and accept the “fact” that all that can be done has been done or that I should be held powerless and silent by the criminal justice system and others. I am working with the American Bar Association on the standards for evidence maintenance and preservation in cold cases. I am working to organize a conference on evidence issues for law enforcement. Hopefully Iowa evidence code can be examined and changed to assure evidence in cold cases is maintained at the highest standards for future trials. My brother and I have initiated a scholarship in Iowa to support students who are studying criminal justice and plan to remain in Iowa. I teach human rights in a law school and have written about human rights abuses.  I support a young woman in Nepal attending law school and another in Bosnia just beginning her studies in law and economics. Neither of these young women would be able to do this without financial and emotional support. Rule of law and judicial systems are fragile in these countries and needs to be supported.

After seeing what obstacles others have to overcome in fragile judicial systems, I will no longer be silent, made to feel insignificant or shamed to ask for justice by the criminal justice system, legal system or a community and made to feel powerless and voiceless in my own country.

Shortly before my sister was killed, my parents re-decorated our bedroom. My sister was a kind soul, and she felt very sad one night and almost in tears that she had been left out of some of the decisions. I felt terrible and said that we should change where we put our clothes in the drawers so it would be fair to each of us so she would not be sad and things would be equal.

As I finish this, 39 years ago my sister was still alive but inching closer to that moment when she was killed. The person who is suspected of killing her is alive and living in the same community. Much of the work that I do is to try to correct some of the injustices in the world because of what happened in her case. Her case has not represented what is right, equal or just. Justice waits for her and other cold cases and victims.

I believe our legal system is one of the best in the world. Victims deserve a real resolution to their cases no matter their age, wealth, past or how uncomfortable it makes the community. Families of victims should not feel shamed into silence, ashamed to ask for justice or treated as if a crime or person is insignificant. That’s what I’ve seen in other countries trying to fix their system. I know it is within our system to rise to the challenge and not falter.

— — —

Eileen Meier received her JD from the Washington College of Law, American University and her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

She represented domestic violence victims through a legal aid project with the Women’s Law Center of Maryland, taught legislative advocacy at Georgetown University for seven years and international human rights law at the University of Baltimore, School of Law for five years. She has lectured on gender rights at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia and the Kathmandu School of Law in Nepal.

(From the Iowa Cold Case web site)

There is a cold case in my home town of Manson, Iowa.

Valerie Peterson

December 28, 2010 | By Jody Ewing

Valerie Peterson

Elna Maria “Valerie” Peterson

Homicide

Elna Maria “Valerie” Peterson
8 Years Of Age
Manson, IA
Calhoun County
May 6, 1971

Case summary by Jody Ewing

On May 6, 1971, eight-year-old Valerie Peterson was killed by a hit-and-run driver between 3:30 and 4:00 p.m. while riding her bicycle in front of the Manson Augustana Lutheran Church. One other girl riding ahead saw a blue-green pick-up truck with two or three men inside traveling north at a high rate of speed. They appeared to have long hair, and the girl believed the truck had some sort of equipment in the flatbed.

The truck had swerved onto the side of the road and did not stop.

Autopsy reports show that Valerie appeared to have flown up in the air after being struck and then hit the truck again on the front or side before striking the ground. The report indicated she probably was killed instantly.

The FBI and CBI suspected one family in particular — those owning the blue-green truck — which they went to immediately after the incident. The truck was then sold at Rost Motor in Manson within a week by the suspect’s family. Paint chippings were taken from the truck prior to the sale.

Initial evidence taken and sent to Washington, D.C. was damaged through testing procedures.

If you have any information about this case please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s Cold Case Unit at (515) 725-6010, or send e-mail to: coldcaseunit@dps.state.ia.us.

The caption will be ‘second place’ winners. Well, all publicity is good.

40 years ago – Jan 14, 1971 (From the Manson Journal)

Fire burns out theater and café. It was reported shortly before 9:00 p.m. that there was smoke coming out of the theater building. The majority of firemen were at the Chamber of Commerce building when the alarm sounded. Other fire departments helping were Knierim, Rockwell City, Pomeroy, Pocahontas, Palmer and Lake City. Bitter cold weather hampered getting the fire under control. Heavy snow in the alley delayed shutting off the gas lines and the only hydrant on Main Street was frozen. Firemen remained on duty in shifts throughout the night. Several stores and offices were open much of the night to let the firemen get warm and refreshed. Loss to Bob Bakken at the café and Vern Partlow, owner of the building and the Manson theater was estimated at $30,000.

We sure had a lot of good times there – Patty Bloomcamp

Patty shared this history item on our class picture page. We did have some good times there and I didn’t remember my mother ever going to a movie but according to her diary, she did.

I remember all the cowboy and Indian movies and how our perception of those “savages” was created.

I remember ‘dating’ at the movies and how I would stretch and then have my arm come down around the girl’s shoulders – just like they show it in the movies of today – movies about ‘coming-of-age’ – and how incredibly nervous I was.

And I remember the jukebox at the cafe and how we listened to music much of the time and Elvis was certainly one of the featured singers and how the adults would roll their eyes.