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Interests: Alfons Mucha, Archibald Leach, big words, Bob Hicok, Brian Eno, Cat Power, Charles Bukowski, Charlotte Masaryk, cheese, clarity, dark chocolate, David Byrne, David Foster Wallace, Dorothy Parker, Douglas Adams, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E.E. Cummings, Frank O’Hara, Fred Rogers, garlic, Gaudi, Gertrude Stein, ginger, Gustav Klimt, Iva Pekarkova, Jane Austen, Jaromir Nohavica, Jeanette Winterson, Josef Skvorecky, Joseph Campbell, Joss Whedon, Just a Minute, Kate Bush, Kurt Vonnegut, laughing until it hurts, Laurie Anderson, Leonard Cohen, little kids singing, Lloyd Alexander, mandarin oranges, making lists, Margaret Atwood, Miss Manners, New Yorker, Paul Simon, performance, P.G. Wodehouse, poetry, Rebecca Solnit, Rob Brezsny, Robert Anton Wilson, Robert Creeley, salt, Salvador Dali, secrets, silence, Star Trek, Stephen Dunn, Talking Heads, Terry Gilliam, things that stain, This American Life, Tom Waits, T.S. Eliot, vegetable juice, veiled cultural references, vinegar, water, wine, W.H. Auden

Brno murders

A family of four Brno citizens was murdered about 10 days ago. The funeral was on Saturday. Brno is a small town, so while I didn't know any of the victims personally, I know their neighbors and friends. A kid who played in the ukulele band with the father and son used to attend drama class with my son. The mother taught at a school with one of my friends. Their neighbors have been to my house.  

It's not certain who killed them, but the primary suspect is a US citizen, a young man who is a cousin of the family. He came in April and was advertising for work as an English teacher. Like any small community, we took him in. Had a beer with him, tried to help him find a job, opened doors and homes. I didn't meet him, but I could have. I didn't have him in my home, but I could have. This is how we live, here. This could have happened to someone I know; this could have happened to my family.  

Less than a month after he came, the family — a father, a mother, two sons — was dead, and their American guest was on a plane back to the US, having left abruptly, before the police could question him. Maybe he did it; maybe he just knows something. Maybe not. As long as he's in the US, though, nobody is going to find out.

As a person living in Brno, I feel frightened and violated. This is my community. As a person from the same town where this young man is from, I feel responsible and guilty. That was my home. 

Now he is in custody in Virginia. The Czech government has about a month to put together a request for extradition, and then the US Department of Justice and the State Department decide whether to send him back here. It could take years, and some cases never get resolved — the suspects go free in cases that the OIA says "fell through the cracks" as if they just had a badly installed floor. The US has never extradited a citizen to the Czech Republic, and it doesn't try people for crimes committed abroad, so if they don't send him back, he will go free in the US, this man who may have killed a family that welcomed him into their home. Meanwhile my town weeps and the ukulele band is silent, mourning. 

I think that having people aware of this and pressuring the US government to send him back would be useful. I created a petition to raise awareness and to hopefully ensure that if and when the Czech government has a reason to ask him to return, the US government will extradite him. Please, if you could take two minutes to sign this, I would be so grateful. 

CHANGE.ORG: Petition for the extradition of Kevin Dahlgren

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