What Thanksgiving Means to the Justly Freed
Examples of why Greg Lindberg campaigns for justice reform
An article from the History Channel tells us that what we know about the first Thanksgiving in America came from “a letter written in December 1621 by Edward Winslow, one of the 100 or so people who sailed from England aboard the Mayflower in 1620 and founded Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts.” The Pilgrims and their Native American neighbors had a three-day feast of thanksgiving in 1621. The colonists were grateful to still be alive after the previous winter had wiped out half of their number. The Native Americans were constantly grateful, having a habit of giving thanks to any harvested animal, fish, or plant that sustained their lives.
These days, it can be amazing what we take for granted, particularly personal freedoms. “Big Yellow Taxi” - an old song by Joni Mitchell - has a poignant line: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.” That is certainly true for people unjustly convicted, as entrepreneur Greg Lindberg was in 2020. He was very grateful after his bribery sentence was unanimously overturned by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2022, but only after Lindberg spent 633 days at Federal Prison Camp Montgomery in Alabama. He has now chronicled that experience and what he learned in his remarkable new book, 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life and Leadership.
Just before entering prison, Lindberg published his first book, Failing Early & Failing Often: How to Turn Your Adversity Into Advantage. Given the life lessons expressed in that book, he was well-equipped to navigate the starkness of incarceration, where he taught other inmates successful principles of legitimate business. His fellow “cellies” were fortunate to have those free classes and have said so in Lindberg’s 633 Days, and also alongside him in YouTube videos where Lindberg shares their stories. What’s regrettable is how very many people seem to have similar tales of injustice.
Recently, the people of Alabama learned of other wrongly-incarcerated prisoners with a much more tragic story. Like Greg Lindberg, these two men from Montgomery had a happy ending and gained freedom. The problem was, it took decades for Frank Meadows and his brother Quinton Cook to be exonerated, and only after they each served a full sentence. As reported in the Montgomery Advertiser, Cook and Meadows spent their 20s and 30s in prison for rape. Due to a lucky break, evidence came out that caused full exoneration in the fall of 2022.
In April of 1992, a young woman was severely beaten and raped after two men gave her a ride. The original police report identified a tall and slender man named Ray as her attacker. Neither Cook nor Meadows matched the description, and the police report and blood collected at the scene somehow didn’t make it to trial.
(In Lindberg’s case. the verdict was overturned because a judge repeatedly denied crucial information from the jury, and the appeals court decision centered on that.)
Despite the social shame brothers Cook and Meadows suffered upon release, much less their long unjust imprisonment, neither man harbored hatred over what happened. Cook studied in prison, got a degree, and became a barber. Meadows has a car-cleaning business and repeatedly tells people how Christianity sustained him in the dark years.
Greg Lindberg met men in prison who took plea deals because they could not afford the legal help necessary to fight their accusers. Having seen how quixotic the justice system can be once his own trial started, Lindberg gave one million dollars to the ACLU to help the unfortunate get adequate legal representation.
The mother of Cook and Meadows fainted upon hearing their sentencing 30 years ago. Lindberg’s mother was also shocked, since her son had never previously been in legal trouble, but she told him she was proud of him before he entered prison. It seems that for each of these men, family is very important and as such it is heart-warming to think of how different their Thanksgiving celebrations will be in 2022.
While Lindberg was 633 days inside, his father died and he could not attend the funeral. His twin sons were born, and he could not see them. His greatest joy upon release was meeting Max and Thor for the first time and holding them on the plane ride home.
Now several months free, prison time in the rearview mirror, this self-made founder of the Global Growth company is ebullient. His latest video isn’t about prison experiences or business or personal philosophies. It’s a family celebration, a home movie of the Lindbergs’ many new joys set to the song “Moments We Live For” performed by In Paradise.
This holiday season, there will be people incarcerated who deserve to be there, but there will be others who ran afoul of the justice system and were wrongly sentenced. Greg Lindberg has now dedicated his life and fortune to helping the latter and educating others about ways to avoid the criminal path. He was a model prisoner “inside” and as he determined upon entering prison, became “better, not bitter.”
These are tales of happy outcomes due to persistence in seeking justice. There are too many other stories that did not have such happy endings, so the work for freedom must continue. Just jurisprudence leads to happier holidays for us all.
The ebook of 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life & Leadership can be found on Amazon, GooglePlay, Apple Books and many other major outlets. The paperback is also available at Barnes & Noble and, via IngramSpark, around the world. Through his website www.greglindberg.com, he shares his stories of the fight for justice. Even more to the point, Lindberg’s company, Global Growth, has a stated policy of not turning away potential employees because of a criminal conviction.
Happy Thanksgiving!