I want to begin by saying, “I’m sorry.” I don’t know how else to really communicate to you how saddened and embarrassed I am by what my choices and behavior have done to my loved ones, friends and community.
I have always tried to be a positive influence in the community. My neighbors and friends will tell you that I have always been there for anyone who has needed a helping hand. I know my life has shown this and those who know me can easily testify to this fact.
However, due to my own bad decisions and the patterns I established a long time ago, I find myself in my current situation. I now realize my words and behavior have troubled and hurt people around me. Due to intractable pain caused by a severe degenerative condition in my low back, I was prescribed pain medication. Like many others, I never imagined that I would need to take the medications for as long as I have, but over time this is exactly what has happened. I found that I needed more and more medicine to obtain the same level of relief, and eventually I even augmented these attempts to relieve pain with alcohol, mixing alcohol with the pain prescriptions.
This was the beginning of the path that has led me to where I am today. I am not making excuses; I am simply trying to explain some of the factors that have brought me to this place today. So, again, to all who have been hurt or disappointed by my behavior, I ask your forgiveness. To those that I have hurt or troubled through my behavior, choices, or words, I apologize and simply ask that you would pray for me.
I am in the process of getting help for substance abuse so I can return to my home and my family, and get back to the point where I am there for my neighbors and friends and am a blessing to my community. Please pray for me as I close one chapter of my life and open another.
Bennett Williams
Danville
Editor’s note: The letter writer, Bennett Williams, was arrested Dec. 17 for allegedly threatening to blow up Danville Christian Academy with dynamite. Williams, owner of BW Gun Shop in Danville, has been held without bond in the Boyle County Detention Center on charges of second-degree terroristic threatening since the alleged incident. He has pleaded not guilty.
