N a p a l m H e a l t h S p a : R e p o r t 2 0 1 0

ELIOT KATZ

One Satellite One Vote

When a satellite exploded over the Ukraine, it seemed to affect only the life of one person on Earth, Chris Yenko, of Chicago.

Everyone else went about their normal daily lives. When 21-year-old Chris Yenko was stopped by the police for running a red light, the police computer check showed that the car he was driving was stolen from a garage in Mexico, that he had five outstanding warrants for bank robberies in Portugal, and that he was under investigation in the country of Georgia for ordering a mob hit on a prominent journalist.

Chris Yenko had never stepped foot outside the state of Illinois.

Nonetheless, he spent two years in a immigrant detention facility, most of the time in shackles and solitary confinement, until the government managed to send up another satellite to replace the one that had exploded and that new satellite successfully cleared Chris's name. It was another three years before the immigration authorities released him from detention, but when they did they gave him a very sincere apology.