To the Editor:

I would like to thank everyone involved in this year’s Ship Bottom Christmas Parade. It was my second parade as Capt. Dirk Blackman, “Pirate of LBI,” and I would like to explain why I participate in the parade.

For my entire adult life, and some juvenile parts, I was, and possibly still am, a blight on our Island community. In the last four years I have wanted to make amends to those I have wronged. There are so many individuals to whom I must personally apologize.

December 6, 2017