Posted by Fred Parhad (148.244.221.228) on November 27, 2001 at 09:38:18:
The Trial
Why did people ever invent Law, why did they try to make it apply equally as much as possible, why was trial by jury preferable to trial by ordeal or trial by combat, why did Kings labor mightily to outlaw private dueling and vendettas. Today people talk and act as if they believed appealing to the courts, having recourse to Law and seeking justice in measured and even ways, was some kind of throwback to a darker age, something to be gotten over and gotten rid of, as if it was all an inconvenience and something it would be far better for a civilized nation to do without. Would it better for a neighbor who has a dispute with the neighbor down the block to run him through with a sword. Would disputes melt away and resolve themselves if there were no lawyers or laws and procedures on the books to settle disputes before judges and impartial juries made up of ones peers etc.
It would be a far worse and more savage state of affairs if 200 million people were to take matters in their own hands whenever a product failed, or a store was negligent, or a drunken driver caught. Laws and courts and juries keep us just that little bit more civilized than we would be without them. The disputes and arguments would all still be there, they wouldn’t go away…but there wouldn’t be any method to resolve them and get on with life without due process and all the trimmings which the population of the entire world has in some form or another been working to develop for thousands of years…and we should know that better than most people.
There will be a trial coming up to resolve some disputes between myself and some individuals and an organization or two. By taking this dispute to court I am simply following a long established procedure stretching back to Hammurabi and farther…I am asking a judge and 12 impartial people to hear both sides of an argument and decide for me where the problem lies, who has the better claim to justice and where the Law rests in these sorts of disputes. It isn’t likely that I, or anyone else, would simply swallow an affront, especially where real harm has occurred, and walk away just because there had never been a Law. That is not human nature because if it were no civilization would ever have invented the Law. Human nature would probably drive me to commit an injustice back to those who offended or injured me…I would commit my own crime in retaliation, after which they would come back at me…and I back at them again, and before you know it we have a Blood Feud or Grudge Match extending through our families for several generations. These were real concerns to a developing society, it is half the story in Romeo and Juliet and Mark Twain parodies it nicely in Huckleberry Finn.
By taking recourse to the Law, however, most in our community feel that I have done a terrible thing. They react as if I were the guilty party merely because I ask someone else to act as an impartial observer and hear both sides out. My suing Helen Nimrod’s estate was the reason given for demanding that Dr. Eden Naby strike my name from the list of speakers at the Chicago convention. Someone said to her that no one who sues an Assyrian should be welcome at Assyrian conventions. They never said that no one who lies and cheats and steals should be the head of any Assyrian organization…the crime with us, as always, is fighting for our rights and demanding justice…always.
I believe that John Nimrod acted illegally when he made an empty threat to the city of Chicago claiming that my suit against his sister’s estate would require him, almost, to file a counter suit, one in which the city would become entangled etc. That was enough for them to drop the idea of installing the Shumirum. He knew at the time that there were no grounds to sue me, and that the Shumirum Monument had nothing to do with my claim against him. He did it just to scare the city away…and he continued holding that threat over their heads until they lost interest in us. He also sent letters to Detroit stating that I was irrational and only out for money. He did all of this to force me to drop my suit against him and he mentioned on several occasions that he was prepared to back off if I would drop the lawsuit. He finally settled out of court and has yet to counter sue me, or write the letter the city of Chicago asked him to six years ago.
It was a mistake settling with John. Not until these people are forced to explain themselves before a jury, in public and hopefully on television, will they learn to be more careful and follow the Law, not because they will have learned anything, but because the price will be too high for them to pay in the future. If the John Nimrods and Jackie Bejans of our community would go away, we would have that much better a chance of attracting better, more motivated people. These people want to be leaders, they don’t mind running one man organizations where they can remain in office perpetually, attracting a fawning fan club who are useless without their Supreme Leaders. There is no depth to any of these organizations…they depend upon the forcefull natures of their presidents and general secretaries without whom, and without the money of whom, there is nothing of lasting value or even competence.
I hate to include Atour Golani with this bunch, but it seems to me he has rushed into their arms because he was so afraid of what he thought I represented, that Jackie Bejan was the lesser of two evils, I being the more evil one. Atour is a man of consensus, a peace maker at all costs, who brought his corporate style to the Assyrian community. He just forgot whom he was working with, that these are not professional people in any sense of the word, they aren’t particulary mature and some of them aren’t even people, in the strict sense of the word. It will always be a mystery to me why Atour backed Jackie to the hilt at the San Jose convention, but it’s a mystery I don’t have to solve. I just want my day in court. I want someone else to hear the entire story and tell me who did what to whom and where the guilt lies. That’s all. I will accept whatever comes down, but I have to do as thorough a job of presenting my case as I can.
This isn’t personal either. I have to believe Atour and Janey when they tell me they wanted the Hammurabi to be a success…when they tell me they are my friends and our children play together as we visit each other’s homes. I have to believe that, even though Atour was the one to stop me from getting donors at the convention and from making sales that could have sustained my family and me as I worked on the Hammurabi. He too will have to believe that we are friends even as I unravel the story and seek to tell the story and public opinion might turn against him and humiliate him as I was…even to the point of hurting his ability to feed his own children. If it was true for one of us, it is true for the other.
One of the liabilities our people work under is their supreme disregard for the Arts and the artist. They believe any money paid for an artwork is too much, that the artist should be grateful for anything he receives and must accept any treatment at all, as if to be an artist was to remove yourself from the company of normal people with no protection under the Law or any right to expect decent treatment. The idea that there are laws on the books specifically protecting an artist and his works, is completely alien to our understanding. A surgeon should certainly be protected and revered, but an artist, no way…he already gets away with too much.
One of my disputes with Atour Golani was the fact that he disregarded my instructions to him and went ahead and had my sculptures welded as he saw fit. He and Janey claim that I made the change because I wanted to save money and they fixed what they saw as a problem with my design. I want them to repeat that in court. Even if it was true, and it of course isn’t, that would give them no legal right to proceed against my wishes…at the best they could have offered me the money they think I wanted to save and ask me to have them welded as they saw fit. But to do it against my express wishes, and to give as the reason NOT that they wanted to spare me the expense, but that Atour thought it was better, is ridiculous…at least I think so, and it is also illegal, and I need a judge to tell them that, Atour wont believe me.
The other curious thing about this episode was that Atour originally told me he had the pieces welded by a technician at Ford Motor Company, at the division where he is a supervisor. I remember him extolling the virtues of this particular welder and pointing out the excellent job he was able to do with the equipment they have there. He even said that if we had any trouble with the Hammurabi monument, that we should just ship it there and the Ford people would take care of any welding problems we had. I didn’t want to tell the guy that Jesse can weld circles around any welder they have and that welding bronze sculpture involves a lot more than joining two seams.
I was very angry at the time I learned that he had gone ahead and had the three maquettes welded, without asking or telling me. I kept quiet as I do about many things for the sake of the overall project and because I know I have to be prepared to swallow a lot if I want these people to “help” me. But no more. Since both Atour and Janey have conspired to just about kill the Hammurabi Monument, and as they both helped draw me to the convention where Atour offered the final affront the last night, I feel I have to protect not only my work and reputation, but my family as well.
I sent Janey a letter telling her that I would be suing her husband personally and Ford Motor Company as well as the technician, for taking it upon themselves to weld my sculpture for me against my express and often stated wishes. That they would do so on their own shows just how much contempt they feel for an artist and his rights…this too is something the judge will have to hear. Ford Motor Company needs its technicians and supervisors to design and build better cars, ones that don’t roll over and kill people. Perhaps it is just this sort of arrogance and lack of diligence on the part of their supervisors that allows them to go on merrily making cars that fail, while they attend to other things, things like re configuring sculpture. Let them design the cars, and let me make my own sculpture the way want…no matter what Atour and Janey think of my reasons. I am sure that more than once Ford Motor Company cut corners to save a buck…and they have millions of them…while putting people’s lives at risk. Even if it were true that chose I to do something differently for the same reason…it still gives them no right to do it for me…as I have no right to re design their cars because I think it might save lives.
What was really discouraging to me was the lie Janey told when confronted with my letter. I wish people would stop and realize what trouble they are in and not go making things worse for themselves by trying to get out from under things for the short haul by telling little lies that will grow and overwhelm them. Janey said they lied to me when they said the welding was done at Ford, with a Ford technician. She said the welding was really done in their own garage and by a neighbor of theirs. Here are the problems with that. In the first place, if this is really the truth, why lie to me then and say it was done at Ford by one of their best welders. Was I supposed to feel better about it. The weld was no big deal…nothing I haven’t seen done before and something I used to do way back when myself. It’s not as if only Ford could do it…a neighbor, with the right equipment, could certainly do it…but why the lie then. Am I supposed to feel better if I am raped by a rich man instead of a mere neighbor.
I’ve been in Atours garage and there is no welding equipment there, none at all. Did the neighbor haul this heavy and expensive machinery all the way to Atour’s garage…why, what was wrong with his own garage, and…who is this neighbor…will they produce one, will they get one to lie for them and admit to it…they will be asked by me certainly who he is…what will their answer be. And if you lied to me then, it must have been because you knew you were doing something wrong…something you sought to soften and disguise by bringing up Ford. Atour praised the virtues of Ford equipment and the welders skills too much if it was all a lie. If it was a lie then, is it the truth now. I wasn’t concerned about who was doing the welding, I didn’t care if it was Ford or GMC or his aunt Fanny…I didn’t want the pieces welded period. What would I have cared if his neighbor or Ford did the welding.
This little lie takes its place beside the other one he told…the one I cringed to hear him say then. When, at the convention, he shoved the contract in front of my face and told me to sign or get out…I asked him why only I out of the other artists there, was being told not to sell anything. He said they had all signed the same contract. Then why were they all offering their work for sale, price tags and all, since the first day of the convention. Why must only I be the one to show and not sell. He said the others had agreed to kick back a percentage to the AANF. Then why wasn’t he offering me the same opportunity. That was when he said…”I don’t want to repeat myself, either sign or leave now”. I asked two of the artists who were selling that same night and they said there had been no such agreement to kick back anything, that they wouldn’t have bothered coming if there had been. They admitted to having signed the contract but said no one had made any move to enforce it etc.
He lied then too…there was no such kick back agreement…the whole contract business was aimed at hurting me financially so I would be even more dependent on Atour and Janey, not only for the Hammurabi but for basic living expenses. None of them believe that I am not making any money on the Hammurabi and so they know that if I get donors some of the money MUST go into my pocket. If I had agreed to sign that contract, there would have been another one soon after that stipulating all sorts of terms for the Hammurabi, terms that would have made me an employee of Atour’s practically, and that is just what he has always wanted. He said I should just stick to making clay things…I would have been told not to write, not to speak about anything…as I was also told to do on that contract.
One of the other requirements on that contract was that I not mention the Shumirum or the Federation while at the convention, if I did I could be thrown out. That would have left me in the awkward position of not answering the questions that were put to me, such as what happened to the Shumirum etc. Not answering those questions would simply have ruined my reputation even more in everyones eyes and the rumor would have spread that I couldn’t even come up with a simple answer to a question that was increasingly bothering people and making them wonder if I wasn’t the crook everyone said I was…everyone connected to the Federation that is.
None of this has anything to do with Art, our great ancestors, our status in the world today, the future of our children…none of it. It is about control. About who runs this franchise called Assyria. These people have had it their dismal way for so long they have become convinced that they are the guardians of this heritage and any suggestions for change or a new direction must mean the end is near. They are the same people who utter not a squeak, who write fawning letters to world leaders supporting the destruction of the very heart and soul of our Heritage while they worry over its fingernails.
The upcoming trial is about all of these things…not about money at all, except in so far as that is the best way to get their attention. Atour has put himself in the awkward and classic position of being asked by a lawyer…”Mr. Golani, you say now that you lied then…when are we to believe you”. None of this will hit them until the papers are served and a preliminary hearing date set. I wanted to spare Janey as much as I could but she has thrust herself in the middle of it. I believe even more than Atour, Janey will tell the whole truth on the stand or in a deposition…that will be enough.
I am now suing Atour personally, as well as Ford Motor Company and the welding technician. The work was done at Ford as he first bragged it was. Either way, Atour will have to admit to being a liar in court…and his wife will have to testify against him or lie herself. This is not a capital offense case…a wife can be compelled to testify against her husband. This was all in one way or another the doing of Jackie Bejan, but she couldn’t have gotten away with it this long without the complicity of Atour Golani…a man she despises and has told me so often enough…I wonder, will Jackie lie when confronted on the stand with statements she made to me…will her husband lie defending her.
This sorry mess only came about because I refused to let it pass…I didn’t play the part of Rabel Schmoel or the young men who started the Ashurbanipal Library…I did what Assyrians are never supposed to do…I fought back, fought for my rights under the Law, something Hammurabi himself wanted me to be able