Posted by pancho from host-148-244-221-33.block.alestra.net.mx (148.244.221.33) on Sunday, December 29, 2002 at 1:57PM :
In Reply to: A Clever Birthday Gift posted by Jeff from d53-25-237.try.wideopenwest.com (64.53.237.25) on Saturday, December 28, 2002 at 8:23PM :
I just canīt help but respond that yes indeed the cards are delightful, especially as you consider what sorts of lives the children there were leading while they tried to think good and kind images so we in the States would have a "choice"...like we arenīt pampered enough. Of course many of us found the cards somehow "wanting" in that polish and pizzazz we associate with Christ.
This reminds me of the trouble we went to in getting Father Benny to have the children in Georgia paint some cards...and how we nearly got them printed...except that Jackie took it on herself to speak for Benny...and then lied to me and denied ever having said Benny gave us the go-ahead. Apparently Mar Ibrahim refused to allow Benny to print the cards...Mar Ibrahim is the corporate head of the Chaldean Church Corporation in Detroit. Jackie was sure we would be able to do it and told me sheīd received confirmation when she hadnīt...just took it on herself...which is okay, shows initiative. She just couldnīt afford to let it be known sheīd fucked up...it had to be someone elses fault...and what are "friends" for?
See...when you are convinced yourself, and have convinced others, that you are an indispensible part of Assyria, even in its Diapers...you come to believe that you are very terribly important to the "cause"...so that in any situation where the truth is at stake...if the truth reveals you to be a scum bag at heart and thereby diminishes your value and all the hopes youīve told people to pin on you and only you...well, a deep felt concern and love for your people DEMANDS you lie, in order to save that "face" of yours...because the poor dears will be lost without you.
All our leaders do this...they all shit in their Diapers then pretend itīs perfume and whatīs it to you? For us to go thrugh life thinking shit is sweet smelling explains pretty well where we are.
Thatīs Jackie Bejan, and thatīs why her small cult following will overlook anything about her because sheīs convinced them that without her presence...and her immmaculately groomed and maintained fronts...they would be lost.
When I confronted Jackie about it,,,she lied outright...said sheīd nver said such a thing. This left me hanging out there looking to Homer Yonan and Benny like I had been overly eager to get the cards printed...you know, for the money...because thereīs almost as much money to be made in Christmas cards designed by Assyrian children from Georgia as there is to be made from selling sculpture to Assyrians and ice cubes to Eskimos.
I wrote to her then...told her we both knew the truth of the situation, and that if she ever did such a thing again, sheīd regret it...ahem.
Sue me baby...sue me every few years or months. I told you there was no such thing as bad publicity for an artist...none. As many in your own inner circle have lost some of that blind devotion to your well coifed facade. And that you would get nothing for your pains...that I didnīt have to worry about my appearnce or care what silly minded people wanted to believe...for I donīt make my living from appearances but from what actually and really IS, at least for a while back there...when most people canīt see it because their perceptions have been dulled by pretense and show and German cars.
Next time...donīt mess where you have no business going...You made the same mistake others did..others who are so damn convinced Assyrians are negligible that they canīt imagine one of us sculpting AND writing...or painting AND dancing.
-- pancho
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