Posted by pancho from customer-148-233-78-77.uninet.net.mx (148.233.78.77) on Monday, February 03, 2003 at 4:04PM :
Indulge me a little.
This may turn out to be more interesting than I could have hoped.
I and Jeff are, of course, not going to agree to anything in order to have Jackie Bejanīs case against us dropped. I hope with all my might that it goes forward...that Jackie doesnīt get cold feet at the last minute. If she does...I think I can warm them again for her.
This whole thing about defaming people on the internet is a new and useful tangle to get into.
First off, you can cuss someone out without having to worry about being taken to court. Yelling "Fuck you, you Armenian Bitch"...canīt be cause for action or else as rude as we are becomming the courts would be clogged with these kinds of cases. One has to show actual damage to get any award. Just having your feelings hurt canīt be enough.
So, if you single out all the posts in which Jackieīs anatomy was discussed...which were done in anger and most called for...youīre left with allegations I made about her behavior towards me, things done and said...and since these were all done in private, you have a "He said/She said" case which you can certainly take to trial for judgement.
But...if I maintain that the comments I made about Jackie were all true...not fabricated, not done with malice etc...but just to tell the truth and explain why certain things happened that led to certain other things happening...other things of general interest to our community...then what crime did I committ?
No one...not even Jackie, has a right to keep her peckerdillos private when it involves real harm done to others. No priest has immunity just because, other than the time he fucked little Billy, he was a real good guy and therefore should have his reputation kept spotless. It isnīt MY reponsibility to keep Jackie "clean"...it isnīt my job to keep her pants on her. And if these peckerdillos of hers do harm to me, my work, my family and the Assyrian community as a whole...then she has every reason to expect to see it broadcast...as it should be.
Telling the truth is the best single defense against a charge of defamation. Besides...Jackie, being a public person in our community...with her own TV station and access to the same forums I did, had the means at her disposal to refute my claims. She chose not to do so...at least not in an open way. Instead she bought Shawn to harrass and scare people into silence.
I maintain that Jackie Bejan, far from being one of the best people we have in the community, is one of the absolutely worst. She qualifies in my mind because she is best able to use our own weak and muddled headed sense of values against us. Lincoln was right...without her money no one would listen or be impressed by anything she had to say AND...she wouldnīt waste a second of her time on us...why "window shop" for Assrins if you donīt have the money to buy them?
People have told me that Jackie has put money out from her own pocket. So? Iīve put out a lot more than she ever did, and so have many others who had a smaller pocket. Sheīs bought us with "chump change"...and thatīs enough to turn us silly. Iīve been told that she pays out of her own pocket to maintain the lawn at her Club. If she was any kind of a leader she would work with the community to find a way to make sure the lawn will ALWAYS be maintained...even after her reigh is over. Jackie pays to have the lawn mowed because she is president of the club and doesnīt want the place looking shabbier than it has to...she does it for herself...also so weīll always remember that when she was president, the place looked "better"...and you know what suckers we are for looks and appearances.
In reality leaders like Jackie Bejan weaken community spirit, they donīt strengthen it. They do so by constantly being on the look-out for what benefits them frist of all...and the rest of us if possible. At no time would a Jackie Bejan do anything for any one of us that upset her own designs, no matter how needful. And thatīs as it should be for Jackie is a politician first and foremost...and you know where their interests lie.
Iīm no politician...to advice that I should "use" people wisely..."play" on their weaknessess and foibles, charm and seduce them...I turned a deaf ear. I was going to give what I thought was needed...I could care less what Nimnrod or BetJassoo or Bejan thought about it. If they didnīt like it, they could go on their own way...I was. But what they did instead was try to stop me...to damage me, Jackie especially. And for that, there is a remedy...itīs called telling the truth...shouting the truth...no matter who gets upset or what they threaten you with.
Either Jackie and Shawn make good on their threats and work dilligently to get us to trial...or sheīll get more of the same that she claimed was illegal and defamatory enough to bring her suit against Jeff and I in the first place.
Either way...she will be exposed more for what she is, than for what she would have you think she is...an opinion she buys just as surely as she buys onions and expensive perfume.
It isnīt personal...it is necessary...one more block that needs to be put in place if weīre ever going to grow up and get out of these National Diapers.
-- pancho
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