Posted by pancho from ? (64.79.4.2) on Monday, May 13, 2002 at 8:16PM :
For over twenty years I have been making more Assyrian sculpture than anyone else ever has...of a quality and scope far different than anyone else has, in 2500 years...that I am a full blooded Assyrian born within a stone's throw of our heartland...that I am self-taught...that I have been commissioned by white people but have insisted on working for my Heritage...that I paid my own way, except for the timely support and trust received from Narsai David and Helen Nimrod...two people I would defy the people toppling me to have been able to win the trust of...without the money husbands say wives must have before being taken seriously...that I have a monument in one city...and another blocked by one man...John Nimrod...and the same one ruined by one woman...Jackie Bejan...is that slander and defamamtion? Can a woman NOT ruin a project? Who knows better than I what she did? Why would I lie about it? Why would I lose such a "valuable" patron...cut myself off from all that money, all those groceries...all those friends of hers?
Of COURSE she will hire a lawyer to keep me from saying it. But I can prove it...and will too, just as soon as I get the copy of the letter sent to me by Harriet Traurig of the San Jose Arts Committee saying that Jackie Bejan attended only one regular meeting of the Arts Council in April...and either skipped the others or failed to get on the agenda, the same thing as far as furthering our cause.
I have a letter from her dated August 10, 2001, in which she tells someone else that "we are still working,,," on bringing the monument to San Jose...when it was already too late by then, and she hadn't bothered to get on that month's agenda either..this stuff is documented.
August 10th was five days short of the deadline I had with Larry at the foundry, and a little more than three weeks before the start of the convention. At that late date Jackie and I were still working together...as she says...as I thought.
Then what happened all of a sudden and in very short order to get me banned from a function I'd been attending since 1978? What does she tell her own people happened...what does she tell herself? That she discovered all of a sudden that I was a crook and a swindler? Just how..and for what? That I was "insulting"...to whom?
The only thing that makes sense, is what I have been saying...that I,like Jeff, was a dear friend only so long as I went along, never opposed her wishes or her needs. That as soon as I said, "no"...all hell broke loose and I must be punished...as Jeff is being punished and told he must "distance himself from Fred Parhad", or else.
What do these indicate to you...or to that famous "reasonable person", more than likely happened?
And when the time comes...will Atour and Janey compound their difficulties by backing Jackie up some more? rememebr we are talking about a court of Law...not a hotel lobby where the kings and queens of Assyria now buy their rule consisting of two days duration and a picnic.
When I ask Jackie which relatives of mine told her I was a crook and a charlatan what will SHE say? Will Alphonse Odishoo turn over a copy of the contract I was handed, the one with the one additional sentence telling me I must all of a sudden give up my First Amendment rights and not mention my own Shumirum Monument, and the fact that it was the Federation making that demand...while at the same time Alphonse stood in the hallway after I was no longer there to defend myself, and told Assyrians, my customers and friends, there from Canada and Australia and all parts of the United States and Europe...that there was never a Shumirum Monument? Will he turn it over, or will he say there was no such sentence? Will Atour and Alladin back him up as I read it aloud in their presence...and my wife's?
How far will these people go when it is no longer just a matter of how much money you have and who you can intimidate?
I gave them the smut, as I did the others, as a way of showing you that they would grab at that straw...but in reality that was never the issue. I have been just as banned and deleted for what I say and believe as for the words I choose. The offensive words will be gone now...the fireworks are over.
With the sky dark and the air silent, maybe you'll all start thinking a bit...think what is really at stake here...that it isn't what Peter Jazzbitboohoo said it was 18 months ago..." a private affair over money". It is nothing less than the future direction we take as a People. Do we continue to push away and disgust the few thinkers and accomplished people we produce...or will those who dabble in politics and culture and Democracy in their spare time, as they can find it...will they continue to be able to make fools of us, get us to dance through hoops and jump over obstacles or else break our legs and spirits and drive us away.
I bothered no one with my Art and monuments...no one. People placed themselves in my way, tripped me up...tried to spread lies to discourage and confuse donors...and when I put down my tools and said I would have to deal with this first...they went ballistic and accused me of being "destructive" and "out to get everyone"...when they were the ones out to get and gut me.
It wont work...they bring the rope for their own hanging, and are going to pay a premium for that privilege too.
-- pancho
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