Posted by pancho from ? (64.79.4.2) on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 11:07AM :
In Reply to: Pilgrim's Progress, or :how to get sued... posted by pancho from ? (64.79.4.2) on Tuesday, May 14, 2002 at 10:58AM :
+++Sorry,the computer at the cafe started go funny so I posted without review...I heard those high heeled boots again...
: ...not screwed.
:
: Well, there I was needing a lawyer, so I take what I can scrape together and get one. He wants to know my story so I tell him. He then wants to know what Assyrian Organizations and their leaders mean by ruining my Assyrian Monuments, stopping me from selling sculpture to Assyrians...hiding my sculptures in basements...threatening to sue cities that wish to install Assyrian Monuments, beat me up, throw me in jail and toss me out of conventions? Especially when they are chartered and created and given tax-exempt status by the Federal Government to promote the Assyrian Heritage? As he said to me, somewhat in exasperation..."Fred, who has done MORE of what they all claim to be doing, than YOU?"
: Had to admit...he had me there.
: It took three tries to get to him to understand that I sell my own sculpture and use the money to fund the monuments we then give away free to cities. "What do you get out of it"...he wanted to know. I was squirming by now..."well,I,ah...I get the satisfaction of doing what I set out to do...make us known in the world."
: "And what do you GET...you know what I mean."
: This was costing a lot now and I hadn't bought much time. "Well, I get to do....what I wanted....to..."
: "Oh come now", he said, voice rising a little in inirritation. "you can admit to me that this was done to increase your sales in the marketplace...get you recognition etc."
: "Well...ah...not really ( I was sweating good now...) I could have made a name for myself elsewhere...you know,more directly...but no,I never expected any of it would make me rich or famous...I really only wanted to work for this Heritage and with my own community."
: "WHAT community"??? He shot back.
: Damn! He had me there too. "Look, I said, no one said it would be easy...these things never are...if it had been easy it would have meant there wasn't much opposition and you can see from my case that there was PLENTY of opposition."
: I could tell I was losing him. He asked, as a last gambit, if I had done..."you know" with anyone. "No". Really frustrated he asked if there was anything sensible I could think of to tell him that would explain why the entire leadership of our People in Diapers would set their sights on ruining my work. I couldn't think of an intelligent thing to say...that would convince him...not without getting them all up on the stand to explain it for themselves. It was just too fantastic.
: When my three thousand bucks was up...and it was obvious I couldn't easily come up with more...and that any complaint or lawsuit he filed would put him on the line...he tried to "settle" the case with the opposition...which about ruined any chance I'd ever have of getting the truth told. We parted company with me having paid a bundle...for me then...to get bad advice yelled at me. I'm sure he was convinced I was a nut of some devious sort. Well...that is what we DO say to any Assyrian, with the sense to come in out of the rain, must be if he works with our community.
: The only thing left for me was to GET sued. At least then I would be able to respond and make a counter claim or complaint or whatever it is. The first two suits brought against me were for peanuts...not worth the trouble. It had to get bigger...much bigger.
: I didn't write anything on purpose just to piss someone off...only told the unvarnished truth...which REALLY got people angry, and then faster than you could saw "lawsuit"...came a lawsuit,for two million bucks. Now that was something like!!!
: As a bonus, certain other person or persons were added to the suit...making my claim to being harrassed for certain reasons far more credible. So...finally I find myself in the happy position of playing the hand about as well as I could have dealt the hand...considering I was up against some pretty shifty card sharps.
: I've tried my best to shape the rules a little...to increase my position to bet and bluff and do all the things you do when not merely playing parlour games. I don't expect to get off lightly...no one who has ever fought for justrice for themselves or their People or family, has ever escaped unscathed.
: It's a price you have to be willing to pay, or nothing will change. Someday Assyrian artists wont be forced to compromise their ideals or artistic vision because of an engineer, or bank teller. We may actually learn to appreciate how important these types of people are...that engineers and bank tellers are cheap by comparison. They had bankers, and engineers and merchants 3000 years ago...but any remnants of their trade is not what people stand in line in Museums around the world to see.
: The monuments will stand...the bronzes will be cherished by families and the children who inherit them long after I've crawled off to lick my wounds...across the rubble that was "Assyria"...as these others envisoned it. There has to be a new day...or it might just as well end in a whimper.
Long after any victory someone with enough money tries to win, intimidating anyone who stands in the way...long after all the "good" they did is forgotten...long after even all the harm they did to bring you their "good" is forgotten...the monument of Ashurbanipal...at least, will smile down on some of us who might remember...there was a time when we almost...
-- pancho
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