Posted by panch from pool1101.cvx24-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.214.81) on Tuesday, July 16, 2002 at 2:03AM :
Atour and the AANF are certainly under no obligation to allow me to show
my sculpture this year. They were never under any obligation at any
time. Atour bristled when I told him, last year, that I had a legal
right to show my sculptures at the convention. "Oh really?" He wanted to
know..."what right"?
I explained that I had a fair expectation based not only on my
relationship to the AANF starting in 1978...that I could show my
sculptures at any convention I chose to attend...but last year in
particular I had remained in California because of Jackie's promise to
do everything humanly possible to have the Shumirum Monument installed
in the six months we had until the convention.
It was her need to blow her own horn around City Hall and with the
Mayor's office that resulted in her wasting time by courting people who
had no say in what the Art Commission was authorized to do. I'd done
this twice already, in San Francisco and Chicago...it was a "first" for
her...not me. She assured me that she knew this was the way you had to
do things in San Jose...and off she went. She also worked with me to
plan which sculptures I would show at the convention and where they
should be displayed...we even met at the hotel to walk around and check
it out.
I meant that after she had arranged for me to stay here and work and
plan on both the installation and the show...I had a "right" to expect
her and the AANF to allow me to follow through...especially considering
I did nothing to deserve my instant paraiah status...nothing
except...well YOU know.
It was later when I found out she'd attented only one of the monthly
meetings of the Art Commission, and that one being in April, five months
before the convention date...and hadn't bothered to even get on the
agenda for any subsequent meeting...in other words had given up any
plans for installing the monument by the agreed upon date...not even
making a show of trying to satisfy the minimum requirement, which would
have meant showing up at all meetings to keep the ball rolling...did I
become convinced that she'd changed her mind somewhere along the way and
didn't want to tell me. Why? was the Shumirum Monument all of a sudden
uglier...less significant for our identity...did she just want me to
leave for Mexico and let her run the whole show...have her brother sing
and her three cousins from Biloxi tap dance? Or had I become undesirable
for any other reason...except the one I've stated again and again...I
said "no" to her.
I have no right to be invited to display any sculpture this year in
Detroit...none at all. But in my counter suit I am claiming a concerted
effort by the AANF and two of its affiliates, the Club of San Jose and
the AUA, along with the officers of all three groups with taking steps
coordinated and aimed at depriving me of the means of making my
livlihood...and of slandering my reputation and causing me to lose the
trust of my main customer base by circulating lies as to my reliabilty
and trustworthiness.
Before a packed room at the convention Nimrod once again spread his lie
that he is willing to put the monument anywhere the mayor of Chicago
says it can go...when he knows full well the mayor has nothing to do
with it, and has never, in all the years he's been mentioning it, ever
called the mayor, and wont now. This statement of his is intended to
show that he has the mayor's ear....has always been willing to resolve
the issue and therefore that I am the problem...when it is his threat to
involve the city of Chicago in a lawsuit if they proceed with the
installation, like they have been waiting now for six years to do. He
also played the game of inflating the amount paid by his sister towards
the Shumirum...something his books would tell him, and do tell him. He
claimed they had given $240,000...when the figure was half of that. I
raised $90,000 myself. A week later Carlo told a TV producer that I was
a liar, and the AUA had given $260,000. And just a month ago Nimrod told
Narsai they had given $280,000. It was $120,000...and he knows it. All
these figures tossed around were intended to make people doubt my
word...as was the contract's stipulation that I say nothing about the
Shumirum when, after I was forced to leave, Alphonse Odishoo, whose
signature was on that contract as the one responsible for the Arts at
the convention, could stand there in the hotel lobby and tell eveyone
within hearing range that there was no Shumirum...or else, "where was
she"? I could not tell the truth, but these jackasses reserved the right
to tell lies.
And I'm supposed to be a good boy and take it...so we don't embarrass
THEM...when they are embarrassing the hell out of US!
The fact that I am welcome to go to Detroit for the convention, but not
welcome to show my sculpture, or sell it...shows that I am no
troublemaker...for if I were, what better provocation would I need than
this despicable behavior on their part? If all I wanted was trouble,
what better convention to attend than this one? And DON'T tell me it
would be dangerous...look an Assyrian in the face and you'll be
perfectly safe.
Added to everything else they have done, this last bit of mean dealing
will take its place, in court, alongside all the other things they
did...for that I thank them.
-- panch
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