Posted by pancho from pool0434.cvx24-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net (209.179.211.179) on Tuesday, December 03, 2002 at 9:12AM :
It is wonderful that a citizen has a right to defend him or herself...and bring an action against someone in his or her on behalf.
If the Law were comprehensible to the citizen who is not trained in it...there would be more "fairness" and a "snow balls chance in hell", contained in that right...but thank god we at least have the right.
Think what it would be like if we didn't have the right...that if we couldn't afford a lawyer we'd be guilty as charged or liable in any civil case brought against us...or unable to right a wrong committed against us. So, let's be grateful.
On that infamous other hand...I suppose Lina has the right to perform surgery on herself if she can't afford a surgeon and two hospitals.
Her chances would be about the same as a private individual going up against a vindictive woman scorned who has vowed to spend $100,000 to "get" whoever displeases her.
It isn't that a reasonable jury wouldn't find Jackie horrible...it's a matter of getting through the delaying tactics...the oceans of motions well paid lawyers can bring and bring and re-bring.
But it has to be that way. A trial is such an expensive, inconvenient, time and resource and energy consuming affair that before one is granted you have to hone the thing down to something that can be resolved without chewing up the court calendar.
If every argument or dispute was instantly granted the right to a trial by jury, the whole system would collapse. So both sides have to sfit through the dross looking for a triable bit of gold. Legal disputes that can be resolved...evidence that can be sifted...likelihood that anything can be proven...and all sorts of real concerns have to be addressed as much as possible...especially if you're going to drag civillians in to listen to the dispute...they need some help...have to have things clearly spelled out and comprehensible.
So...it has to be this way. But it isn't the only way...or the last word. If that was the case we never would have evolved as a society...we'd still be back somewhere at a time when the "rule of law" would have kept us forever cannibals and Hottentots. Obviously people have rebelled...defied, and found ways around. You takes your chances. Had George Washington been caught by the British, the almost Father of His Nation would have been hanged by the neck at the nearest tree.
In 1974 I went to court to get custody of my son...hired a lawyer and the whole thing. Had a good reason to...not just good enough at the time...the times they had been a 'changin and what would appall us today was the new way things were being done back then. I was sort of talked into dropping the thing...lawyers do that, they get together and figure out the easiest way to make their buck. Sometimes it's legitimate, but a lot of times it's just easier for them...especially if they know their client can't afford a long knock down drag out brawl...or would be forced to quit in the middle. These guys prefer foreplay...pays better, less wear and tear on their organs.
I abided by the court's settlement for three years during which time I watched my son begin to turn ashen from the inside. I became convinced that after a few more years he might be allowed to come live with me...after who knows what damage. It was damage that was lacking...the evidence of damage. But a parent picks up on these things way before the court does. To satisfy the court's requirement for "evidence"...especially when it wont be the court that has to fix the problem...places too much of a burden on a parent who KNOWS what he or she knows.
So I just took the boy and disappeared for three years, until the warrant was dropped. Now, if you are serious about taking custody in this way...ready to do the work, as well as stay on the run...you're that committed for a good reason. It isn't a frivolous thing you decide to do one morning cause you're pissed at your ex. There's the problem of getting a job and supporting yourselves for one thing. It's a good thing foundries are run by rogues and ruffians anyway.
And it was the morally right thing to do...though illegal. It HAS to be illegal...understand that. But no society will prosper either if its citizens don't take things into their own hands once in a while. There would have been no America if some of the colonists hadn't broken the law...then made better ones.
One person can hardly claim the duties of a large number of people...but one parent...if that's all a child has...does have a duty to make things as right as he or she can. You just have to be willing to pay the consequences...and I was.
Two years later...on a short trip to Seattle, I contacted the main newspaper there and told them about the story. The editor of their magazine supplement was very interested and asked me to send in a ten page description. I did. When we spoke next the woman said there really wasn't room...they were booked etc.
I think I was supposed to be less enthusiastic. Back then there was only supposed to be one outcome to a "kidnapping"...it was supposed to end badly. I think the paper was chagrined to read how pleased I was with the outcome...how much happier my son was...how well he was adjusting...and the tie-breaker, how much better he was doing in school...for the short time he went while with me. They didn't want to appear to be encouraging others in my situation to try the same thing...after all I had broken the law etc. Had our adventure turned out badly...was I penitent...had moral justice and the law caught up with me...was I sitting in jail...they would have used the story.
It's the same thing now that I find myself in a legal battle with the forces of an Armenian half-breed whose latched onto our dead people as a way to catapault herself over us and into infamy. (Okay...so I get carried away sometimes)
The situation stands thus....if I can defend myself AND bring an action against her and the Federation under the leadership of Atour" I Make Cars" Golani",....I am welcome to do so. Considering that the means to hire a lawyer and do it right have been snatched from me by these same people, is just one of Life's little ironies. Them's the rules...and I accept.
But "kidnapping" is always an option....everybody relax...I'm not kidnapping anyone...I meant there are alternatives...if you're willing to pay the price. The way I see it this Heritage is every bit as precious as any child of it is. If you care for someone, you don't allow anything to stand in your way...so long as you don't destroy the essence of the thing in your singleminded determination to save it. No "destroying a country in order to save it " bullshit.
If I "fight back" in ways that demean me...permanently...or in ways that demean the Heritage I claim to care about...then it's self-defeating and not motivated by any real concern for what I claim to care about.
I can write...I can compose...I can create. If the pen is taken from me...I can cut a vein and use blood for ink. Not saying I will...just saying it's an option. Doing that opens me up to more lawsuits by the Jackster...but so what. It's an added bonus that she's revealed how she'll get my fiends too, or anyone who appears disloyal to her...not to Us...but to her...for she has decreed that She is Us and We are Her and You are for Her and She is to be Over you...and Us. Nimrod does the same thing as do any number of those leeding us into their jock straps. Atour's too short to lead anyone anywhere...at the head of a column you wouldn't even see him.
So...Quo Vadis? If something is truly important, you don't quit...and you don't waste yourself. Jackie has a lot more time and money to spend getting people, than she does doing for people. In both cases she serves herself first and foremost. For what she wants to achieve...and think of her as the best example of our Worst.. is her own ascendency...for its own sake... and no price is too great to pay. The clucks who fall for it...well, that's their business.
Jackie lavished more time and money on me than she did on any of her firends...she lavished more of some things on me than she lavished where she should have. But is was just policy with her...never lust. I can't figure out which is worse...following your passions even when forced to committ indiscretions...or calculatingly "emoting" where you feel nothing but contempt. Looking at Lincoln, I have my own ideas...but that isn't so important any longer.
What is important is that the work goes on. Part of the lesson we have to learn one day is that money doesn't make the man or woman...it doesn't make the cause...it isn't even what saved Lina. There are trillions of dollars sitting in investments today while children are starved not only of food but of growth and development. It may be "legal" to do so...but it's just plain stupid...never mind the morality of it.
I never defamed Jackie...everything I said about her was either my opinion based on direct experience of her...or just the plain unvarnished truth. I may not get the chance to get past the courtroom doors to prove it...but I sure as hell was willing to pay the price. I didn't do this on a whim, or because I was grumpy one morning.
And I'll pay whatever price comes down the road. To stop now, or ever...means it was for nothing to begin with.
Anyway...you can't say I've been shy...or carefull about my "image". I'm not into image...don't care what I look like to anybody...or care much for TALKING.
The proof is in the work.
-- pancho
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