Posted by pancho from ? (64.79.4.3) on Saturday, March 02, 2002 at 4:23AM :
I only sort of hate to do this. But this letter, and everything that has happened at the hands of these people, isn't just for me or about me. This is exactly what is most wrong with us. This confusion of what is personal with what should be business. This response from Janey came to me one day after she wrote to tell me how sad she and Atour were, about how he cried at work...this guy welds sculpture and weeps at work...no wonder their cars roll over. They offered me money to assuage their own guilt feelings...and JUST like some others we wont mention...when I refused to ease their rotten conscience they turned and sent me this...I dropped off a copy of the first letter where it will matter. Janey really shouldn't have written it to me...and not followed up with this one either.
I don't hate either of them, and have nothing against them at all. But I will make sure that should there be any younger versions of them who look at us as an easy mark, a place where molestation will be hushed up and little crimes glossed over...they'll think twice cause there might be another Assyrian like me who will expect justice...and in spades.
Her letter...
+++And I have none for you or Atour(+++Janey had just said that Atour has no hatred for me). I assume he didn't have any for me when
he stopped me from selling sculpture to feed my family with...and stopped me
from getting buyers for the Hammurabi. I'm sure it was just something he had
to do, business. It's the same with me. I learned from you...that people
can do this and still say they "care".
>>>WRONG AGAIN, OBVIOUSLY YOU DO NOT COMPREHEND THE WORD "CARE".
+++You must also know what words are worth...Jackie will smile to your faces
too.
>>>Jackie has nothing to do with this...
you did it to yourself.
+++There is nothing you can do for the Hammurabi, and a lot more you will
probably do against it, because in the end you too will not want it to come
to Detroit if it can't come through you...like John in Chicago, and Jackie in
San Jose. Only Narsai had a big enough ego not to feel threatened or feel he
had to control everything...he just gave the help I needed, gave advice,
allowed me to pick and choose, yelled at me at times, as I yelled at
him...but he never NEVER allowed his own feelings to blind him as to what the
whole point was...he never took his eyes off the prize.
>>>>>Wrong again. You can take it anywhere you want. We will never stand
against it.
+++It must be really hard on the two of you...imagine how your children would
feel...imagine how we had to feel. And then imagine that you did all this
because of Jackie.
>>>Wrong again, My children will never feel like that because we will never
allow it. also, we don't blame anyone else for what happens to us. We do take
responsibility for our own actions.
If Jackie can do that to my marriage then it wasn't strong enough to begin
with.
+++I never believed that you hate me...I am not a child. Control was what
you wanted...you and Atour and John and Jackie think everything is a
Federation somewhere, or an awards dinner where it doesn't matter how you
speak, or a letter sent somewhere with enough errors in it to flunk a third
grade calss...you all hide out in these ghettos and presume you therefore
know what it takes to work successfully outside. You just wanted me to
conform, to behave, to make sculpture and shut up...I don't think you hate me
at all. And I don't hate you either. This will not be done because of
hatred or revenge. I just have to make sure that before the next leaders in
this community ever think of doing such things again to an artist or artists
who may not be as ready to take you all on, you'll at least have a bright
example of what you and we all, stand to lose for being so damn stupid it
hurts.
>>>Fred, your the one who wants control, and when you don't get it you have a
temper tantrum. You don't have to worry about the next leaders dealing with
the arts, because you have killed the dream for many of the artists who would
have wanted to do something and will not. Don't give me this crap about our
history and our culture. Your the last one who wants to raise the oomta
atouraya and see it prosper. It shows.
+++It is too late. For the both of you to have done what you did, for the
reasons you did, means you could as easily do the same tomorrow.
>>We did nothing to you. You did this to yourself. You could have been
something great..and if you were in your right mind to see that, then nothing
and knowone could stop you and stand in your way.
+++I can't trust you again. But I'll show you that you always could have
trusted me to
do what I said I would. I will bring charges against Atour in Detroit, for
vandalizing my sculpture...I don't care where it was done.
If it was Ford, so much the worse...if it was a neighbor of yours, then
he'll be sorry too.
While there is some grey area about whether or not someone who has purchased
a sculpture or painting may do as he wishes with it...there is NO such doubt
that a man who is supposed to hand out the sculptures sent to him by the
artist...to deliver to the owners...can EVER take it upon himself to weld or
touch them in any way.
>>> Your in for a big suprise about that.
A sane man, a cultured man and an experienced man,
would know not to do that. I was as humiliated as I have ever been to stand
in your living room and see that it mattered not at all that I asked Atour
not to weld my sculpture for me as HE saw fit!...it will be your turn
now...and not just in your living room either.
+++He also would not lie in front of witnesses, witnesses such as Alladin who
will turn on Atour for a dime, and tell me the other artists agreed to a kick
back when they will testify that there was no such agreement.
>>>Atour has never lied at all, and he never will, not for you or jackie or
alladin or anyone else.
(+++This was where she said before he hung up the phone, Atour told Janey to send me money)
+++DON'T YOU DARE! Nothing you could have said would have confirmed my worst
suspicion of you both than what you just offered. tell Atour to get another
whore...I don't work for MONEY!!!
>>>FUNNY, WE NEVER CONSIDERED YOU A WHORE.
++++The sad, the terrible and disgusting part is that I believe you. My kids
and I, and Fredrika too would do anything before we would take a dime from
you. You should be ashamed of yourselves...
>>>>We are never ashamed of helping anyone in need.>
++I do not think he is bad at all. I think he is weak and
dishonest...especially where he should be most honest.
>>>>WRONG WRONG WRONG BUT SUIT YOURSELF.
I was a friend like
you seldom would have found. To allow himself to be used and set up by
Jackie only proves that he was not the man to block my way or give me any
advice, and certainly never dare to touch my sculptures.
+++What he has done is insure that his name will get the kind of prominance
that he didn't need at all. Have you any idea how this story will play in
the press? How outlandish and nightmarish and just plain unbelievable it is
+++He did much more than that. At the end of his tenure who will know or
give a good goddamn that the Ladies Auxilliary is now satisfied that the club
from Flint didn't really mean to insult them? All people will remember is
that he singlehandedly and as a stooge of Jackie Bejan's, stopped the
Hammurabi cold and had the one real artist we have in this entire country,
shown to the door and hustled his sculptures into a corner like they were
trash. That's what will be remembered...and I will see to that.
>>>>>NO FRED, THAT IS WHAT YOU WILL REMEMBER...
Not because
I hate the man, but because you and the rest of them will never learn
otherwise that you don't do these kinds of things, for ANY reason...and you
especially don't come back crying and offering money for God's sake.
>>>>FRED, I NEVER CAME BACK CRYING TO YOU. I SAID I CRIED FOR YOUR KIDS.
I CRIED BECAUSE YOUR OWN STUPIDITY CAUSED YOUR CHILDREN TO BECOME A STATISTIC
IN THIS WORLD OF BROKEN UP FAMILIES.
>>>Fred, If i were you I would be careful this all does not backfire on you.
We did nothing to you. You asked for our help and we helped you. We were
under no obligation to do any of this except for the obligation that we
believed in this. We gained nothing from it except now being called liars,
cheats and stooges of others. We never made a cent from this and never
intended to. As a matter of fact we put money into this from our own pocket
many times. So don't give me this about how we stoped you from living and
eating and being a decent human being. Start taking responsibility for
yourself.
+++It pleases me that you will take joy in its installation. You've managed
to make the job much much harder...that's all.
>>>NO You have managed to make this job much harder.
That and causing yourselves
more grief than you needed, or you can imagine now.
>>>WE DON'T GRIEVE. WE PICK UP AND CARRY ON.
I can't do it freely now
because of pending litigation and all that, but soon I will write, I will
speak, I will do other things...and my theme will always be that nothing
stops us in this country except ourselves...and Atour will be a prime example
of that.
>>>DO WHAT YOU WISH, BUT THE TALIBAN FELL A FEW MONTHS AGO AND WE ARE NOT
SURE WHERE OSAMA IS. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HIS MAIN MAN....
he chose his path, I tried to warn him gently at the convention not
to do it...but he wouldn't listen and told me to get out.
>>He never told you to get out. You did not sign a contract that was voted on
in a General assembly meeting when all the other artists did. He was only
doing his job. AND DON'T SAY THE OTHER ARTIST DID NOT, WE HAVE THE COPIES
WITH THEIR SIGNATURES ON IT!!
++++WHOA...I have to step in here. The contract they handed me on the Sunday night was dated nine days earlier..to make it look that I had received it BEFORE the convention. When I spoke with three of the other artists in the room set aside for artists and asked them if they had signed the contract, they said they had,,,although NO ONE had stopped by to enforce it, to tell them to get the prices OFF of the pieces they displayed the entire convention. And only my contract had a sentence making me agree not to MENTION the Shumirum or the Federation...the other contracts didn't have such a clause. And I asked each of them if anyone had mentioned a kick back to them as a condition of being allowed sell (EVEN though the contract they all signed told them they couldn't sell) and they all said there had been no such deal mentioned and ALL of them said they would have refused to agree to such a travesty...and besides...where was the agreement for a kick back if they had indeed agreed to it. Atour made that lie up right then and there as he didn't know what to say when I asked why the others were selling and only I couldn't...and when he told me that lie, I asked why then he didn't offer me the same option, that was when he said...sign or get out. He has also lied by saying Ford did the welding, and then claiming a neighbor did it...we will find out the truth of both of these assertions. It's easy to say anything you want to here...try taking an oath)
+++The Hammurabi will definitely be completed...but I am convinced that as
the time draws near you and Atour will try to stop it, because you will not
want me to have any platform there to tell people why it took so long.
>>>WRONG. We will never stop it regardless of what you think. You can also
say what you wish about us Fred on any platform, if it pleases you to do so.
But I think the truth speaks for itself.
+++(Stop me is exactly what they did, at the convention)
Congratulate Atour...he did the same thing John did in Chicago. I told
you...the Hammurabi would take another 13 years to complete...I just never
dreamed that you and Atour would be the cause of the delay...that was a shock
to us all, especially Fredrika.
>>>Don't speak for fredrika. MOST LIKELY SHE CAN SEE WHAT'S REAL. ATOUR AND I
WERE NOT THE CAUSE OF YOUR DOWNFALL AND WILL NOT BE THE CAUSE OF YOUR
SUCCESS, IF IT EVER COMES, YOU AND YOUR OWN SELFISHNESS WERE. AND IF IT'S THE
DOWNFALL WE WILL FEEL BAD BUT IF ITS THE SUCCESS WE WILL REJOICE FOR YOUR
CHILDREN.
+++One last thing...the Hammurabi would never go up at any function of yours
and I will also not come to any more conventions. You guys removed Rabels
painting and hurt him terribly..
>>>>WHO IS YOU GUYS??? PLEASE REFER TO THE CURRENT OFFICE HOLDER AND NONE
BEFORE HIM.THANK YOU
you allowed Walter to be slimed by that
other jerk of yours
>>>DON'T SAY YOU ALLOWED. THAT WASN'T US AND HE KNOW IT.
and you threw me out.
>>>NOBODY THREW YOU OUT. YOU DID NOT COMPLY.
You act like undisciplined
children moved by their own whims...who is and isn't their friend or
"popular". No matter how abrasive Walter is or I am...we are still
important to this Heritage and to our young people, important enough to be
allowed the space to do the excellent things we do in the face of so much
crying mediocrity. This is how you treat what you don't understand. Enjoy
your conventions in peace.
>>FRED, DON'T PLACE YOURSELF AT THE SAME TABLE AS WALTER, YOU WOULD NOT EVEN
ALLOW HIM TO PRAY AT YOUR DINNER TABLE. WALTER IS ALWAYS WELCOME ANYTIME. HE
IS A DECENT HUMAN BEING WHO DELIVERS. SO WERE YOU UNTIL YOU BECAME GREEDY. I
TRULY THOUGHT YOU HAD MORE SENSE THAN THIS. BUT I CAN SEE YOU DON'T CARE
ABOUT ANYTHING BUT YOURSELF. WHEN I FIRST DECIDED TO HELP YOU VOLUNTARLY, IT
WAS SONJA AND KITTY WHO FIRST WARNED ME
AND I LAUGHED AT THEM. NOW I UNDERSTAND. IT IS NOT ABOUT THE ASSYRIANS OR THE
YOUNG PEOPLE SURVIVING OUR HISTORY OR EVEN ABOUT THE JOHNS, JACKIES AND
ATOURS OF THE WORLD. IT IS ALL ABOUT YOU. JUST YOU.
-- pancho
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