"Rick
Wingrove is not the immediate instigator of any attacks..." -
from "A Personal Message from Christopher
Arntzen"
When I heard about this, I was hopeful that we could close
out this ridiculous drama because Christopher, to his credit,
finally acknowledged that I had no part in the alleged "attacks".
Another encouraging sign was the use of the word "attacks". "Attacks" is
a reduction in charges from the previous and more serious charge
of a "campaign
of harassment" [against "19
individuals and 7 organizations"].
That verbiage, however, still exists on the home page of shelleymountjoy.com in
a statement co-signed by Christopher, and the "19 and
7" charge is reiterated (with links and screenshots -
none of which have anything whatsoever to do with me) two paragraphs
above Christopher's acknowledgement of my non-involvement.
But Christopher's personal message, while both reducing the
charges against me and clearing me of involvement, is no exercise
in magnanimity. The acknowledgement of my non-involvement is
buried seven paragraphs down the page on a secondary document.
It is also preceded by new and rather harsh charges of homophobic
hate speech and narcissistic rage. That paragraph leaves the
clear impression that the alleged homophobic hate speech and
narcissistic rage came from me since these charges are bracketed
by my name and no other. This would seem to be intentionally
misleading because Christopher is well aware that I had no
part in any such activity. No need for that and definitely
not cool.
When you finally wade on down to paragraph 7, you find that
the acknowledgement of my non-involvement is actually just
the first half of a sentence which ends by once again attempting
to make me the responsible party for alleged attacks/harassment
which I had no part in. So, I'm not guilty but they reserve
the right to just make up charges against me anyway. Again,
not cool.
There are a number of other points in Christopher's message
which demand a response. But I'm gonna stop here and offer
a way out.
Given, that Christopher, at
least, is well aware that I am not the
author of any harassment or threats, I would like
to see a more enthusiastic retraction, posted as publicly as
the false accusations were posted and emailed to the people
to whom they previously sent those false accusations. But I
don't anticipate that. I'll settle for a simple cessation of
hostilities so that everyone can get back to more important
things in support of the local atheist community. There has
been enough damage and embarassment to last for awhile and
it is time to stop.
So, since Christopher has conceded my point, I
will make
the first move. I am immediately taking down all other
pages on this site related to this fiasco.
If there is a gesture of reciprocal de-escalation, those pages
will stay down permanently and this page will be replaced with
entirely unrelated material, to be followed, presumably, by
the removal of all related material from shelleymountjoy.com.
This can all happen very quickly and with little fanfare or
drama.
Or we can just keep doing what we are doing. But it’s hard
to identify a potential benefit to that, so it’s probably best
to call it finished and do something more productive.
Sooner is better.
Rick Wingrove
8:00 AM
Monday, June 28, 2010
Progress Updates:
As of Tuesday, June 29, new material has appeared on http://shelleymountjoy.com/addendums/kate.html.
This seems counter-productive, but I'm just gonna assume they
haven't seen my offer yet.
Update 2:
I left my pages down for 2 weeks. In the meantime Shelley ramped
up the charges again. Now it is 21 individuals and 7 organizations
that I am alleged to have harassed. And in true McCarthyist
style, Shelley/Christopher have ffered up a "list" of first
names as proof. The charge of "threats" has been jacked up
to "repeated death threats".
Update 3:
As a result of the rejected offer and ramped up allegations of
harassment and threats, It has become necessary to put these
pages back up. There will be much more said on this subject.
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