Catzilla Sez ... "Speak Out!" Jly 99 - Dec 99 Essays ~ Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.

"Those who cannot think for themselves are emotionally unequipped to spend time alone." ~ Anonymous

December, 1999 Where are the Cowboys When We Need Them?

I've had it with some of these Native Americans, or as I shall refer to them from this point on (just to piss them off), Indians.

I subscribe to several Animal Action Alert newsletters, and today I got what is at least the third request this year to talk some sense into a government that is hell-bent on catering to every idiotic whim these Indians come up with, all of which seem to involve killing endangered wildlife in cruel and unusual ways. This time, they want permission to remove golden eaglets from a national park so that they can raise them to be smothered to death in an "ancient ritual."

The premise is that since we evil invaders of their country ruined their land and took away their traditions, we owe them. Well, I have no argument with that - by all means, let's let the Indians enjoy the kind of life they had before we showed up - all of it. If they want their cruel animal voodoo traditions they can have them, so long as they also have to live like they did before we ever stepped foot on their soil. And I mean no electricity, no indoor plumbing, no batteries or cell phones or computers or TV or anything else that didn't exist back when Columbus sailed the ocean blue. If they're willing to live like that, then fine, let them have their ancient rituals. But if they're not - if they want all the benefits of modern technology or even so much as an aspirin - then they can join the freaking 21st century with the rest of us and leave the endangered species alone.

That is the only deal we should make with the Indians from here on.

November, 1999 Why I Stopped Getting the Seattle Times
Or ... Sometimes, Futility is Gratifying

Reading the Seattle Times tonight, I came across a full-page promotion for their classifieds section with the following on it: a large empty fish bowl, an ad reading "Free Cat to Good Home," and the caption "There's an answer to everything in the classifieds."

Thus perpetuating the notion that cats are disposable items to be gotten rid of when they become the tiniest inconvenience - like when their moron owner puts a fish bowl within their reach and the cat does what comes naturally. Not to mention that no pets should ever be advertised as "free," and a newspaper should know this.

When it comes to animals the media is either offensive or ignorant (or both) on pretty much of a daily basis. Yesterday it was the Ann Landers "humor piece" about using a tire iron to get a pill down a cat. Last night it was a Frasier rerun in which Frasier is glad that at least the exorbitant amount of money he just spent at an auction is going to a good cause. Punchline: the auctioneer says "Seattle will have a lot few homeless cats this year thanks to you!" Frasier groans like "Oh no, it's not even a good cause!" (Yeah, that's hilarious.)

Well, I'm fed up with it. I started to write a letter to the Seattle Times editor when it occurred to me - I am the consumer here. Why complain? Why not just stop consuming? So I told Subscriber Services to cancel my subscription, and then I wrote to the three top executives at the Seattle Times to tell them why I won't be getting their paper anymore.

Will this have any effect on the Seattle Times whatsoever? No. I'm sure that they couldn't care less what one cat nut thinks of their stupid ad. But you know what? It felt damn good anyway.

October, 1999 The Genovese Syndrome ... With a Sinister Twist
Essay by: JLGuidry

"The case touched on a fundamental issue of the human condition, our primordial nightmare. If we need help, will those around us stand around and let us be destroyed or will they come to our aid? Are those other creatures out there to help us sustain our life and values, or are we individual flecks of dust just floating around in a vacuum?" -- Stanley Milgram, Professor of Psychology, City University of New York¹

Dateline: March 13, 1964

Does this date ring a bell?

It's the date of an incident in our nation's history that helped psychiatrists and psychologists develop what is referred to as Bystander Apathy. The tragedy that unfolded on that night shocked the authorities, but cinched the opinion of the rest of the world that Americans had become too self-centered to care even for one another.

She was a pretty young woman, only 28 years old at the time. She was so warm and friendly, folks just naturally liked her. Her name was Catherine, but everyone called her Kitty. She was the manager of a neighborhood pub and well-known in her quaint, respectable neighborhood of Kews Gardens in Queens, New York. She lived in a nice, second-story walk-up above a bookstore facing lovely, tree-lined Austin Street.

She had parked her car in a railroad lot only a hundred feet from the door of her apartment building. It was around 3:20 a.m. and she had just gotten off work. She saw a suspicious man in the lot and turned quickly to find the police call box at the intersection. She never made it.

29-year-old Winston Moseley was on her with a knife, brutally and repeatedly stabbing her.

"Oh, my God, he stabbed me! Please help me!" she screamed.

Lights went on in the apartment buildings that lined quiet Austin Street because a woman's screams were extremely unusual at any time.

"Let that girl alone!" one man's voice could be heard yelling down.

Moseley walked away. The lights went out and the street fell silent.

Moments later Moseley returned, determined to finish what he started.

"I’m dying! I’m dying!" Kitty cried out as Moseley's knife sunk in deeply again and again.

Lights came back on, windows were opened but there was no sign of the police. This time Moseley ran to his car, deciding to park it around the corner out of sight of the thirty-eight witnesses looking down on his deeds. Kitty took this opportunity to try to escape her killer. She staggered and dragged herself to the door of her apartment building - still in full view of those thirty-eight witnesses - and what she hoped was safety.

Moseley for his part however, was a determined murderer. He went from door to door on that quiet street until he saw her crumpled on the floor of her building's foyer. There he set about to end her cries by stabbing her in the throat.

In the midst of Moseley's attack, Kitty's neighbor opened his door and watched. He watched so long, in fact that Moseley was able to identify him during the latter's trial. The neighbor - who had lived beside Kitty since she moved to Austin Street from Connecticut - simply closed the door on her dying breath.

3:35 a.m. . .

The police finally received their first call at 3:50 a.m. It came because Kitty's neighbor - who had watch Moseley stabbing her from one flight of stairs above - called a friend in the next county for advice about what to do. The neighbor then ran over the roof top of an adjacent building, asking an elderly woman to place the call for him.

When police asked this neighbor - who had known Kitty for a year - why he didn't call sooner, his reply was:

"I didn’t want to get involved."

Police and the nation were dumbfounded by the lack of action by the thirty-eight witnesses who later came forward, admitting they watched the entire incident without calling.

"We thought it was a lover's quarrel," scoffed one woman.

"Frankly, we were afraid," said an older couple.

"I didn't want my husband to get involved." commented another woman.

"We went to the window to see what was happening, but the light from our bedroom made it difficult to see the street," said one man, with his wife adding: "I put out the light and we were able to see better."

"I was tired," said another man flatly. "I went back to bed."²

A pair of social psychologists who specialize in the area social cognition - Bibb Latané and John Darley - found the incident so appalling that they began research into the cause and effect of the witnesses' apparent apathy. Their findings have been labeled diffusion of responsibility or bystander apathy. The theory being that an individual is less likely to exhibit helping behavior as the number of bystanders increases.³

Instead of being remembered for the lovely, vivacious and caring woman she was, Kitty Genovese's name has become a grim label for an ugly phenomenon. It defines a national character that is lacking in courage, is too frightened to "get involved," and cares nothing for helping anyone other than the self.

Earlier this month, a young woman came forward. She's only 16, but she knows the difference between right and wrong ... and she's not afraid to prove it. She found out that someone she knew from school had done something horrible to a cat. She was determined to find justice for its innocent, unavenged tears.

Four boys, relying on the loving and trusting nature of a neighborhood cat, coaxed it into their car from the side of the road. Driving to a construction site that they knew was deserted on a Sunday afternoon, the boys set out to torture the cat.

They began by having one boy take the cat's head and another take its tail, pulling it between them until "they heard something pop." Of course, the cat fell upon its only method of defense and scratched its torturers. The price for this was having its legs broken. Not satisfied with this mutilation, another boy took the cat, swinging it high into the air by its tail and allowing to land on the ground.

Cats are durable creatures. This one's little life had not yet been snuffed out. Apparently angered by this, the boys then took to beating its broken little body with a wooden board filled with rusty nails. When this did not achieve the desired effect, they switched to a shovel. This also failed to kill the poor little cat, so another boy began to jump up and down repeatedly on it.

When merciful death finally came to this poor cat, the boys placed it under the tires of their car and ran over its tiny, mangled, lifeless body.

This brave, noble 16-year-old girl went to the authorities, the ASPCA, PETA and the like. Unfortunately, now she's suffering the fate that only those cowardly, animal-mutilating boys deserve: ostracism.

Yes, you read it right ... she's a pariah because she came forward and did the right thing. Even the local press asked her why she felt it necessary to tell on her friends.

As with the Noah's Ark Massacre, there are far too many people crying "Foul" and saying that pursuing this blatantly vicious case of animal abuse is ruining these "young boys' " lives. Remember Joe Tacopino's comments on Court TV? He decried animal advocates because we were bent on ruining the lives of young boys who were "just being boys."

Right. Just like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were just "being boys" when they killed 12 students and one teacher, before killing themselves. Kip Kinkle was just being a boy when he killed his parents and several of his fellow high school students. And all those other boys being boys in Springfield, Oregon; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; ad nauseum.

"Where did these kids learn to turn their backs? One of the boys involved is rumored to have done this kind of thing several times before - why hasn't someone spoken up before now? I am appalled at their attitudes. The amazement doesn't stop there - one of them even quoted the bible, saying that in Genesis, it states that man is superior to animals, therefore, killing an animal is not that serious of a crime," laments the mother of this young heroine, who herself has been actively pursuing the case.

Sound familiar?

Wasn't Winston Moseley just being "a boy" when he brutally murdered Kitty Genovese? Moseley who said he had "an uncontrollable urge to kill," and bragged to detectives that he prowled the streets by night while his wife, Elizabeth, was at work. "I chose women to kill because they were easier and didn't fight back," Moseley told police.

Isn't it true that these four boys chose this cat because it was easier and couldn't fight back?

Think about it. And, while you're still thinking, consider this: the hero of the day is being treated like a filthy killer and the filthy killers are garnering the sympathy of all around them - including the young girl's former friends, whom I'm proud to say she dismissed when they tried to convince her that she was in the wrong.

What do these two cases say about our country? And throw out all the crap about animals and humans. We're talking about innocent lives taken cruelly by someone else just for sport ... because they were bored and the chosen victim was easy and wouldn't fight back. First, we were stunned to the core that thirty-eight respectable citizens could stand by watching a murder and never lift a finger to help. Second, a young girl does what she knows in her heart to be right and suffers mightily for it.

We can't have it both ways. An old saying, "Shit or get off the pot" means just what it says. Either you want to live in a moral society built as our forefathers intended by working and living in harmony. Or, you want to sit behind bolted and triple locked doors and teach your kids at home because even grade school is no longer safe.

The clock is ticking, people. What is it going to be?

Reference Sources:
1. Dorman, Michael. The Killing of Kitty Genovese: Her public slaying in Queens becomes a symbol of Americans' failure to get involved. Long Island Our Story, lihistory.com. (1998).
2. Rosenthal, A. M. Thirty-eight Witnesses. New York: McGraw-Hill. (1964).
3. Latané, B., and Darley, J. M. The Unresponsive Bystander: Why doesn't he help? New York: Appleton-Century Crofts. (1970).

September, 1999 What's Wrong With People?
Essay by: JLGuidry

"Will it be ever thus? Ungracious wretch, fit for the mountains and the barbarous caves, where manners ne'er were preach'd. Out of my sight ... Rudesby, be gone." - William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act IV, Scene I

What's wrong with people? I've had to ask this aloud so much of late its fast becoming a cliche.

What IS wrong with people?

How could numerous customers, employees and even store security officers watch for nearly an hour as one woman chased one very small dog around a K-Mart store? How could these same people stand silent as this same woman proceeded to torture and beat this tiny dog--a Chihuahua, to be exact--until it was near death? How could they not utter a sound as this little creature's broken body was stuffed and tied unceremoniously into a garbage bag while it still drew breath?

What's wrong with people?

Susan Faludi, best known for her groundbreaking book, Backlash, the hidden war against women, recently debuted several chapters from her newest work--entitled Stiffed--in the September 6th edition of Newsweek magazine. In the excerpt from this soon to be published book she speaks of the betrayal of men since the end of World War II, their feelings of uselessness, lack of goals, growing tension and penchant for violence. While Ms. Faludi's observations are up for interpretation, we cannot ignore the facts she states and their obvious result.

In our microwave-meal-in-front-of-the-Sega-game mentality, we are fast losing our ability to feel for anything or anyone beyond the limits of our own skin. We live in a society built by heroic war veterans, yet peopled with citizens who have no direction and are driven by the acquisition of material goods to prove their worth in lieu of valiant or kind-hearted deeds. There are no more blatant dragons to slay, leaving us to carry on the days of our lives in a vaccuum that is too readily filled with empty amusements.

Unfortunately however, it is not only men, but every woman and child as well, who has fallen prey to this melancholic apathy for what happens around them.

Mankind has devolved. We have metamorphosed into hideous, uncaring creatures who will pull out a gun to settle a dispute over who and when someone will be allowed to merge into traffic. We have become monsters who will use anger and adrenaline to solve situations with weapons...even if it is only a tiny Chihuahua versus a solid metal pipe. What care have we for wrong-doing? We're mankind aren't we? We're entitled to dispose of anything that gets in the way of our next World Wrestling Federation pay-per-view special or beanie baby acquisition.

Neanderthals with remote controls and cellular phones.

Hurts doesn't it, having to read this? Unfortunately, it can't be said enough since no one is listening anyway. Why does it hurt? Perhaps because you yourself turned a blind eye or a deaf ear to a situation, going mutely about your workday errands with perfect amnesia.

It's easy to forget this apathetic seizure and click your tongues tsk tsk tsk, once the heat of the moment is done and you're safe in your own cave with your own computer or tv.

"Oh, how could that happen? What's wrong with people?"

And there you sit with insults and expletives on your tongue, ready, set and going into your moment of glory at the keys...where you can hurl deprecations at the unseen, but seemingly deserving non-person on the other end of your modem's reach. What is it about my words that sets you to anger? Righteous indignation or hidden guilt? Does that cruel shoe fit? Unlike the fable of Cinderella, no one is lining up to try on this bloody glass slipper.

We cannot hope to change ourselves if we cannot even say "Thank you" when someone holds a door open for us, or "Excuse me" if we accidentally jostle someone in the market.

Maya Angelou, in her book Wouldn't Take Nothin' for My Journey Now, observed that it is this very loss of kindness in the hearts of people that brings our world down. Not the violent video games, the pornographic magazines or the pitiful, bogus thing we refer to as our government. A lack of the simplistic virtues. She urges us to take the time to do kind things for those around us--especially strangers--for it is the very bedrock of our society. Without this kindness, without becoming involved physically and emotionally, our very existence will topple into a mudhole of hatred, revenge and selfishness.

If we cannot as a race look into our deepest selves and make radical changes, we are doomed to wallow in this self-made mire. It's time to stop blaming the other guy and apologize. Try it. Admit you've been a self-centered oaf. It's time to let those people on the roadway merge before you with a friendly wave. It's time to ask the person with only a couple of items to step ahead of you in the checkout lane. It's time to be gracious, and go smiling about your day even if there are a million things on your mind that shout for you not to smile. Go out of your way to do nice things for those around you...and I do mean everyone, from your hateful landlord to that poor neglected geranium sitting balefully at your back step. It won't kill you, you know.

The secret to this casting-your-bread-upon-the-water mentality that we have so shamefully lost is in not caring who the recipient of your kindness is. Does it matter who benefits as long as a kindness is done?

Once you've given up the worry of who benefits from your largese, you can move on to the true nature of kindness: being responsible. You can act when injustice surrounds you; not with hate-filled, expletive-laden diatribes, but with proper thinking and actions. Don't worry who finds your caring gauche or improper. It never bothered you that someone might find your apathy unappealling, so don't give a thought to who will disapprove of your kindness!

If you see an animal crippled by the roadside, don't click your tongue and shake your head saying, "Oh, what a shame." Do something about it. If you can't stop and render aid, use your celluar phone to call an animal rescue orginization - since you should keep such numbers at the ready. If someone is being cruel to their kids or their pets, report it. These things can be done anonymously if necessary, though care for your own safety should not be uppermost on your mind when doing a kindness. Protecting one's own skin has been a major contributor to the mess we now find ourselves stuck in. If you have nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon, go to the nearest retirement home or convelescent center. There are plenty of folks in those places who would be more than happy to listen to your most mundane of tales or have you listen patiently to theirs.

While the Internet has been a miraculous way of coming together with the world around us, it is also a guilty contributor to our apathetic condition. It's easy to gaze into a monitor and forget that those beyond it are living, breathing, feeling people. An old blues tune sung by Big Maybelle laments, "Handle me easy 'cause I'm skin and bone and hair." We all are and it's well to remember this when traveling the information super highway. Just as with our road-rage soaked streets and byways in the "real world," we are driven by anger and adrenaline on the Net. Thankfully, here we are limited to words at best and viral plagues at worst.

The same rules of responsibility apply and are desperately needed in this psychological masterbator we call the Web. If you see something you know in your heart is wrong, don't simply leave the site. Report it to their service provider and their site host. When you are swamped by train loads of spam, don't simply delete it, report the offender to his provider, your provider and the federal government (email address - uce@ftc.gov). Newsgroups seem to exist as the Jerry Springer and Sally Jesse Raphael shows for the Net. When battles break out on them, don't leap in with insults and/or wit at the ready. Back away. Leave the group. If enough people do this, there will be no more audience for the trolls - who seem to operate on the principle that bad attention is far better than no attention at all - and they will thankfully go away.

Conversely, support sites that do good. Visit them, tell your friends about them, and thank their creators for their kindness and responsibility.

Be mindful of your actions every day. A "Please" or "Thank you" can take you a long way. And know in your heart that you are repairing the decrepit and cracking foundation of our society as a whole.

August, 1999 And the Rich get Richer... Rating the top "Build Up Your Traffic" Schemes

The most important part of an internet animal welfare campaign is how many people you can reach with it. But, the internet is chock-full of handy ways to build your traffic ... or is it? This has been my experience with the traffic builders so far:

Hitbox, formerly Webside Story - aka "Top 1000 Websites":

You put their "counter" (i.e. their advertising) on your page, in exchange for which you are ranked on their site according to your traffic. Fair enough in theory, but their "counter" is an animated mini-movie that would stand out even on the Vegas strip. CLICK ME! ENTER HERE! CLICK ME! ENTER HERE!

If you put it at the top of your website you run the risk of people thinking it's the entrance button to your own web page, and if you bury it at the bottom it probably won't load before people move on to one of your other sections. Still, if you already have decent traffic you do get the glory of being ranked in the Top 1000. But does being listed in the "Top 1000" generate traffic? Not according to their own statistics. Mine read something like this:

Referral URLS: 600
Bookmarks: 300
Search Engines: 30
People Who Wandered In By Mistake: 15
Hitbox: 5

Bottom line: in exchange for putting their mammoth piece of code and their annoying graphic on your page, you will get to see your name on a list of "top websites." But you won't build up much traffic as a result.

Link Exchange:

The premise of Link Exchange is this: you can generate traffic by exchanging banners with other people. You allow someone else's banner on your page, and someone else allows your banner on their page. Every time two people visit your page, your banner gets displayed once on someone else's page. The more traffic you get to your page, the more exposure your banner gets.

Catch #1: You have got to get traffic to your page in the first place in order to get your banner exposed and therefore generate traffic.

Of course, you can theoretically jump-start your traffic by buying banner exposures on Link Exchange, and for a fairly reasonable rate too. And, a couple years ago, I actually did that, to promote my Singapore Cats campaign. I bought 25,000 exposures. Visitors ("click-throughs") resulting from these exposures: 3.

Catch #2: Nobody ever actually clicks on a Link Exchange banner.

I gave Link Exchange another try earlier this year. My site was getting around 800 people a day; I figured the banner exposures from that ought to rack up pretty fast. At the end of a few months, the exposure to click-through ratio was something like: 1,000 exposures = 3 click-throughs. In exchange for having about 30,000 different revolving banner ads on my own web page, I got about 30 extra visitors. (A higher ratio than my Singapore campaign, but then I was advertising a "fun" site this time, not the sad story of the lives of Singapore's cats.)

Bottom line: Link Exchange must be working for somebody, since it's still so popular, but that somebody ain't me.

GuestWorld Guestbooks:

You put a teeny button on your page in exchange for using their guestbook service. Theoretically, you can build up return traffic by keeping in contact with those kind enough to sign your guestbook. Meanwhile, Guestworld places advertising on the guestbook page.

Drawback #1: Guestworld is down at least half the time.

Drawback #2: About one-third of your visitors won't use a valid email address, either deliberately or by mistyping it.

Drawback #3: Unless you disable HTML commands, many visitors will use your guestbook to display gigantic animated advertising for their own site. Some will even include a "mouseover" command that instantly whisks your visitor to their website. If you DO disable HTML, you'll have a lot fewer guests.

Drawback #4: When you finally do use the "Reply to all your Guests" feature, about half of your guests will have changed email addresses. The other half won't remember signing your guestbook and they'll ask to be taken off your mailing list.

Bottom line: It's handy for getting feedback, but it's not a very useful tool for building up return traffic.

Listbot: The Newsletter Service

They provide a newsletter list service for a fee.

Drawbacks: None really, aside from the handful of people each month who will accuse you of signing them up against their will. (Inevitably, one of their kids signed up and forgot to tell anyone.)

Advantage: The people who bother to sign up for a newsletter are probably actually interested in returning to your site, assuming you give them a good reason to do so.

Bottom line: Although it's a slow process building up a list, in the end you have got a means of reaching a large number of people who are interested in your website. And you don't have to run any annoying ads on your web page to take advantage of this.

So, in the end building traffic is like making money: you've got to have it in the first place to make more of it. If you're trying to build up traffic for your own animal welfare page - or any website - don't just sign up for the so-called traffic builders and assume they're actually working: check the statistics they provide, and weigh that against what these services actually provide to you.

July, 1999 The Email Brute
Essay by: JLGuidry

"Brutality is definitely not acceptable. Certain phrases excite and alarm me. When I hear them I respond as if I've heard gas escaping in a closed room. Without having to think about my next move, if I am not hemmed in I make my way toward the handiest exit. If I cannot escape however, I react defensively. Well, I do mind brutality in any of it's guises and I will not be lured into accepting it merely because the brute asks me to do so!
'I hope you don't take this the wrong way.' That is always a bell ringer for me. I sense the mealy-mouthed attacker approaching. If I cannot flee, I explain in no uncertain terms if there is even the slightest chance I might take a statement the wrong way, be assured I will do so!
I advise the speaker that it would be better to remain silent rather than try to collect the speaker's bruised feelings which I intend to leave in pieces, scattered on the floor." ~ Maya Angelou, Author of Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now

There are few things more likely to ruin the day of the dedicated web developer than finding a missive penned by an email brute in their new mail folder. Long before I discovered Angelou's treatise on brutality, I faced these cowardly lions with aplomb and a "Why, thank you so much" demeanor more like chewing tin foil than any sort of true kindness. Nothing puts the email brute into apoplexy faster than a well MENSAfied reply dripping with charm.

Unfortunately, when dealing with the self-professed saintliness it can be a more delicate and challenging matter. Phrases that begin with "God is my only judge," do more than ring bells in my head. They summon at once images of the Spanish Inquisition and the smell of my burning foremothers fills my nostrils.

I was recently the recipient of a peevish stream of letters from one such self-proclaimed Joan of Arc for animals. This individual was intent on having the now erstwhile 'For the Love of Ninja' award at all cost, foisting her perceived example of animal activist martyr-self at me with the all the subtlety of a panzer tank battalion. The central theme was that I was deliberately ignoring her and keeping the object of her desire from her with callous unfairness. She concluded this attack with a smarmy "Well, we all get busy I suppose."

I truly tried to contain myself, despite the unmitigated gall she displayed. Like Angelou, I do not care to participate in violence but I do know enough to stand up for myself when I am forced into it.

This person had filled my email in-box since March with letters of such a provocative nature ignorant of my previous replies I was forced to finally respond in kind. While trying to keep a civil attitude, I did explain in very clear terms that she had been told numerous times of the situation at hand and I even elaborated on this point, pouring my heart out in a manner distinctly uncharacteristic for me.

I should have sensed it; known the response before it was received as one knows with a certainty the behavior of such creatures. It was that "Don't go into that house with only a flashlight, you fool! There is an axe murderer afoot!" situation. Silly me.

She informed ignorant, plodding me that I was at fault entirely and that I should be ashamed of myself for allowing personal situations to get in the way of my email and award duties.

I was utterly taken aback by her tome-like response, her paragraph after paragraph description of herself as an earthly manifestation of St. Francis Himself. My anger was immediate and hot. How foolish of me! Why should matters like my husband's terminal illness stand in the way of Internet awards! I should be flogged.

I was able to postpone my reply for a time, until reading the hideously pious and self-serving insult-o-gram she sent to Susie Bachman. Irreversibly inflamed, I crafted my letter. To date she has not seen fit to send out a return volley.

There is a God/Goddess!

Madam:

     I have just read your email to my associate, Mrs. Bachman. Since she is my assistant ring mistress, Mrs. Bachman receives all email regarding The Project, hence her "involvement."

     That email, taken with what you have written to me, proves my original assumptions about you are correct. You are not a friend, nor have you ever been. You are someone who has displayed an Our House Productions banner. To construe friendship from a business relationship is foolhardy at best. I choose my friends, of which Mrs. Bachman is my closest. No, strike that...she is my sister, because I have decided I will choose my family since my own is unacceptable.

     I did not choose you. Observing your self-righteous, holier than thou attitude that pervade all your correspondences would preclude me ever including you in my circle of friends. For the sake of spreading Ninja's message, I did include you in the Project. Since your site does contain the required elements it was accepted for the banner support membership.

     You have repeatedly written; the content ranging from your original seemingly heart-felt response to Ninja's tragic story, to the requests for the award and to remind me - despite being told that I was still working on the site--that I had numerous broken links. Your email was neither solicited nor of significant value. I should have only needed to explain once what the situation was. Yet, you continued to write.

     If this situation is not to your liking, remember that it is you who wrote yet again...insinuating that you were being ignored which of course was baseless and preposterous.

     And as for the letter regarding my husband's accident and terminal illness, I doubt the veracity of that statement entirely. Neither I nor Mrs. Bachman ever received such an email ... only another request for the award URL and a reminder that I still had broken links. While email is at times unreliable, I doubt it has the capacity for selective exclusion.

     You are what Maya Angelou describes as "the timid sadist." You like to hide your hand behind your back once you have thrown a stone in the hopes of being forgiven by your intended victim. However, you go one step farther, trying to intimidate your victims with your incredible godliness. However, I believe Jesus himself abjured pride.

     I ask that you refrain from contacting Our House Productions or any of its associates. We do not accept email from liars, bullies, nor the self-righteous.

     Any lack of response from this end will not be because I have been coping with my husband's illness, my school work, nor any of the other personal issues known only to my friends, but because I am now ignoring you in earnest.

JLGuidry
Our House Productions