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In Reply to: Blisters on my feet :-p posted by WC on July 28, 2002 at 07:30:59:
"I've been called anything from a womanizer to a New-Ager to a witch, and some have insinuated that I have all kinds of skeletons in my closet. Iheard some people think I abused kids in the Family and talk about it behind my back. (For the record I have a squeaky clean record and a crystal clear conscience)"
We have to take your word for that, because you have created a persona that doesn't include any former Family names, legal name, photos, etc.
You could be the ghost of Mo, for all we know.
Damn, that came off sounding almost poetic. I'll work on it.
Jane and I have taken the absolute opposite road that you did. We have posted our legal names, photographs, Jane's former name in the Family, etc. People know where I work, who my clients are, what town I'm going to be in next.
Funny how we arrive in the same spot, regardless of the different routes chosen.
The only fair thing about it is that we all get our turn in the barrel. Everyone who dares to write a message that tells any little tidbit about themselves is eventually strapped to the table and vivisected before the bloodthirsty hordes.
The good news is that this is not unsual behavior for online communities. We are all just drivers along the data superhighway, flipping each other off from the safety of our vehicles. Hanging a B.A. in each other's faces, because at this speed, we will be across state lines before we get caught.
Shall I go on? Okay...
It's a game of cyber-chicken.... a virtual prison where the last one to flinch becomes the digital bitch for the other inmates to...
Oh never mind. I'll stop before Miguel very correctly reports that I've gone off on another tangent.
What were we talking about? Oh yeah.
Here's the deal. If it doesn't exist in yourself, you usually can't see it.
So, it would be difficult for me to make a statement that exmembers view family members as evil without making the exmembers evil for making the members evil.
It was a carefully crafted statement that, in the way it was stated, worked both ways automatically. Everyone got to be sinner and saint at the same time. I get lucky like that sometimes.
I do appreciate that you take time to read and digest what I have written. You summarize it, and even when it makes me look bad, I'll be damned if you didn't hit the nail on the head.
The thing that frustrates me is that I've been reporting on some of the positive changes at Laurelhome since I visited eleven months ago. Yet, there are people who insist on ignoring all of that and continuing to put out old information because it fits their agenda that Barney, NDN and Laurelhome are "Pro-Family" thus bad, wrong, evil, etc.
Everyone here experienced some kind of life altering change when they left the Family. At some point, the community began to view them as exmembers, and they got credit for leaving.
Barney was terminated from FM status quite some time ago because he refused to terminate "free speech" on the NDN website. Since then, he has made many changes in his operation. Those changes have been reported by credible eye witnesses. However, there are those who refuse to give him a break, even though someone somewhere along the line gave them a break.
It goes to the gang mentality you refer to.
I find that cruel, and it bothers me a great deal.
