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In Reply to: When Peter wrote to Jim LaMattery posted by Question on December 02, 2005 at 03:45:11:
I could not locate my initial email to Peter. I had written him, a few days prior to the below reply, prior to knowing that the Book Of Davidito existed. Peter stopped replying to me after I posed questions to him and Maria about Philip Slown and if, or how, he and Maria handeled Slown after my ex-wife, Donna Marchbank, informed them in 1993 about claims of abuse made by my daughters.
>From:
>To:
>Subject: Reply from Peter Amsterdam
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:34:28 EST
>
>Dear Jim ,
> Thank you for the e-mails you sent recently. I received the last
>one just as I am preparing for some travel and as such can’t give a lengthy
>answer.
> I agree with you that it would be best if dialog were to take
>place between those who feel they have grievances from their time in the Family
>and current members of the Family. I wrote a notice to the Family on February
>12, (which got posted on movingon.org) stating that very thing.
> This update was not specifically written in response to your or
>others postings on the movingon site, but to anyone who has expressed similar
>thoughts as you. I responded as I did, without naming names because, as you
>well know, there is no one spokesperson that represents the broad spectrum of
>the former member community. My hope was that some individuals would respond in
>a positive manner, showing that they indeed wished to dialog rather than to
>destroy the Family.
> As you can see yourself the response from the movingon posters
>has for the most part not been positive. There have been one or two level heads
>posting, but the posts from the movingon administrators have been
>disappointing. I’m not so surprised by this, as any sort of non-judgmental or impartial
>responses on Movingon are routinely met with profanity and cyber-tomatoed,
>with the poster being marginalized and considered “persona non gratis.” As
>such, the silent majority on the Moving on site are not really given an open forum
>to speak, which probably includes those who do not hold the most extreme
>viewpoints expressed on the site.
> I am sincere about trying to find some common ground with them with the
>goal of discussion and eventual reconciliation. Our hope is to be able to open
>a direct line of communication with former second generation members to
>achieve this goal. At this point, I am not convinced that they are interested. I’m
>thankful for your letter and for the advice you offer, which I will bear in
>mind. I’m sorry this response doesn’t address the various points you brought
>up, as I mentioned earlier, I’m virtually heading out the door on a trip, but I
>will give them more thought in the days ahead.
> Sincerely,
> Peter Amsterdam
>
