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In Reply to: Page on Jim LaMattery posted by WC on June 03, 2006 at 15:17:30:
Thank you for the laughs. This piece is spot on, and simply beautiful!
While I'm not an FGA or an SGA, I too have been indirectly negatively affected by the Family as I'm married to Jim's most wonderful niece who spent her years from 9 to 19 in the group.
More than a year ago, in what I now realize was a misguided effort to assist in the ongoing healing of my extended family, I became one of Jim's biggest supporters. I gave him a voice on the internet.
With a personal visit, a handshake with my uncle in law, and a promise for of a contract stipulating compensation for my services should he make any money from his foray into the public eye, I set up two websites for him. It should be noted I have long since removed my involvement in these projects...
So why did I stop supporting Jim?
After a year of charity work, and an attempt to cut ties cleanly without the aforementioned contract or a cent of compensation, he again promised yet another contract and a position in his non-profit organization. Being as that a few folks in my extended family were excited about the non-profit organization’s prospects, I agreed to create another website for him.
Upon the launch of his second website, I called him on his promises, and he lost it completely. When he wouldn't cooperate with what he had looked me in the eye on and shook on two separate occasions, I shut down the sites I had created for him.
Not only did he not give me the contract that he promised, but he and 'Little John' decided that it would be fun to accuse me of various crimes I did not commit, threaten to sue me on numerous occasions, and call me ‘an idiot’ for shutting down the sites temporarily and not thinking of ‘the kids’. To top it off Jim also accused me of being power hungry and out to control his operation (because I wouldn’t provide someone with almost zero computer knowledge the Unix passwords to boxes I also hosted other people’s websites on). And this is all just the tip of the iceberg...
While this time was a stressful one for all involved, there were comedic moments too. In one such moment, Jim, the self appointed President of a non-profit organization lacking tax exempt status, labeled me as a contractor, and told me I was fired.
Isn’t it a little tough to be a contractor without a contract? Delusions of grandeur to say the least…
So why did I help Jim for a year? He is a part of my extended family…
As I'm sure a lot of you do, I give each individual in the small group my dedication to help improve the lot of the larger group. If they prove to be untrustworthy, and undeserving of that assistance, I consider it a lesson learned, otherwise, I will continue to support them because they are after all, related. As I’m sure a lot of you agree it is better to give to your loved ones and learn that it was a mistake, than not to give at all…
So why do Jim’s sites still exist?
Well, after putting one of them back up as a show of good faith, and commandeering the logs proving that he had downloaded each page copyrighted with my name on it, I ended up giving him the content for both of his sites in hopes of healing the rifts this had caused between myself and other members of my extended family.
The folks I was most interested in healing the newly caused rifts with were the people Jim had brought into the battle to aid him, who should have never even taken sides in the discussion to begin with.
I’m sorry to say that my plan didn’t work, as I don’t really speak with any of the individuals of his blood that he brought to his side to fight me with him. After receiving what they wanted, it appears that, ‘the end justifies the means’ in their mind, and it appears that they have won a pyrrhic victory.
In the end though, I’m happy that this has happened as it has helped provide my nuclear family with a wake up call about certain individuals in our extended family, and has given us a greater sense of freedom from them.
Jim, thank you for showing me the truth. To the victor go the spoils!
