Bob Kuczewski wrote:I had a good phone conversation with Scott today. I enjoy talking with Scott because we've been through so much together over a very long time. Neither of us has to explain the things that have happened in the past because we both know those things first hand.
That's not to say that Scott and I agree on everything. In fact, we've had some bitter disagreements in the past. But we've worked through them because we've recognized our common ground for both hang gliding and justice. Today, Scott helped me to see that we may have a culture gap here at the U.S. Hawks.
A person's "culture" is a complex set of beliefs and standards and customs and perceptions. People of different cultures can get along fine in some endeavors, but they can find themselves bitterly divided when certain wedge issues arise. The banning of Joe Faust has been one of those wedge issues that's exposed a deep cultural division here at the U.S. Hawks.
In my culture - the way I was raised - it is not acceptable to stand by and watch people be abused or bullied. That value was very important to my father and, not surprisinly, it's also very important to me. Scott pointed out that my "culture" also comes from my military service in the Rangers:
"Never shall I fail my comrades."
"I will never leave a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy"
It's clear to me now (thanks Scott) that Red and I are simply from different cultures. In my culture it's unacceptable for one member of a community (Jack in this case) to bully another member of that same community (Joe). In my culture it's also unacceptable for active members of any community to witness such bullying and remain silent. It's even more unacceptable for members of a community to reward the bully by propping him up with their support.
History has demonstrated that people will defend their cultures to their death, so I doubt there can be any resolution to this back and forth between the two sides. While I would have liked Frank and Mike and Red (and others) to have stood up for Joe Faust, I think I can be satisfied with the (now) very clear record that they would not. Their reasons (or lack of reasons) are now very well documented here for everyone to see. Given the circumstances, that's about the best outcome I can expect.
A while back, Frank asked me to "give it a rest". I didn't feel the issue was clear enough at that time to "give it a rest", but I do now. Anyone reading these topics can come to their own conclusions and support the culture that resonates best with them.
I will never forget what was done to Joe Faust, and I will never forget the participants who enabled that injustice. But the new year is at our doorstep and there's a lot of other work to be done in 2019.
BobK,
So, that's IT? You have spent a lot of time, a year and more, and used lots of words to harrass me and try to coerce me into doing something that you want to dress up as "justice" or whatever. Now, after a only few members here have refused to try to clean up your mess, NOW you are ready to quit the "rescue?"
Yeah, sadly, it IS all your mess. Now you NEED others to carry the ball for you.
I can not believe that any real Ranger would ask just a few members of his squad to recover the "fallen" and then abandon the effort as soon as a few people refuse. It's probably a good thing that you never saw combat; a Ranger squad leader so willing to abandon the "fallen" as you did today is usually the kind of person that ends up getting shot at by both sides of the battle.
I have noticed that you have not asked anybody else here to post on HG.ORG as your mouthpiece puppet. Here you can call out any and all frequent-posting members of this forum, by name, as you have done to me. You could post all of the same abuses, innuendo, and insults that you have posted against me, only now, post it against them. After all, this "silent majority" has made the same choices that I made (refusing to be your puppet mouthpiece on another forum). Maybe they know already, that if they act like a shill for BobK on another forum, then they will be treated as such.
It will not be difficult for you to do that coercion; you don't even have to write anything new, just change the salutation name to some members of the "silent majority" here, then Cut and Paste from the same repetitive posts that you have sent at me in your public forum in this last year. You can even give them the exact same speeches to deliver that you wrote for me, which I have refused to deliver, because they were not my words. I have copies of those speeches here, if you need them. You can harangue most of the silent members here for a year or more (much as you did with me). After all, they certainly have been as silent and equally "culpable" in your eyes as I have been, in your campaign against the HG.ORG rules, "unfair" bans, or whatever else that raises your ire. This behaviour from you will almost certainly get the results that you want, only without me.
Please stay true to form; EACH member here gets a year or more of your harrassment and insults, just as you did to me, unless they knuckle under to your demands to be your puppet mouthpiece on another forum.
The only alternative to your coercing of the membership here (that I can see) is to believe that you had some secret agenda, hardly related to "justice" or anything like it, with only certain pilots as your targets. You just wanted shills for your invective, and if these people got banned from another forum, then they could only post here. I do believe that was your real intent, all along. Dressing up all of that dreck as "justice" or "fairness" was just smoke and mirrors. Please prove me wrong here, and only by your actions, not by any excuses. Start the year-long coercion of your good members here. i WANNA WATCH.
I (for one) do not respond well to manipulation. I believe that most members here will say the same.
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