Last week, I discussed how happy I was to receive some written response, however scolding, from an SGI-USA staff member. One of the groups I was supposed to owe an apology to was the area leaders who govern the SGI-USA Area where my friends Michele and Richard Chavez live - Richard is the fellow who was told he couldn't have SGI meetings at his home anymore due to the fact that his wife was joining a different Nichiren denomination.
I discussed the matter here:
http://www.fraughtwithperil.com/blogs/byrd/archives/001696.html
and here:
http://www.fraughtwithperil.com/blogs/byrd/archives/001697.html
Look Ma! I can do links!!! YAY!!! Okay, back to the blog.....
Anyway, apparently, I owe an apology to these area leaders for misrepresenting the reasons why meetings were discontinued at this particular home. The problem is, we still don't know what the reasons were, except that whatever I say is a misrepresentation. At least that's a rule we can all count on.
Anyway, when I first received the apology demand related to Michele and Richard's home, I forwarded it to Michele. I mean, it did concern her and her home and her husband, right? And it did come from an SGI e-mail account, and an SGI staff member, right? Why shouldn't she know about it?
Well, she got sort of a laugh out of it, and drafted an explanation of her and her husband's perspective and sent it to the staff member in question, copying all the leaders he had originally copied on his request for an apology from me. So, now, for the first time ever, the people who apparently made the decisions are actually hearing from the people they've been making the decisions about. I guess that's a step in the right direction.
Anyway, Michele didn't receive a response which spoke to the actual issue of why her husband was no longer able to host Gakkai meetings, but she did get a mesage which made it clear that the staff member's e-mail to me had been "meant as a private message" - in other words, the staff and the area leaders were supposed to be talking about Michele and Richard and demanding apologies from me about them without Michele and Richard even knowing about it by way of a pesky forwarded e-mail. I guess I was just supposed to get an e-mail about them from Gakkai Central, copied to a whole bunch of leaders, and keep them in the dark about it? Gee, where's that written in the new personnel manual?
Even stranger was the idea that I should get an e-mail all about the content of my blog from an SGI e-mail account, (and copied to several other leaders' private e-mails), and see this as being "private". I don' t get that. If you want an e-mail to be private, don't copy people I don't even know. That's kind of easy, isn't it? Anyway, as part of the non-responsive response, this individual also wrote to Michele in part:
Contrary to what you might have heard, the SGI Plaza does not know of yourself or Byrd. Because I work at the Plaza, my concerns are being represented as those of the Plaza.
This is what Washington correspondents call "backpedaling". Kind of like, "the White House denies that the President had any knowledge..." Maybe there was even a lawyer involved in that wording, although I doubt it. Not verbose enough.
Anyway, what is that figure of speech where you use a building to represent a person or a group of people? Like "The White House", or "10 Downing Street", or..."Dodger Stadium". Help me out here, someone. Because I know that the SGI Plaza Building itself doesn't talk. That's a good thing. I wonder what sorts of tales it would have to tell if it did.
Anyway, I'm kind of surprised that the good people at the SGI Plaza don't have any awareness at all of the online discussions which go on at this site. I find that just incredibly hard to believe. Even Patrick admits to writing to Gakkai Central about this site. Didn't they open his mail?
Curiouser and curiouser......anyway, the day after the good people at SGI Plaza didn't read my post about the apologies I owed to Makiguchi and Toda, I got a phone call from a WD Area leader who wanted to set up a home visit at my place with herself, me, and a Region WD leader. Coincidence, I suppose. Anyway, I look forward to the meeting, it should be interesting.
Anyway, the next time you're in Santa Monica, you can drive by the SGI Plaza. Bring a microphone. Put it up to the plaster walls. See what the Plaza knows. See what it is concerned about...
How incredibly wierd.
Well, anyway, it's back to painting my living room. What a fun job that's turning out to be. You can come by and ask the walls some questions sometime.
Bye for now,
Byrd in LA
I ended up calling the staff member, since he said he was available. We had a nice conversation; I reiterated our side of the story, and expressed my opinion that you don't owe anyone an apology about this. I may be wrong, but I think he agreed, though not about the other things. . .
Posted by: Michele at April 14, 2008 05:32 PMHm. Sounds like the plaza might have that new fangled teflon paint or something. Or perhaps should?
Ah, Byrd. If your blog didn't exist, I would have to travel far and wide to find humor.
Well, let me know when you start apologizing to buildings and dead people. I hear they give you a nice padded room and a special white coat for that.
:)
Cheers,
Kris
Hey, Byrd, if they don't want to be misrepresented, why don't they publicly state why they won't let Richard have meetings? Seems pretty simple and straightforward to me.
Talk about curiouser and curiouser.
Kris
How about Christian or Muslim spouses? You don't have to answer, I already know they are ok. At least Michele isn't an evil Danto.
Mark
Posted by: Mark Rogow at April 14, 2008 10:39 PMByrd:
"I got a phone call from a WD Area leader who wanted to set up a home visit at my place with herself, me, and a Region WD leader. Coincidence, I suppose. Anyway, I look forward to the meeting, it should be interesting."
Be prepared with notes and tape record the meeting. Then, share with us, privately.
"Even Patrick admits to writing to Gakkai Central about this site. Didn't they open his mail?"
I wouldn't.
Charles
Posted by: Charles at April 15, 2008 12:55 PMByrd,
Your experiences sound soooo familiar to me. I recall, when I was first getting revved up to Reform the SGI-USA (and, obviously, way before I realized that that was not possible), I had an exchange of e-mails with Greg Martin. I was newly "on-line" and didn't really know much about what has come to be known as nettiquette. Anyway, I naturally cc'd my compatriots on the exchanges, as well as other SGI-USA leaders like Al Albergate and Guy McCloskey who were, at that time, friends as well as supportive of our efforts.
The discussion was mainly about Temple War silliness, and a few emails into it, Greg became increasingly unable to reasonably answer my reasonable questions about why it was a good idea to have one (a Temple War, that is). In his final email to me on the subject, after I had pretty much cornered him with his own arguments, he stated that he was "too busy wracking his brains for kosen-rufr to waste any more time" on me.
When it became clear that I had shared the exchange, including that final outburst, Greg was incensed, said I had "betrayed" confidentiality, etc. Refused to have much to do with me after that, even after I apologized and promised never to do it again. Sound familiar?
The bottom line is that none of these folks want to be "on record" with any of this stuff, for obvious reasons.
But thanks for the trip down memory lane. Save all your emails and make sure you record the WD interview. Hide the recorder, though. I'll await your report.
Cheers!
Andy Hanlen
IRG (retired)
WOW. That is just incrediable. Having some experience with government, it looks like, sounds like, and smells like the same animal. How embaressing. Keep feeding this info back out to the internet, and maybe someday they will see that it is ok to just be open and honest about shit. In the mean time you are helping to keep them honest. Did i spell embaressing right?
Posted by: hardtotrack at April 16, 2008 02:18 AMTwo things come to mind.
"Oh what a tangled web we weave..."
and
"Give 'em enough rope..."