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BETRAYAL
and OPPRESSION: Humpty-Dumpty Must You Die? |
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1 |
Ultimate Betrayals | |||
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2 |
A Woman Scorned | |||
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3 |
Appearances Betrayed | |||
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4 |
Solicitations | |||
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Victime Suprême | |||
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The Fatal Flaw | |||
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W W W ? | |||
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The Aftermath | |||
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In Retrospect | |||
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Yes, I Must Die | |||
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Was Anything Learned | |||
ab BETRAYAL
and Humpty-Dumpty Must You Die? Joseph Walker, Ph.D. Cedar Crest, New Mexico 2000
BETRAYAL and OPPRESSION: Humpty-Dumpty Must You Die? by Joseph Walker, Ph.D. Copyright © 2000 by: Joseph L. Walker, Jr., Ph.D. All rights reserved under International Library of Congress Printed in the United States of America Cover Design by John Anthony Howell
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who TOO OFTEN DIE IN SOLITUDE
Thanks to... John for his enduring love DIANN FOR HER LOVING FRIENDSHIPBARBARA FOR SIMPLY BEING THERE Marsena, My spiritual mother JOANNE, FOR HER SHOULDER
Loving, Caring Friends NONA, Don, Jan
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What is written in these following pages is a continuation of the lurid bigotry that I have so sadly experienced. The first volume, Unwritten Rules, clearly established the presence and practice of white-collar bigotry and its inevitable devastating effects on the individual, both physically and psychologically. The second volume, The Freedom Seeker, attempted to share with you how one person had set out to resolve that awesome injustice. Most interesting about that treacherous journey was the arduous process of legally representing yourself in a Federal District Court. Pro Se is the lucid term and despite the simplicity and brevity of this term, the process had been an almost overwhelming but sometimes inspiring challenge. At least I thought it was fortunate for me that the situation changed, and two enthusiastic lawyers came aboard at a decisive moment in the proceedings. The bleak reality was encountered when I found that even within our Federal system of justice the bigoted inhumanity of even our supposedly ethically imbued professionals sadly reflected the continued antipathy and mistreatment of the oppressed. Reading the first two books would certainly give you an improved insight and knowledge that would probably make this present volume a little more meaningful and certainly more in context of the whole disconcerting and abashing narrative. The title of this present volume really says it all in the most definitive terms that I had not at all initially imagined would be so foreboding. Our internal compasses are probably more attuned to reality than any of us really wish to recognize. I had insightfully declared in the opening of the first book the likely psychological proposition that most of us otherwise mentally healthy individuals never readily admit to ourselves the disconcerting realities of our sometimes privately desperate lives. Men above woman are often encouraged to withhold their feelings from any overt display in an effort to give the impression of masculine strength. Despite the fact that I wasnt to have shown any signs of weakness by shedding tears, I cried more than ever during this trying period of time than I had at any other stage of this awfully arduous scenario. So very arduous in fact that the question of Humpty-Dumpty having to die may just become an inescapable truth. |
| PROLOGUE
Father, Father, why has thou
forsaken me? I am writing this sad
continuation with the hopes that the terribly damaging situations of the more than subtle
bigotry that I had found myself experiencing at the hands of the American Orchid Society
(AOS) would finally come to some reasonable resolve. Bondage in any of its many forms
certainly places limits on the expression of an individual's potential and can crush the
very life forces that give rise to one's own perceived meaning and purpose. This devastating experience has taught me so much about the sad state of our society and the awful plight of spiritually and ideologically enslaved humankind. I appropriately titled this last volume the Betrayal and Oppression because I have finally came to a place in my own life where I began fully realize the awful predicament of so many disenfranchised people. People are endlessly enslaved by engraved images that they have been taught to believe are a true and accurate representation of some Devine truth. Whatever many of us might believe about our responsibility of being our brother's keeper, it appears that we have forsaken that idea in favor of some selfish ideology that serves our own survivable. I can't blame anyone for having lost their faith in their neighbors to support and defend them in times of need. It just doesn't happen and we have all become too suspicious of anyone that claims they are truly altruistic. Having had this awful experience where so many once trusted friends have betrayed me and even become some of my persecutors, I find myself very isolated and apart from the very world that I had once wanted to be a part of for the remaining years of my life. I was fully prepared by my upbringing to actually "Love my neighbor " and reap the promised reward of joy. Instead, I uncannily found a living image of Humpty-Dumpty to best explain how too many of my neighbors feel and relate within this too often hostile world. I fear that all the King's horses, all the King's men, all the King's money and all the King's courts of justice can't possibly put me back together again. What ever happened to human compassion in our beloved Garden of Eden? |
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COMPLETED PORTIONS OF THE BOOK |
| ULTIMATE BETRAYALS
Father, Father, why has
thou forsaken me? It was on the first day of March
2000 that I had received a most disturbing letter from my own council, Tony Romo that had
felt too much like multiple stabs in the heart. I had just returned from a trip to
Phoenix, where I had hoped to recover from four days of that grueling deposition of which
I was the sole subject of a malicious and maligned Defense. Though I was not at all
surprised by this most typical and despicable strategy employed by defense
teams in name of that ennoble American postulate of offering the accused the
very best defense 'that money can buy,' I was
appalled that our American judicial system's rules of law permitted a
victim/plaintiff to undergo such relentless and unnecessary attacks in the revered name of
justice. In these instances of justice? I fear that Justice herself
becomes a despicable whore that unquestionably prostituted the very heart of
what should be a system of equal justice under the law. The whole process of discovery should be a relentless effort at uncovering the
truth, instead, it has become an opened playing-field for either side to address any issue
that might discredit the opposition without addressing the substantive issues of the
case itself.
I had brought this action against the American Orchid Society specifically because I had
been so mentally and emotionally brutalized by the relentless defamation, discrimination,
and the broad disbursement of private facts in disclosing of my HIV/AIDS status. This
devastating letter was faxed to me and was totally unexpected. It sent me into such a dark
depression that it totally immobilized me from accomplishing anything for almost an
entire week.
The one exception was my having finished the previous book on that most sad note of my
last will and testament. The tone of the letter raised serious questions as to whether I could continue to have trusted even Tony Rome with the very execution of this case. There were thankfully five very loyal and trusted confidants that with great concern for my very survival, arose to caringly address my deep depression and together with their moral support I composed the following letter to Mr. Romo: (JLW,PhD Letterhead) March
4, 2000 Re: J.
Lamah vs. John Kramer, MD et al., Dear Tony:
I'm sure you know that I have always made it a point of respect to talk face-to-face with
anyone with whom I had a subject matter that required such a forum. That should have been
most evident with my recent trip to Oklahoma only to have attempted to speak with a
potential witness. Your very disturbing, faxed letter of March 1, 2000 afforded me no due
respect. The overall feel of the letter sent me into one very deep depression with
overwhelming desires to end my life. It was only the caring intervention of five friends
that had saved the day. You owe them a great deal of gratitude for having saved my life! Most
Depressingly & Despairingly, Joseph L. Walker Jr. cc: Robert Foster, Esq. (via facsimile #266-8797 only)
I never faxed
or even sent the above letter, as it was dated. I just didn't want to handle this awkward
situation in the same insensitive manner that Tony had addressed it. Instead, I later
intended to have taken two copies of my letter to our next regular weekly Thursday
(3/9/00) evening session and presented them to Tony and Bob Foster, the legal researcher
on our legal team of three. I had had the idea that I would have then departed that
appointed session and leave to them to decide for themselves as to whether they really
wished to have continued with the original contingency agreement. I had hoped that the
letter would have expressed exactly where I had firmly stood on the matter and the
specific conditions under which I felt comfortable with and confident in their continuing
the case. I have never cared for anyone who attempts to change the course of or agreed
upon conditions of a situation in midstream. Of course, Tony Romo kept insisting and
implying that I had somehow presented him with a case that had to be totally reconstructed
in order for him to continue successfully. I had presented him my Pro Se case very
much in earnest, but it was totally his own suggestion that I turn the matter fully over
to him for his informed and professional execution. I think that much of the problem
probably arose out of the typical opinion of too many well-trained lawyers believing that
they alone have the ability to think logically and legally. That thinking is probably well
founded in most cases and Tony just hadn't come to the full realization that I had been so
well trained and personally tutored in the skillful art of mental maneuvering and
synthesis. And most importantly, I was confident that Tony, despite his own lifestyle and
desire to have a significant impact on the discrimination against gays and others, had,
after all, been too skillfully trained in that revered establishment Georgetown law
school. He had most likely encountered an education that no doubt duly instructed him to
march to an established and recognized drummer that was probably more attuned to the good
old boy's status quo of still favoring and often unknowingly supported the legal
oppression of any and all minorities. BUSINESS
PLAN San
Damiano Orchids proposed to sell original hybrids and clones made from the
awarded plants bearing the 'San Damiano' clone name (see attached), but
not necessarily limited to these plants and the resale of certain quality
plants from other hybridizers. The
principle means of sales is intended to be mail order and through the
Internet with other supplemental sales locally and as a vender at regional
orchid shows.
The majority of sales would be seedlings and near blooming sized
plants produced from mostly, but not limited to, San Damiano's own AOS
awarded breeding stock with an estimated number of hybrids being no less
than 75 new crosses per year.
(See attached: crosses made between 12/29/98 and 3/24/99= three
months and 116 different crosses) Yield could be anywhere from 200 to 500 seedling plants per
cross, selling for somewhere between (depending on size and parentage) $
7.00 to $ 15.00 each in their immature sizes and mature plants selling
upwards to $ 35.00 depending of the quality of parentage.
I would estimate that resells would not exceed more that 20% of the
estimated business. It is
estimated that the above (based on only 40 successful of a possible 75 new
crosses per year) has the potential net income between $ 70,000.00 and $
75,000.00 after an estimate of 40% to 50% total in expenses, materials and
operating costs being deducted.
The above was just the cover portion to the actual figures that had
been employed to justify this summary.
Unfortunately the legal system's standard measure of justice is in
terms of money. The most
interesting aspect of this above exercise was the blatant realization of
just how much damage had been unknowingly inflicted on the part of the
American Orchid Society. I
shared all of this with Diann and expressed that I hope this situation can
be rightfully resolved. With
the lawsuit out of the way, just maybe we might have been able to get back
on tract and to realize some of our abandoned dreams about having an
orchid business designed and sufficient enough to justly support the rest
of my life.
The
Defense was preparing their own contrived recant to any efforts on our
parts and had apparently prostituted another “expert witness” into
denouncing any claims that I might present.
I don’t suggest that you necessarily read the entire report; I am
including it just to illustrate the extreme extent to which a Defense goes
in order to discredit the Plaintiff.
Most of this report seems rather factual on its face, but the truth
of the matter is that it is too often “comparing apples with oranges.”
I’m miffed that they weren’t able to produce an exclusively
orchid culture expert to defend their position: REVIEW
OF: (1) Business Plan for San Damiano Orchids, and (2) Written Report
submitted by Mark Werther, Sentinel Orchids Having
examined the business plan for San Damiano Orchids and the analysis
written by Mr. Werther, my comments are as follows: Part
one: Dr. Walkers Business Plan Nowhere
in Mr. Werther’s business analysis of San Damiano Orchids does he
indicate any loss of income or opportunity due to Dr. Walker’s status as
“not a judge.” It is obvious that Mr. Werther does not find the
connection between being a judge or not being a judge material to the
projections. I discovered some interesting facts which further
substantiate this common sense conclusion. The
American Orchid Society maintains a database of commercial orchid growers.
The database lists 286 commercial growers, 59 of which are A.O.S.
judges. In other words, only twenty percent of the listed companies are
owned or operated by judges. Of the five largest commercial orchid growers
in America, none are A.O.S. judges, which further proves that being
a judge is completely irrelevant in the business of selling orchids. Dr.
Walker’s own expert (Mr. Werther) clearly states that his company
(Sentinel Orchids) “evaluates vendors on performance, quality of plant
material and price.” This is a completely reasonable if not obvious
statement of how anyone would evaluate a vendor. To
further test my conclusion that not being a judge has no value for selling
orchids, I carefully went through the July 1999 issue of the American
Orchid Society Magazine. In forty-nine pages of pages of advertising,
there is no mention by any vendor of their status as a judge. Dr.
Walker states in the first paragraph of his business plant that he intends
to sell through mail order and the internet. There is no indication that
one’s status as a judge or not a judge has any relevance to success or
failure in either of these venues. Dr. Walker further states that his principal
sales will be done through the internet and mail order. The fact that he
would represent a catalog source and a price list to a very broad audience
eliminates the effect of any potential or imagined lpç~,i
prejudice. It is highly doubtful that an individual buyer in California or
Florida would know of any controversy surrounding Dr. Walker. Again
in the first paragraph of the business plan for San Damiano Orchids, Dr.
Walker states that sales will also take place at local and regional orchid
shows. Later in his plan, he states that he will participate as a vendor
in two local and eight regional shows. The attendance at these shows is
the general public, a small percentage of which may be AOS members. I have
personally attended dozens of these shows and have never seen a vendor
promote sales by stating they are an orchid judge. There is simply no
value in doing so~ Therefore, there would be no negative effect on sales
of San Damiano orchids as a result of Dr. Walker not being a judge. The
second paragraph of Dr. Walker’s business plan indicates an amateur’s
approach to plant culture. Growing on two levels in one greenhouse does
not occur in any high quality production facility in the world. The direct
consequence of growing on two levels is that plants growing on the second
level are subjected to an extreme shortage of available light. The two
most fundamental elements for the successful growing of plants are the
quality of light and the quality of water. Diminish either of these
essential inputs and you will devastate the quality of the plants
produced.1 1
See BALL RED BOOK 16th edition page 149. “Plants produced
under insufficient light levels grow slowly and have reduced vigor,
stretched narrow stems, poor branching, and small leaves”. This section
on Benefits of Supplemental Light by C. Anne Whealy, Ph.D. According
to reasonable and normal professional horticultural practices, San Damiano
Orchids has a 2,170 square foot capacity, less 20% for circulation and
work area, or a total of 1,736 square feet for growing plants. In
calculating this figure, I am giving San Damiano credit for space
efficiency I do not know exists. In greenhouse production one typically
loses 25% to 30% to aisles, work areas and shipping areas.
Extremely sophisticated operations with removable rolling tables can
achieve 85% to 90% space utilization. According to Dr. Walker’s business
plan, his breeding stock will take up 922.25 square feet. This would leave
814 square feet for production. According
to his business plan, he will produce and sell from this space $149,250
worth of orchids. This would give him an astonishing $183.35 per square
foot of sales. Attached is a copy of the Nursery Business Analysis,
performed by Man Hodges at the University of Florida. Table 8 compares my
company data to other nurseries in Florida. You will note that the
University of Florida economic analyst considers production efficiency of
$12.47 per square foot very high. Dr. Walker claims to be able to produce
at a rate of 14.7 times this very high rating. An
analysis of Dr. Walker’s annual expenses is problematic. There is no
substantiation for any of the expenses. With respect to the flasking part
of the business, according to paragraph two of Dr. Walker’s business
plan, he will produce and maintain 5,984 flasks of his hybrids. Assuming
10% of the flasks are mother flasks for replating (the process of
separating germinated seedlings and moving them to final flasks), Dr.
Walker is left with 5,386 flasks of plants to grow out. The
standard number of plants per flask varies from 25 to 40 plants. Assuming,
on the low side of the average, 30 plants per flask, Dr. Walker intends to
produce 161,580 young plants. Dr. Walker does not indicate anywhere in his
plan an intention to sell flasks. According
to Dr. Walker’s plan, he intends to sell in the fourth year a total of
7,290 plants. The question becomes, what does Dr. Walker do with the extra
140,000 to 150,000
plants that even he does not claim he will grow in his greenhouse? Will he
throw them away? Why produce them? Dr.
Walker indicates lab expenses will be $13,100 per year.
I assume this is for the consumables involved in the flashing
process. This appears to mean that very expensive equipment (laminar flow
hood, sterilization autoclave) already exists. This is consistent with the
rest of the expense charts, as the greenhouses appear to be free, also.
There is no cost of capital, and no depreciation. Let’s
look at what Dr. Walker intends to do. I will generously forget the
preparation time in the process of making flasks ready for use,
which would include: sterilizing flasks prior to filling with media or
creating the media from prepackaged mix; filling the flasks with media
under sterile condition; and sealing and storing them until use. Looking
only at the replating process (going from the mother flask to the final
flask), and assuming that Dr. Walker is a nimble and focused worker and
will generate 30 flasks per day, using his planned production of 5,984 flasks,
this process will occupy 200 workdays a year. All this effort is for
plants for which he has no planned or stated use. In
paragraph three, we are shown the detail of the business plan. Dr. Walker
will make orchid hybrids, and then sell plants at an overall net margin of
50% to 60%. This is the sum and substance of the plan. Dr. Walker
states that the “yield could be anywhere from 200 to 500 seedling
plants” from a single cross. The
correct number is more like 0 to 40,000 viable seed. Dr. Walker’s expert
correctly points this out in his report, stating, “a viable seed pod can
produce thousands of seedlings”. Mr. Werther further states “there are
also circumstances where only 20-50 seedlings are produced from a viable
seed pod” (emphasis added). What is unsaid but true is that a seedpod
that is not viable produces no seeds and therefore no seedlings. Following
Dr. Walker’s projections, there will be 40 successful crosses. These
will yield 14,000 seedlings. This result from 40 X 350 (in the middle of
Dr. Walker’s 200 to 500 production number) would require the production
of 467 flasks at thirty plants per flasks. Dr. Walker does not indicate
where he will get the seeds for the 5,517 other flasks he intends
to produce? At this point, one might say that Dr. Walker only said there
was a potential for 5,984 flasks, so we should just do the math
ourselves and understand that he will only make the flasks he needs.
However, the lab cost on an annual basis is consistent with the production
6,000 flasks, not 400. On
the expense chart for San Damiano Orchids, it appears that only
anticipated expenses in the third, fourth and fifth years are shown. The
numbers on the chart of expenses match the expense lines on the pages
marked third year, fourth year and fifth year. This is the first time I
have ever seen sales increase by 40 percent without incurring even $0.05
incremental additional expense. Dr. Walker ‘s business plan shows an
expense line for the first year of $52,000, and a second year expense line
of $54,650, but no details are given. It is unclear which expenses
Dr. Walker will or will not incur during the first and second years. I
cannot find the $24,000 difference in static overhead between year one and
year three. Nowhere
in any of the expenses is there provision for paid labor. This seems to
imply that Dr. Walker intends to personally carry out every function in
the nursery. Apparently, he will make all of the hybrids, harvest the
seeds, sow the mother flasks, replate the seedlings to final flask,
deflask the seedlings, pot them to individual pots or community pots, grow
and nurture the plants to a saleable stage, and market them through the
various channels described in his plan. Based on the projection that Dr.
Walker will spend 200 days in the lab and thirty days away at shows, he
will have 30 days a year to accomplish all of the non-lab and on-the-road
show sales. This assumes 5 days times 52 weeks a year, for a total of 260
days. Based on this assumption, it does not seem reasonable that Dr.
Walker can carry out all of the work involved by himself, but, as
previously stated, nowhere in the expense chart is there a provision for
labor expense. Even assuming the first and second years pass without any
help, it is impossible to believe Dr. Walker will be able to operate at
the projected high level of sales without any outside help. I
am at a loss to comment on the expenses of the greenhouse against the
anticipated production. Dr. Walker never states what he plans to grow,
only what he plans to sell. These will be two different numbers, as you
will never sell all that you grow and you will lose some plants along the
way. in other words, some plants will die. Dr. Walker makes no projection
of these numbers in his business plan. My
conclusion is that Dr. Walker has not presented a cohesive business plan.
He has placed words and numbers on sheets of paper that do not make sense.
Nowhere does Dr. Walker attempt to establish that a market exists for the
plants he intends to sell in the numbers he intends to sell them. The
issue is not whether or not Dr. Walker is an AOS judge, but rather whether
Dr. Walker is an effective and competent business person. He has not
demonstrated competence in the business plan presented! Part
Two: Mr. Werther —Sentinel Orchids In
his third paragraph of comments on “paragraph 1” of the San Damiano
business plan, Mr. Werther’s report indicates, “It is usual practice
for commercial growers to take advantage of acquiring high quality plants
from other growers and wholesalers for the purpose of growing the plants
on to larger size for resale.” Apparently, Mr. Werther is referring to
Dr. Walker’s purchase of plants for growing on. At first reading, I
thought that Mr. Werther was discussing a sales avenue for Dr. Walker. Mr.
Werther’s next paragraph states that use of the internet sales channel
and mail order is essential to reaching Dr. Walker’s target market.
We have already established that there is no value in being a judge
in this line of sales, and Mr. Werther never contradicts this. Mr. Werther
states, “it would not be unusual to reach 1000 accessing growers per
month using this medium”. He gives no information regarding what one
could reasonably expect sales to be as a result of 1000 orchid grower
visits to the site. Since Mr. Werther’s report gives no indication of
potential sales from the internet, I am using the only information
available to me. Garden.com is the leading internet provider of plants
(including orchids). Garden.com receives an average of 53,000 visits per
day, or 1.6 million per month. Their 1999 sales were five million dollars,
for an average over four hundred thousand dollars per month. That would be
three cents per visitor in sales. Using ten times that number for Dr.
Walker, and assuming he will get $.30 cents of sales per visitor to the
orchid mall and related sites, that would mean gross sales of $300 per
month, or $3,600 per year. From data provided, it appears that Dr. Walker
intends to spend $5,500 per year starting in the third year on
internet and advertising. In his third paragraph, Mr. Werther tells us the
internet was irrelevant prior to 1996, according to his “source” at
Antec Orchids (?). In Paragraph 4, Mr. Werther gives numbers. Dr.
Walker’s sales at orchid shows will provide gross sales of “between
$1200 and $6000.” The calculated average is $3600. Dr. Walker intends to
sell at ten shows per year, giving gross sales of $36,000 from show sales
per year. We are now up to $39,600 in sales per year, assuming Dr. Walker
has orchids people want to buy. Please note that Mr. Werther has not
indicated any number for internet sales, but has given guidance in his
expert capacity that Dr. Walker can expect $36,000 in sales from the
shows. According to Dr. Walker’s expense projection, he will have
$16,650 in various expenses associated with selling at shows. Even with
the huge margins Dr. Walker anticipates in his financial projections of
selling at double his cost, Dr. Walker will enjoy only a $1,500 profit
from his show selling activities. Gross sales ($36,000), less show
expenses ($16,500), less fifty percent cost of goods ($18,000) equals a
net profit of $1,500 for the year’s effort. All of the other projected
revenue must then be coming from mail order. The mail order business is a
very labor intensive activity, as it requires the handling of a great many
small individual orders, one at a time. In
his comments regarding Paragraph 2 of Dr. Walker’s business plan, Mr.
Werther correctly concludes that Dr. Walker must deduct 210 square feet if
he does not have moving benches. Mr. Werther agrees with Dr. Walker that
he can grow on more than one level. This is absolutely contrary to good
horticultural practice and is a clear indicator that Mr. Werther is also
an amateur grower. Mr. Werther calculates the number of plants Dr. Walker
may grow if they are all in 3 1/2” pots. Dr. Walker will certainly not
grow everything in 3 ½” pots. Mr. Werther further reflects that space
for the under 6000 flasks is possible. Mr. Werther never calculates that
Dr. Walker would consequently have 150,000 unnecessary plants in flask in
his possession. On the potted plant section, Mr. Werther tells us 2766 X 9
= 24,900. This calculation is meaningless in the context of Dr. Walker’s
business plan, since he states he will sell 4,500 3 1/2 “pots per year.
In Mr. Werther’s Professional and Horticultural Information sheet, we
learn that he has 1,200 square feet of green house space. We net that down
to 960 square feet of available growing space. Mr. Werther also states
that he has over 4000 plants. 1 must assume it would be close to the 4,000
number. That would be about 4 plants per square foot. This is less than
half the density Mr. Werther allows Dr. Walker. Dr. Walker never gives us
planting or growing cycle times in his business plan. Mr. Werther seems to
believe that growing plants pot to pot “tight fitted” throughout the
plant’s life cycle is a reasonable horticultural practice. This is
further evidence of Mr. Werther’s amateur approach to ornamental
production. Regarding
Mr. Werther’s reflections on Dr. Walker’s Paragraph Three, I agree
that Dr. Walker can make 75 crosses per year and that 40 of them are
likely to be viable. Orchid hybridizing is an extremely simple activity
and takes very little time and effort to accomplish. Mr. Werther goes on
to advise Dr. Walker that he could get a lot more seeds from his crossing
than he is now anticipating. Next, Mr. Werther suggests it would be a good
idea for Dr. Walker to mericlone his good plants. Indeed it would be a
good idea, but Dr. Walker does not mention it in his business plan. Why
does Mr. Werther mention this, unless to point out to us that Dr. Walker
does not include it in his business plan. Annual
expenses Mr.
Werther’s statement that he has “reviewed the line items expenses
under expenses and finds them reasonable” is indefensible. I pointed out
earlier that there is no expense for the capital cost of the greenhouses
or the lab equipment, and no depreciation. There is no production plan or
schedule. The expenses would be related to such a plan. It is quite
impossible to give an opinion of the expenses in the absence of this
information. Mr.
Werther’s conclusions on damages Mr.
Werther’s last section on page four deals with his opinion as to the
income loss relating to “negative information.” We are never told what
that negative information is. The only negative information that would
affect the success of San Damiano Orchids is a reputation for poor quality
plants, failure to deliver as promised, or above market pricing. The
very first thing Mr. Werther tells us is that he “evaluates vendors on
performance, quality of plant material and price.” That is how the
market works. He goes on to say, “there are some buyers who may shun
doing business with what they consider an anti-AOS entity.
Mr. Werther never states that Dr. Walker might have a problem
selling all of his plants. He states that, if the plants are good and the price is
right, he (Mr. Werther) could be a customer, and that some (an
unquantified statement) may not buy plants from Dr. Walker. As a
commercial grower, my company has hundreds of customers. We are restricted
to a far smaller potential market base because we sell wholesale only.
While we have hundreds of customers, there are thousands of potential
customers that do not buy from us. The question is, will Dr. Walker have
enough customers sell the plants he wants to sell. The determination of
that will be what Mr. Werther described as “performance, quality of
plant material and price”. Conclusion Neither
Dr. Walker’s business plan nor Mr. Werther’s report on same include
enough numbers. What numbers there are do not work. In my opinion, the
business plan does not meet even minimum standards and requirements for a
successful professional horticultural operation. I
have written this report based on the information provided. If further
information becomes available, it may materially affect my opinions and
conclusions. Respectfully
submitted,
I had a call on Friday from Dennis Davies-Wilson and he had
suggested that we might get together that weekend to start our joint
project of writing a book, An
Interview with Jesus in the Hot Tub.
I shared the total despair that I had experienced the previous
weeks and that I wouldn't be a good time to be creative.
We did, however, decide that his being here with me would be a good
idea. I felt I really needed
to have something a little more positive in my life and we agreed to take
advantage of a performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony was being performed
at Popejoy Hall that very Saturday evening.
We did the concert and followed it with a very nice dinner. It was just what the doctor might have ordered and Dennis'
company was most appropriate considering his long time friendship and his
particular involvement with my distressful and anguishing ordeal with the
American Orchid Society. March
13, 2000 The
Honorable Judge Black Re:
J. Lamah v. Aldrich, et al. Dear
Judge Black: I
have become so terribly desperate of late and so totally frustrated with
the entire dimension of this lawsuit that I felt I needed to put down all
the current causes, reasons and situations that are hounding my most inner
being and causing me to consider leaving this horrid world that I live in.
I feel like I am reaching
that final point of self-destruction that I had so prophetically alluded
to in the opening of my first book. "This
literary piece could no doubt qualify for the Guinness Book of Records as
the longest suicide note ever written. Providing,
of course, that at its conclusion I have actually undertaken that final
effort and ended this trying existence."
The other noteworthy delineations in both the first and second
books are the words of dedication of the two volumes "To: The
Oppressed Who Too Often Suffer In Quiet Desperation" and “To: The
Enslaved Who Ominously Toil In Utter Hopelessness.”
I never had the idea that I may have been addressing those profound
sentiments to myself as well. I
had the totally mistaken idea that perhaps an educated white male
mainstream American citizen might have successfully insisted on fair
treatment within this archaic justice system despite his un-chosen gay
life-style. No way!
Justice still seems to be preserved only for those who operate
within those biasedly established rules of law—written and unwritten--notably by those in positions
of power and all too willingly subscribed to despite their dire
consequences on some individuals.
Maybe
some day, some one else will succeed where I have failed? Very
Truly yours,
J.
Lamah
.
I never did send the above letter.
Composing it that Sunday helped me immensely to refocus and sort
regain a grip on living, and most importantly, to do so in the spirit of a
line from that Civil Rights' song; "Keep my eyes on the prize."
I had received a timely call from David Plumer that night.
And it was the second time someone had suggested that I might want
seek the services of that infamous Jerry Spence, who wouldn't have so
likely been as easily intimidated as I had perceived Tony possibly being.
In any case, David and I had agreed that before I might have
possibly sent the above letter to Judge Black, I might ought to follow the
sage advice of Joanne Bodin and visit Judge Black's courtroom and see just
how well he deals with real justice.
What a tragic drama this whole legal situation had become and it
wasn't about to end anytime soon. (Romo
& Associates) Re:
Lamah v. Kramer, et al. Dear Counsel: Plaintiff
also wishes to schedule the deposition of Mr. Norito Hasagawa on April 10,
April 11 or April 12, 2000. To
my knowledge, Mr. Hasegawa is not represented by counsel in this cause of
action. Therefore, while Plaintiff will he noticing the deposition,
my sense is that Ms. Parden may want her office to handle communications
with Mr. Hasegawa. If not, I will be happy to contact Mr. Hasegawa to
coordinate the scheduling of the deposition.
In any event, because Mr. Hasegawa is not a party and the inherent
cost of the travel, I will procure a Subpoena Duces Tecum and get it
served at the address listed in the American Orchid Society membership
address book, Please advise me of your availability. This
letter also confirms that all counsel agree to postpone the depositions of
individuals from the American Orchid Society, the Rocky Mountain Judging
Region, the Great Plains Judging Region and Ms. Anita Aldrich until such
time in the summer of 2000. I
will prepare a stipulated order to that effect for your consideration.
Anthony Lawrence Romo Anthony
Lawrence Romo Enclosures:
As Stated cc:
Robert Foster, Esq.; Client (each by facsimile only) Julie
left late Friday morning and I had immediately left to collect another
late rent from one of my tenants. I
actually got half of the rent by following him to his place of employment
where I collected his endorsed paycheck. The excuse for the short payment was that his employer didn't
pay him for all of his reported hours and the person responsible for the
shortage wasn't present to make any corrections.
I supposed it was just another of those creative excuses along with
the promise that the balance would be paid the following Monday.
This added/unanticipated trip to the other end of town to insure at
least this partial payment caused me to miss my last scheduled meeting
with the psychologist. I
called Dr. Roll and we rescheduled for that ensuing Monday.
(Romo & Associates) Re:
Lamah v. Kramer, et al. Dear
Counsel: I made a
mistake in my letter to you of March 15. 2000. My office inquired as to
where the originals of the experts witness reports tendered to you on that
date should he filed, In the process of reviewing the letter to answer the
question. I noted the following.
Plaintiff’s
witnesses Dr. Koster, Dr. Morrison and Dr. Wilson The stated
premise should have been restricted to Dr. Wilson, Dr. Koster and Dr.
Morrison are each treating physicians to the Plaintiff. That being the
case, pursuant to D.N.M.I.R-Civ. 26.3(b)
Dr. Koster and Dr. Morrison need not prepare an expert witness
report as otherwise required of expert witnesses by
Fed.R.Civ.P.26(a)(2)(B). I
have already told Ms. Parden that I have no objection to the deposition of
Plaintiff’s experts by counsel for Defendants anytime before Labor Day,
2000. As such, I
hereby amend the sentence that is the subject of this letter to read as
follows. Plaintiff’s
witness Dr. Wilson heretofore designated as an expert witness is now
designated as a fact witness for the Plaintiff. Looks like
I’d be well advised to work in a little rest this weekend.
Anthony Lawrence Romo Anthony
Lawrence Romo Enclosures:
As Stated cc:
Robert Foster, Esq.; Client (each by facsimile only) Monday
was my appointed time to finally replace the windshield in my van since
the one seriously stone-inflicted blemish had finally developed a
noticeable crack that had then crossed nearly the entire windshield.
After that timely installation I had had another appointment with
the psychologist, Dr. Sam Roll. That
turned out to be a most interesting encounter in which he had wanted me to
relate the story behind the lawsuit.
It was during this session that Dr. Roll realized just how
extensive the involvement was and some of his body language and non-verbal
responses clearly indicated that he had possibly gotten the deeper message
of just how totally damaging this whole experience had been for me.
He was particularly taken with my report of what I had addressed to
the Trustees in Baltimore emphatically suggesting the lack of a realistic
need for the American Orchid Society if they were only to have grown
orchids indigenous to the homelands from where we blue-eyed, blond people
had originated. His revealing and sympathetic response disclosed that he was
originally from Columbia and was more than intimately aware that the vast
majority of cultivated orchids came from some other part of the world
where the people perhaps had a little more pigment in their skin and
certainly darker eyes. For
someone that I had originally had my serious suspicions about, the session
left me feeling much better about this Colombian who was seemingly aware
that my specialty in orchid culture, Odontoglossums came from his native
land? He was even familiar
with the very name, Odontoglossum. An
added bonus to his overtly observable appreciation of my situation was my
having tactfully mentioned that the American Orchid Society had even had a
history of anti-Semitic sentiments as well.
I had later learned that Dr. Sam Roll was Jewish and it still
remained the reality that this paid professional was to receive his fees
for a report that would support the position of the Defense.
Our session was limited to the usual hour and though the both of us
had originally thought that this session was going to be our last, my
story turned out to being too long to have finished in just one intended
last session. Dr. Roll
suggested that we have at least one more hour together so that I could
finish the story. |
|
A WOMAN SCORNED Thy shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. I'm not fully convinced that in this present world of ours this profound postulate and one of the Ten Commandments is always adhered to in an environment where truth itself seems an increasingly rare commodity. I had certainly continued to encounter the incessant betrayal of others throughout this whole legal ordeal. Most of my bad experiences were more akin to simply being abandoned as though I had developed some hideous form of the plague. That's not too far from the truth since I did actually acquire full-blown AIDS in the later part of 1995. It was within a month of my rueful diagnosis that I had first met Pete and Lee McAnena. Don and Nona Church, members of the then newly formed orchid group known as the Zia Orchid Growers, called me and said that they had wanted to bring a couple out to San Damiano to have a look at the orchids. This first meeting with Pete and Lee eventually took place on the last Sunday of October. I had just recovered from over a month of ill health that had felt to me like a very debilitating case of the common flu. I remember having been very anxiously concerned that the severity of that exhausting encounter with this illness was probably related to my compromised immune system due to the HIV virus that I knew I had had since sometime in 1986. I felt then that with having had some ten years of survival and living pretty much of a normal life without anyone having any actual knowledge that I might have been one of those victims of this outrageous Twentieth Century plague was rather miraculous. I had imagined that it was finally my appointed time to have squarely faced the despairing music. I'm sure that my less than usually bubbly demeanor and drab appearance still showed some slight signs of my having been seriously ill, but the enthusiasm of meeting new people interested in orchids gave me the strength to putting on a good show for the McAnena's benefit. We had dinner that evening at a local cafe and pretty much bonded at that very first meeting. Lee in particular was very warm and she instantly connected with me at a level that I later came to understand was our mutual experience with having to face the possibility of a premature death. Despite my usual suspicions associated with chiropractors in general and their all-too-oftentimes identity with that questionable practice of ambulance chasing and possibly even insurance fraud, I found Lee McAnena's vivacious personality quite alluring. It is sometimes amazing that we can so easily set aside our misgiving apprehensions when we so easily choose to do so. Lee routinely assisted her husband in his chiropractic practice and she reminded me so much of my own mother whom very willingly and effectively handled the finances of my stepfather's personal counseling practice. High on Lee's list of daily duties was the dealing with lawyers, settlement claims and insurance companies. This constant involvement with lawyers and lawsuits had given rise to Lee's having enrolled in some paralegal courses that helped her have a better grip on guiding the various insurance claims of many of their chiropractic patients. Lee had apparently checked out the local orchid society and wasn't very impressed. I might add, for good reason! She liked what she had learned from Nona Church about the people in the Zia Orchid Growers and our own mutual ease at hitting it off at that initial dinner combined to getting her deeply involved. It was only a couple months before I was hitting on Lee and her husband to consider the American Orchid Society's judging program. Lee had been growing orchids in her own greenhouse for a considerable number of years and it was quite obvious that she had a real zest for the hobby. I had explained how the judging program had been most helpful in networking with the orchid community and besides the very good education, it offered the opportunity of a privileged access to orchids that was not always made readily available to the public at large. My other most pressing motive for having gotten any number of local growers involved was the hope of eventually having an AOS judging center right here in New Mexico. It is such a long-term and costly commitment that it usually requires people of some means to be able to accomplish the task. Pete and Lee McAnena had what I considered to being just the right qualifications and temperament to be a part of that orchid future in New Mexico. In February of 1966 I had convinced Pete and Lee to pay a visit to the Great Plains Judging Region in Oklahoma City and get a firsthand impression of what the student-judging program was really all about. I made the usual Friday trip over on that third Weekend with only Lee aboard, as Pete had to work that Friday. The trip over gave us the chance to really get to know one another. I was very encouraging of Lee to get involved despite the fact that I had recently withdrawn from the program because of all the nasty happenings. I explained most of the problem as simply being more associated with the group in Denver and that the judges in Great Plains had appeared to being a little more tolerant of my life-style and certainly more supportive at this time. I deliberately avoided sharing any of my health problems with Lee on this trip over to OKC. To that specific point in time I actually hadn't had any good reason to suspect that anyone outside of my immediate family and only a very few selected friends had any knowledge of my having HIV/AIDS status. That Friday night Lee and I shared a motel room just as I had on so many other orchid occasions with Diann O'Neill. There was never any appearance of or suspicion of any impropriety with any female companion since my gay orientation was not considered conducive to any sexual misconduct with the opposite sex. It was, however, apparently something of a new experience for Lee since I remember her specifically requesting that I not tell Pete that we had actually shared a room. I felt like this was a bit of a risqué adventure for Lee and I believe it only added to our enjoyment of one another and one of those little private intimacies that only helps cement a good relationship. Lee McAnena was always fun to be with and displayed an exceptionally good sense of humor. She also kept everything very quite equitable and more than contributed to the shared expenses of these trips to Oklahoma City. Pete flew to Oklahoma City on that Saturday morning and joined us at the Oklahoma State University’s OKC agricultural center where the monthly judging meetings were held. Both Pete and Lee were each hospitably invited to join one of the judging teams and were instructed to participate as though they were regular students in the program. This gave them a real taste of the program and Pete and Lee both expressed just how much they really enjoyed the people and were made to feel very much like family. They both enjoyed participating in the judging despite their having had no previous experience. The entire meeting turned out to being a good first impression on both sides and Lee began at that point to give serious consideration to getting fully involved. Pete on the other hand was very interested but realized the difficulty of being at work all day on Friday and being able to be in Oklahoma City the next day in good time for the full program. The activities started with the student program at 11:00 A.M. and the earliest flight didn't arrive until the noon hour. On the way home that Saturday night from this judging, I felt comfortable enough to have shared with the McAnena's, my delicate health situation. Their being health professionals, I was sure that they would be sympathetic to my situation and ever more importantly, Lee had most comfortably shared on the way to OKC that she was recovering from cancer. She confessed that she had had the distinct impression that something serious was going on with me when we had first met. Lee said that her own close encounter with the imminent possibility of dying gave her a natural instinct of identifying others with similar conditions. This intimate exchange and sharing of our near-death experiences gave us a particular close connection and understanding of each other's zest for life on a day-to-day basis. We mutually and with our tongues in cheek coined ourselves "The class of forty-two." It was this very immediate Sunday that I had had that most disturbing and fateful of all calls from Bill Heath that eventually led to my overly distressed knowledge that "everyone in the AOS" knew that I had been diagnosed with AIDS. That was a shocker considering that I had only told immediate family and two other people in the whole world. We had had a Zia Orchid Growers' meeting that Sunday afternoon, which was very stressful since I had just had that distressful call from Bill Heath that very morning. Lee with her own health-cross to bear was so exhausted from the OKC quick turnaround trip that only Pete had attended the ZIA meeting. I should have been home myself except that I didn't want to let on that anything had become rather “rotten in Denmark.” It was that night that the shit really hit the fan when I finally learned that it was Lois Dauelsberg that had actually let that damn proverbial cat out of the tightly-closed bag and that she was apparently not the only person to have related this once privately held information to Bill Heath. I didn't share any hint of these very stressful phone calls with Lee until a few weeks later. The next month Lee attended a joint meeting of the Zia Orchid Growers and Escalante Orchid Society in Santa Fe. This is where Lee got her first bad taste of the local conflict with the Denver judging center. There were two orchid-judging students from Los Alamos that had recently gotten into the Rocky Mountain judging program and they had obviously been well misinformed and coached on the then non-AOS status of the newly formed Zia Orchid Growers. They were particularly rude with some of their misinformed comments and Lee found the rather cool atmosphere and reception by some of the Santa Fe snobs that were in attendance so objectionable that she had emphatically suggested to me that ZIA simply have no further association with either the Santa Fe or the Los Alamos individuals. I had explained that the unusual tensions were not necessarily related to nor shared by the general membership of either group, but most of the stirred-up controversy was certainly attributable to Lois Dauelsberg. It was shortly after this joint meeting that Lee had related to me that Lorri Ericksen, the only commercial grower in our area, must have likewise had knowledge of my AIDS as Lorri had specifically inquired of Lee as to "how is he doing?" in reference to my health. Lorri having had such a long relationship with Lois Dauelsberg, it was rationally assumed that Lois Dauelsberg had probably conveyed my HIV/AIDS to Lori in the same contriving and condescending manner as she had related to Bill Heath. Lee and I continued to make several additional trips to the monthly judgings in OKC for the remainder of the year. In July of that same year 1996, I finally made a trip to Salt Lake City hoping to have learned just who had also informed Jean Schroder of my having AIDS. I learned that Jean had knowledge on that same fateful Sunday when Bill Heath related that Lois wasn’t the only person that had related their knowing. It was the very next month following what turned out to being an unsuccessful effort at information gathering that I had acquired the devastating knowledge that Jean Schroder had subsequently and unconscionably communicated my HIVAIDS status to the Oakeleys of England. Jean had sort of justified her most flippant actions to me by telephone by telling me that after all "everybody in the AOS knows about this" and that "the Oakeleys have a right to know!" I found this added sarcastic statement of the supposed Oakeley's rights quite objectionable in light of the fact that I had specifically communicated to Jean Schroder on that July trip of my gross objections to the American Orchid Society having violated my specific rights of maintaining the privacy of my HIV/AIDS status. Jean Schroder had apparently totally disregarded my stated objections and proceeded to tell any number of other people in the orchid world. Upon hearing of this egregious breech of my private information, Lee McAnena began suggesting that the rising problems with American Orchid Society's deliberate refusal to appropriately address the situation might need to be approached in a serious legal fashion. This was, of course, Lee's particular area of extensive experience. It was then that I had assembled all of my saved paperwork to that point at Lee's strong urging and started taking immaculate notes on everything associated with the problem. I never did throw anything away, but it was specifically Lee McAnena that had gotten me in the habit of making extensive notes to myself on a regular basis. That note taking was eventually the very groundwork of the first book that I had subsequently written. Lee became my most attentive confidant and I kept her posted on every little bit of related information that subsequently arose from the dastardly situation. It was in large part due to my relentlessly encouraging Lee to get involved with the judging program despite all the increasing turmoil that gave rise to my own re-involvement with the AOS. What was good for the gander was certainly appropriate for the goose! In October I had received a rather intriguing call from Mr. Lee Cooke, the executive director of the American Orchid Society and upon sharing the provocative contents of this communication with Lee McAnena, she had suggested that I immediately put into writing the jest of the entire conversation. That exercise helped me to better understand the most likely plausible but totally unexpressed covert motives of Mr. Cooke and later led to my writing a rather rightfully caustic letter to the man. That letter, no doubt was the central reason that this misguided Executive of the AOS later made it his own business to “deal rather harshly” with this thorn in the side of the AOS hierarchy. It was just a week later that Lee McAnena was along for another of those monthly trips to OKC for what had to be my greatest award triumph in the American Orchid Society. One of my better specimen plants, Odontoglossum Rawdon Jester 'San Damiano' received the highest quality award available, a First Class Certificate (FCC/AOS) for mounting up more than ninety points from the judging team that was assigned the plant. At that same monthly judging this plant also scored more than ninety points for a Certificate of Cultural Merit (CCM/AOS). This award gave me that one-up position on the only other judge in the program with whom I had any friendly ongoing competition. Max Thompson had probably received more awards at the Great Plains Center than any of the other judges and it was Diann and I who encouraged Max to participate individually in display competition where he began to rank up the same kind of consistent winning that we had experienced. In the meantime, Pete McAnena had decided to get himself more involve with orchids and planned on setting up a laboratory for the flasking of seeds. He converted a portion of his garage into a state-of-the-art laboratory and approached the whole project like an excited wide-eyed kid. Pete viewed this project of his as a very significant contribution to our plans of having New Mexico become a thriving orchid center. Pete had offered to do all the lab work that would have been such an integral part of the San Damiano orchid business. I had even arranged for Pete to meet R. J. Rands of Malibu, California and take a look at his own lab setup. Ray Rands is an excellent orchid grower and hybridizer that does all his own flasking. His particular specialty is Paphiopedilums. Lee McAnena was excited about her husband's projected contribution and sad that this lab work was right up his alley being that it is so science based. Even though it appeared that Pete wasn't apt to have engaged himself in the student-judging program, this was his way of adding something significantly needed for the growth of orchids in the Southwest. By the time the first of the year had rolled around, Lee had pretty much influenced me to seek council and initiate some form of legal action. I ended up engaging a lawyer that had been suggested by Ray Gabaldon. Because lawyers typically suggest that clients cease talking to anyone that might be at all involved with any potential litigation, I had cooled a great deal of my usual attentions with others associated with the American Orchid Society, Lee McAnena included, but certainly to some lesser degree since she was such a close associate and the very person that had encouraged me to pursue the matter further. Of course, Lee still remained my closest confidant in most all of those various and sundry matters involving the American Orchid Society's most questionable misconduct, and particularly since Diann O'Neill was still residing in Texas. It was as things began to deteriorate that summer with those first floundering lawyers that Lee starting hinting and strongly suggesting that I might want to pursue the lawsuit as a Pro Se litigant. She had suggested that I might explore that possibility with a then good friend of hers and lawyer, Judith Finfrock. I sort of put the whole situation on the proverbial back burner and had once again hoped that I might have gotten the matter settled without the further employment of any lawyers at all or even the involvement of litigation. The potential of my finally being elevated from student to probationary judge was finally being addressed towards the end of 1998 and I had pretty much turned my attentions in that more positive direction. Lee had suffered sort of an unexpected setback with her own health situation and her attendance to monthly judgings became rather sporadic. It was sometime during this period of time that I had shared with Lee just how lucky I had been to have been introduced to the State of New Mexico medication programs specifically designed for people living with AIDS. I was likewise fortunate to have had the Ryan White program that paid some of my medical bills that I couldn’t have possibly met because I had no medical insurance to cover the high costs When I had first met with Dr. Koster in January of 1996, I had not wanted to start any of the medication regimens for my HIV. I had previously shared the psychological care of some of my own clients with the medical care of some of Dr. Koster's AIDS patients while I was working as a volunteer therapist at the New Mexico Aids Services. This was back in the early 1980's when AIDS victims were dying almost daily that I had made up my mind that I didn't want to endure the awful side effects of medications and the often-false hopes usually associated with many of the earlier treatments. Dr. Koster had insisted that I at least try the newest proposed regimen that had just been approved, which was soon to be designated as the cocktail. I conceded to his convincing urging with the specific understanding that I would only take the medications, if in doing so, it might actually benefit some future recipient. When I related that I had no insurance or other viable means of meeting the high costs, Dr. Koster said that there were some great programs available to people with full-blown AIDS. The next thing I knew, I was meeting with the University of New Mexico Health Center's resident social worker and filling out all kinds of paperwork. It was ironic that UNM, was now going to be aiding me, where I had once unselfishly given them more than a year of my professional time as a volunteer some ten years prior. Our good deeds and charities that go around just sometimes thankfully come around! Good karma? I later shared this unsolicited blessing with Lee McAnena and told her that I was so lucky to have rearranged my personal holdings and finances some years previous because I had then seriously thought that I was going to be dead. People were routinely dying from this awful disease! My sister had never taken any action on the transfers of my interest in some of my real estate holdings, including that of my personal residence, with that compassionate consideration of my enjoying the appearance of living a normal life until I had expected to die. I kept living way beyond any of the then reasonable expectations and the previously executed deeds had gotten trustfully filed away until they were to be deemed as necessary. So much time had past that I wasn't even sure who had the deeds or where they had been placed. I shared all of this rather personal information and my concerns with Lee McAnena, trusting that she was the kind of confidant one could confide in. Having wanted to be most sincere and honest about the accurate reporting my holdings as being in my sister's name, I suggested that I may have had the need to execute newer documents that clearly indicated just what had been my previously earnest intentions. I don’t like to be in the situation of having any appearance of impropriety. Well, all of this confidentiality concerning my having done the right thing with Lee came back to unjustly haunt me with her later suggesting to the Defense that I had asked her to falsify some "affidavit" about my financial status or holdings. What was so ridiculous about her maliciously contrived accusations was the fact that I hadn't even know her long enough for my supposedly solicited "false statement" to have had any legal credibility. If I had really needed to solicit some false statement, I would have rightfully engaged the help from someone who actually knew of the original transactions that had been fully executed in the late 1980's or at the very least, someone who knew me back then. I have many very close and trusted friends that I would have more likely engaged in such an uncouth and certainly unexpected behavior for me, had I really needed someone. Lee had spitefully implied that I had made false statements in order to get "free medication" from the State of New Mexico. The truth of the matter is that I had actually forgotten this whole scenario because I was later quite self-assured that the documentation was somewhere to be found. It was December 16, 1999 that Lee had called the house as a follow-up to a letter that she had composed on the 15th and sent to me. She had gotten John on the phone in my absence. She spent almost an hour trying to get John to agree with her biased and contrived take on this totally fabricated story of hers. She had absolutely no luck with him as none of her bullshit held up under the truth and facts of the matter and when I had returned later that evening and returned her call; Lee once again attempted to indict me with the same bit of crap. She was so doggedly persistent that it soon became all too obvious that she was on some sort of devious mission. I remember having the very distinct feeling that she was probably on a fishing expedition specifically for the Defense. I willingly played along just to see where she was attempting to carry the story while never giving in to her unfounded flights of contrived fantasy. I immediately shared this misguided woman's attempted indictment of me with Tony, and he only responded with the flippant suggestion that it was probably only the verbal rattling of some aging idiot. It was so out in left-field that he suggested that I not pay any attention to her and simply avoid any further contact with the bitch. In any case, I decided to retort her accusations in her letter as well as this bizarre telephone call by immediately writing the following letter: December
18, 1999 Lee
McAnena Re:
Your letter of December 15, 1999 Dear
Lee:
I
wish to be clear on some of your "facts."
You said that I had asked you to "falsify an affidavit a
couple of years ago regarding all of your assets so that you could
continue receiving your meds from taxpayer dollars while I have to pay all
of my expenses." Not so! I had
made a statement that the home I live in belonged to my sister.
I could not find any evidence (an executed deed) of that fact and
related this to you in confidence saying that I may needed to execute a
deed and date it so that it would support my thought to be false
statement. I don't like to
lie, and I had made the claim in good faith.
I was very disturbed that I couldn't support the fact.
I believe you said that you wouldn't be willing to do that, even
though I was only trying to create what I thought was already in
existence. I had actually
executed deeds for ALL properties of any value to my sister many years ago
when I thought I was going to be dead.
If you had brought the subject to my attention again/later, you
would have learned that the reason I did not have any actual documentation
in hand was because my sister had retained the deed that had been executed
sometime in 1991. It
was at about that same time that I also singed over my apartments. Very
Truly yours
Joe Dear Joe, As promised in our
conversation a quick response to your letter. I think you had a senior
moment in regards to Max. Applewood Restaurant is in OKC. Yes, I
encouraged you to go pro se after your first attorneys dropped the case. I
was at your home going through reams of legal paper and eating Chinese
food when I found out that Max was to be included in the suit. I expressed
my upset about Max being included in the action. You told me you did not
have a choice. The meeting you
referred to occurred at Applebees’ when you met my friend Judith
Finfrock. Judith covered many aspects of the action from research, costs,
legal strategies, and defendants. The conversation did not center around
Max. As I recall the main event was how much money could be had from the
AOS and if there was a basis for the lawsuit under ADA as well as other
tort possibilities. You also covered your reasons for wanting to bring the
claim which was counter to the money issue. As I recall Judith was
answering a lot of questions that you had regarding the entire matter. I
was not involved in any of the decision making between you and Judith at
that meeting or at any other time. You know how many
times I have expressed to you that I am heartsick that Max was included in
the lawsuit. I know you have stated that you did not have a choice, and
you are trying to rectify the situation in the legal area; that is a major
chore. I hope it is resolved in Max’s best interest. Lastly, I want to
clarify the matter of the affidavit. You specifically asked me to back
date an affidavit regarding your property. I told you that I could not do
and would not. Let’s keep the
communication lines open and save some trees by using the invention of
Alexander Graham Bell.
Lee October
27, 1999 Max
Thompson Max, I
am pleased to learn that another national award has been granted to a New
Mexico grower. I
do not have any problem with the award or the recipient.
There is, however, a slight problem with the clonal name.
As the copy of the enclosed letter to Orchid of Waianae indicates,
there was an order placed, and when it arrived it contained several clones
of Blc. Erin Kobayashi 'Amy Chen.' Amy
Chen is Masa Chen's daughter. I
distinctly remember these clones being amongst the order and suggesting to
the other participants that they might want to take one for its superior
quality—I already possessed one on the originals from a previous order
as a gift from Masa. The
original clone was the result of
a selfing of the originally awarded Erin Kobayashi. I had received in the earliest part of this decade several
siblings from the same selfing and one of them had this darker lip.
I had hoped to enter it for judging, but after Masa bloomed this
superior one (much darker lip), I abandoned any hope of mine ever being
considered an improvement. I
do not recall any of the original Erin Kobayashi selfings being included
in this shipment. Masa has
always been extremely generous with me as you may know and his having
included several "expensive" clones would not be uncommon. I shared these plants with Lee and Karl because I already had
them in my own collection. I'm
confident that Lee must have simply failed to transfer the proper clonal
name to her own tags. Once
again, the clone had never received an AOS award, and I fully concur with
its having received the national Cattleya award—rightfully belonging to
Lee as the grower, but there might be a serious consideration of
correcting the clonal name rightfully to 'Amy Chen.' I
do not intend to make an issue of this matter, but I am deeply concerned
that Masa Chen receives any benefits for having cloned this particular
Erin Kobayashi.
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APPEARANCES BETRAYED JUDGE NOT, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. I am quite sure that most of us are guilty of sometimes jumping blindly to judgment without really considering the unique juxtaposition of the person we are judging. Buddha had proclaimed that before a judge be supposed to pronounce any judgment on an accused, he should make an earnest attempt to stand in the sandals of the defendant. San Damiano is the name that I had given this bit of earth and the residence where I presently reside and would hope to spend whatever time I have left on this planet. It is indeed a most stunning and beautiful home in a grand setting with views that some proclaim are “to die for.” To the uninitiated and those whom have no idea as to the whole story behind this modest estate, San Damiano could be perceived as an ostentatious display of wealth. I have often, in a modestly defensive manner, suggested that such a holding is only relative to some unseen bigger picture. The home is certainly attractive and spacious, but if I were to tell you that it belonged to the Rockefellers, you would very likely judge the residence as something considerably below your instantaneous expectation considering their reputation for immense wealth. I had once abandoned my beloved San Damiano and left for California because this house's outward physical appearance had too grossly overshadowed its actual and intended inner spiritual nature. Even in this ferocious battle with the American Orchid Society the presence of this lovely home has been maliciously targeted by the Defense as physical evidence of a flagrantly negative and materialistic portraiture of its actually sensitive occupant. Just to get the record straight, I had decided to take a brief pause from expounding the chronicle of the legal proceeding of this lawsuit and share the rest of the story of this San Damiano. All of this, just to insure that the truth be known to all! It was sometime around the end of the year of 1983 that I had had a call from a friend of mine who lived on the east side of the Sandia Mountains opposite Albuquerque, New Mexico. This friend, Ken Stegemiller, was looking at some vacant land in a subdivision just south of where he was presently living. Ken wanted me to take a look at this prospective piece of property and give him my professional opinion as to whether it might be a desirable location for a new residence for he and his partner. On the next Monday morning I went to the real estate office of Dick Holben, the realtor who was in charge of the sales at that time. I inquired as to the availability of a plat so that I could view this particular lot for my good friend. While I had Dick’s attention I inquired whether there were any lots available in the range of five acres and he said that there was one lot that was about 4.6 acres located at the lower end of the subdivision. Most of the available lots were about 2 acres on the average. I proceeded to survey the lot my friend had inquired about and found it quite acceptable for his own intentions. I’m sure that his principal concern had to do with the existing rough terrain, as this area is rather severe in places being in the immediate foothills of the Sandia Mountains. I next visited the lot suggested by Dick as being close to five acres. As soon as I had walked on the property I got the most unexpected chilling feeling that I was somehow walking on sacred ground and immediately proclaimed this bit of land as “a place of healing.” I proceeded to the rear of the property and discovered the most majestic views that rather took me by surprised since this lot was not only at the end of the subdivision, but most notably at possibly its lowest of elevations. I suspect that this exceptional location had been unintentionally overlooked because it wasn’t amongst those “top-of-the-pile” lots that occupied the highest elevations and that were situated along a rather dramatic ridge of brightly-colored lichen-infested rocks all of which have a rather spectacular view of the southern portion of the Sandia Mountains as well as an exceptional view of the Tijeras Canyon where Interstate 40 runs east and west and divides the Sandia Mountains from the Manzano Mountains. As I continued exploring to the end of the property, as I could estimate it from the plat, I encountered a most interesting rock formation that was essentially flat on top and partially exposed from beneath. It was larger than a standard-sized card table and had a distinctive indentation close to its center where I could easily ascertain that water had collected during periods of precipitation. The instant feeling that I had was that this rock had probably been sat upon in the past, probably by a native American and had with little doubt been a place where deep contemplation had been repeatedly encountered. I readily and without any cognitive thought or hesitation designated this rather unique site as “Meditation Rock.” Returning from this lower portion of the land, I had the strangest thought that “I will never own this place, but I will certainly become its most consummate and constant caretaker.” This whole experience was definitely mystical in nature and I had decided right then and there that I was going to be living on this sacred land for the rest of my life. Just to confirm the veracity of these unanticipated feelings that I had experienced, I immediately called my niece, Julie Good, who had moved to Albuquerque to attend the University of New Mexico. She inspected the property with me the very next day and warmly confirmed my unusual feelings about the spiritual nature of this land. That Tuesday evening I approached Dick Holben with an offer that was some five thousand less than the asking price of that particular lot and got his firm assurance that the developers would not accept any offers below their established asking prices. I instructed Dick to make the offer in any case and was confidant that if this land was truly to be part of my future, that they would accept the offer. It was the very next day that Dick gave me a call and with a surprisingly astonished tone, informed me that the developers had indeed accepted my initial offer and did so without any hesitation. Was I surprised? We closed on the property that very Friday and the die was duly cast as to the intriguing future of San Damiano. It was just a few years before the purchase of this land that a friend had brought a video movie to my apartment on Chelwood Park for our mutual viewing. It was a film directed by Franco Zeffirelli entitled, Brother Sun, Sister Moon. The film focused on the early years of Francis of Assisi, who sought communion with the natural world by renouncing his family’s riches to seek his own destiny unencumbered by material possessions. Francis was, in a sense, history’s first “Drop-out”; he left a life of comfort to seek a spiritual union with the world. It was somewhere in the middle of this film that some of Francis’ friends inquires as to where he had disappeared to following his untimely return from the Crusades and the answer given was, “San Damiano.” This San Damiano was a church that had been abandoned and was in serious ruin. San Damiano is the Italian name for Saint Damian, who along with his twin brother, Saint Cosmos, were both canonized as patron saints of physicians. They had been crucified around the third century for having given away (in the spirit of Christian charity-agape) their medical services, which apparently offended the officials of the eastern Roman Empire. I was so taken with the melodic sound of San Damiano that I instantly proclaimed at that moment that if I were ever to have a home of my own, it would be lovingly called San Damiano! Little did I know at that time that the land I would eventually discover would in like manner impress me as “a place of healing.” And so what was my vocation at the time I located this sacred ground? I was volunteering as the first openly gay therapist at the Student Heath Services at the University of New Mexico. For almost two years following the purchase, I meditated on this land, planted some fruit trees and tulip bulbs and just waited patiently for the land to speak to me and instructed me as to its particular needs. I knew that when the time was right I would be inspired as to what kind of structure this land would dictate and support. During the end of my short tenure with the University I had a week’s vacation, which I had planned on using to visit a good friend of mine that had recently moved to Colorado Springs, Farron Hurst. We had met at the University of Oklahoma while we were both enrolled as doctoral students. I had taken with me a pad of paper to scratch on should I have any ideas pop into my head about the future of San Damiano. It was upon retiring the second night of my visit that I instantaneously set up in bed and within seconds roughed out the basic structural design that now exists and known as San Damiano. I got up the next morning and cheerfully announced to Farron and his partner that I was immediately returning home to Albuquerque to see if this bit of instantaneous inspiration was going to actually fit and just where it would be situated on the bit of land that I had been meditating on for so many months. I left Colorado Springs first thing that morning and drove straight to Cedar Crest and walked off my initial measurements. It was almost perfect with one except; the proposed side entrance to the garages was an obvious impossibility since there was an estimated 23-foot drop in the land from the northwestern corner of the house to the southeastern corner. These proposed garage entrances on the eastern side of the house would have required the construction of a bridge to be reach. The rest of the proposed structure and internal designed remained entirely in tact as it had been so designed in those few seconds of pure inspiration. Within just a few months I had located a draftsperson, Laura Sanchez of Las Lunas, New Mexico, to actually draw the working plans as I had too little time to do the details myself. I had in the past drawn a number of residential plans for customers when I was active as a general contractor. The kind lady that I had located was very excited about this unusual project and within just a few weeks I had the working drawings completed and was beginning to get excited about initiating the start of construction. At just about this time I voluntarily departed my psychotherapy position with the University mostly due to some political matters that seemed less severe with the exciting prospects of San Damiano on the near horizon. With the job out of the picture, I focused my attentions on the future of San Damiano. The permit for the construction of the residence was for some 7200 square feet of roofed construction. This sounded like a project that was far beyond my financial scope at that time, but I was quite confident that there was some good reason that the universe had handed me this unforeseen project. One of my mother’s three sisters, Vivian Little was my grand-patron aunt who lived in Washington, D.C. and who had a notable influence on my personal life as well as the physical existence of San Damiano. Vivian had earned her Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in Baltimore in the area of romance languages and ended up working for the government cataloguing the contents of foreign medical journals for the Department of Health by writing (translating into English) synopsis of current medical-research articles. In the late seventies I made two trips to D.C. to visit Vivian. The occasion of the first trip was a heart attack that my aunt had suffered and it was on this trip that she had given to me, “for only my safe-keeping,” that most prized Persian rug in her collection. It was from Qum, Iran and was, according to her, a museum quality wool and silk hunting scene about five by eight feet, roughly. This rug’s primary colorization was a rich blue and its appropriately appointed placement in the dinning hall at San Damiano naturally dictated the use of blues in decorating the entire room. The specially designed/crafted twelve-foot dinning table as well as the built-in buffet along one wall both have the same cobalt-blue ceramic tile inlaid and the upholstery on the dining chairs is a dark sky-blue. I hardly ever enter this very special room without gazing at and marveling at the intricate beauty of this now hanging blue gem-of-a-rug at the head of the room. This distinguished rug and certainly this dinning area as a whole with its aurora of blueness brings to mind warm thoughts of my loving aunt, Vivian. On that second trip to D.C. my aunt insisted that I prepare her Last Will and Testament. She had no carnal trust of lawyers and likewise didn’t want her estate to end up in the hands of civil authorities. This Last Will and Testament that she had entrusted me to create for her ended up having a direct effect on the eventual outcome of San Damiano. Besides the above-mentioned Persian hunting-scene rug, my aunt had acquired quite a collection of other quality Persian and Oriental rugs and at my unbiased suggestion, she left her rugs as well as the entirely of her modest estate to be divided equally amongst her five surviving heirs. As fate would have it, she died in 1984. So, with my share of her estate, I ended up with enough great-looking rugs to fill the entire house as well as a tidy sum of money to finish paying off the remaining cost of the lot as well as to finance some of the initial costs of the foundations. The residence was constructed at just that precise period of time in our country’s history when both the Federal and even then the New Mexico State governments through tangible financial subsidies were strongly encouraging the use of solar alternatives to conventional power sources. I had intentionally, and independent of any of these governmental encouragements, designed the home to be heated with the employment of solar resources. In doing so, I serendipitously had the majority of the costs of installing the extensive mechanical equipment along with about a mile of ¾-inch copper tubing in the floors paid in large part by these generous governmental subsidies. Even the engineering costs of this solar application became part of the subsidized project because the company that was ultimately engaged to do the installation offered the engineering as part of the total package. So I was able to install a state-of-the-art heating system at a final cost that ended up being far less costly than a conventional force-air system. A conventional heating system would have been eternally expensive just to operate and maintain considering the unusual size of the residence and the ever-rising costs of propane gas. Many thanks are due to aunts as well as that sometimes-generous Uncle Sam! It took over five months to bring the whole project to the stage where there was finally a concrete slab poured and readied for the conventional wood framing. This unusual amount of time was rightfully due to a number of uncontrollable circumstances. This particular spring was wetter than usual and it took almost a month just to have the septic tank properly installed after acquiring the necessary soil-percolation test results. Because of the existing terrain and the necessity of the septic tank and drain fields being physically located behind the house, their installation and tractor/grading work had be completed prior to the construction of the house due to a problem of access were the house built. The next expense of time was also due to the terrain where there existed that twenty-three foot drop in elevation from one corner of the house to its diagonal in the rear. I didn’t wish to disturb my own bit of the mountain anymore than was necessary and in order to accommodate the elevations it was necessary to construct some of the stem walls of the foundation as much as ten feet high. This also required a great deal of fill dirt to bring working levels up to grade. At my constant insistence all of this massive construction took place in a manner that wouldn’t disturb any of the natural vegetation including the lichen-infested rocks that were everywhere to be avoided. In the course of construction I only have to remove two indigenous trees by carefully placing the house in an area that was already mostly devoid of any native vegetation. The various rocks that had occupied the immediate land where the house was to be constructed were gathered and placed in a pile until they were to be later incorporated into one of the residence’s three fireplaces. The next consummate time-consumer was the solar floors of the house. It was the specific design of the solar system that the floors of the house also serve as integrated sources of heat-storage. This was accomplished be creating a foot of what is referred to as a ‘solar mass’ that was separated from the natural earth by a one-inch piece of rigid Styrofoam serving as an insulator/barrier to avoid any heat loss to the earth. On top of this one-inch insulator were four to five inches of masonry sand and it was in this sand that the ¾-inch copper tubing was placed running back and forth across each of the eight heating zones with about twelve inches of spacing. There was extensive care given to special sliver soldering since any of the copper joints were going to be permanently beneath a four to five-inch concrete slab. Plumbers, by building codes, will never have a soldered joint beneath a slab, but the extensive tubing required in a solar floor makes it practically impossible to complete any of the given zones with even the longest lengths of flexible copper tubing that are commercially available. Besides the careful placement and soldering of the copper, there is rigid testing for any possibly leaks that requires at least a week of keeping the tubing under pressure and maintaining a column of mercury at a prescribed level. In the dinning hall there are two large chandeliers that hang above that massive table. Because of the ‘blue’ theme of the room, I wanted to have something that I considered was more esthetically compatible than the usual ‘brass’ and certainly not something too ornate/feminine as in the appearance of so many of the crystal offerings. The majority of the lighting fixtures in the residence all came from the Georgia Lighting Company in Atlanta. My father had done business with Harry Gillam for some number of years and I understand that when my father had constructed his own special residence that Harry had gifted him the lighting fixtures. Well, I made a trip to Atlanta to shop at this very special locale that could often be seen advertising in Architectural Digest at that time. Harry was almost equally generous with me and only charged me some twenty-five cents on the dollar for any of the fixtures that I selected. When I expressed my very specific need for dinning chandeliers and specifically ‘two’ that matched, the kind lady that had assisted me showed me these very exceptional silver with gold trim items that were from Italy; she only had ‘two’ of them! To this day, I have the distinct feeling that these entirely unique, made-to-order chandeliers were always destined to hang at San Damiano, another Italian original. And like so much of the rich appearance of the residence to those who have no clue, I only had to spend pennies on the dollar. When you first enter San Damiano from the main entrance, there are three recessed glass-covered cases opposite the doors. One of these embedded cases; the largest one in the center contains a Bear Kachina carved and decorated in the Navajo style. Shortly after I had moved into the home in the spring of 1986 I paid a visit to The Turquoise Lady, a shop in the Old Town of Albuquerque that specialized in the sale of Kachinas. The proprietor of the shop was a very kind lady by the name of Cathren Harris. I inquired of Cathren which of the Kachinas represented healing and she proceeded to instruct me that there were three that were each considered “healers”; the Badger, the Owl and the Bear. I had decided that the Bear, known by its Indian name as the Hon, was my Kachina of choice and Cathren Harris suggested that I consider purchasing one that had been carved by a member of the Jemez Pueblo named Johnny Burgess. She said that she had some examples of his work “upstairs” and proceeded to take me up these old stairs to what was sort of a storage room. She actually had about six of these large, beautifully carved cottonwood Kachinas that were being held for a northern New Mexico rancher, Albert Mitchell, which had special ordered these Kachinas to be used as trophies at the New Mexico State Fair rodeo. She cautiously added that it might be some time before Johnny Burgess was to be making any additional Kachinas, as he was currently quite preoccupied with the politics of the Jemez Pueblo. In any case, I had decided then and there that this great-looking Bear Kachina was just what the Medicine Man of San Damiano had ordered and I prepared myself for the unspecified wait. Several months passed and I received a call from Cathren Harris of The Turquoise Lady and she inquired as to whether I was still interested in purchasing the Bear Kachina by Johnny Burgess. I said, “yes” immediately and headed for Old Town to give her a deposit until I could come up with the full purchase price. When I arrived she proceeded to tell me the rest of the story. It seems that shortly after she had initially shown me those Kachinas that had been sold to Albert Mitchell there was a tragic turn of events. Mr. Mitchell and one of his sons were flying down to Albuquerque in their private airplane when it crashed, killing both of them. Cathren waited for what she had considered a respectable period to time of about three or four months, and when there was no effort to pick up the order, she decided to go ahead and let me have that original Bear Kachina that I first inspected in that upstairs storage room. I thanked Cathren Harris for having remembered that I had specifically wanted to acquire the Bear and gave her my modest deposit with the stated assurance that I would have the remainder in very short order. It was within a week that I had gathered the remainder due on the Bear Kachina and headed for Old Town. When I entered the shop she told me that Albert Mitchell’s wife had actually showed up in the meantime and picked up that initial order. Cathren said that she had explained that she had no idea that the order was to ever be honored and took it upon herself to sell one of the Kachinas to a gentleman that was particularly interested in having a Bear Kachina carved by Johnny Burgess. The kind wife gave her approval and said that it was no problem; that she was only honoring her husband’s prior commitments and that the rodeo for which the Kachinas were intended had long since passed. I later learned that the wife had died of cancer about six months after her husband. The very strange circumstances surrounding my ultimate acquisition of one of Johnny Burgess’ Bear Kachinas gave me serious pause and it all reconfirmed for me that San Damiano was indeed “a mystical place of healing” that had a mind and direction of its own, and I was only the “caretaker.” It was at least two years later that I finally turned my attention to finishing the library. It was the only room remaining in the central portion of the residence that was unfinished and still showing its bare studs and exposed wiring. It required three weeks of rather intense concentration for my nephew, Matthew, and me to custom design and complete the oak-finished interior. The entire room including its vaulted ceiling is custom-paneled and trimmed in solid red oak, and with the exceptions of the arched entrance, one modest-sized window and seat opening to the north and the door to the dark room, the entire library is imbued with repeated sections of built-in shelving. Two-thirds of the shelving is oak-finished to house books and the remaining is tempered-glass shelving with glass doors designed to protect the shell collection that I have acquired over the years since I was only four and living on gold coast of Florida. I have endearingly designated this very specially appointed room as my “Old English” library because of its intrinsically warm feeling, oak finish and the two very special English hunting-horns chandeliers that are also from the Georgia Lighting Company. Each section of shelving has its own recessed lighting that is controlled by a master dimmer switch. It is this one singular area of the entire residence that I warmly consider as my own, private space that is exclusively mine. This is where my trusty computer resides and where I am able to think and create whatever is put to paper these trying days. Many visitors often select this particular room as their favorite. Again, the appearance is sheer opulence to the uninitiated; to me it was simply a time-honored labor of love and a creative use of affordable oak-veneered paneling trimmed with solid red oak that was aesthetically enhanced by endless hours of the tedious employment of an ordinary Sears Craftsman’s router giving texture to every exposed corner. Add to this unique woodwork a lot of sanding and the proper applications of deep-toned walnut stains and you have another room that screams of pure unadulterated luxury. The appearance is unquestionable and the truth of the matter, is that its actual costs are probably little more than what anyone else may have forked-out for only four painted walls of an ordinary room. It seems that I am giving a blow-by-blow description of San Damiano and my only intention is to sort of relate that the appearance of things can be necessarily deceptive without the full knowledge of the unseen circumstances. I can rap this thing up with a quick over-view of the remainder of the house. The grand room is over one thousand square-feet with an eighteen-foot vaulted ceiling in the center portion where the brick masonry fireplace takes advantage of this added height. It is in this area that I often decorate a fifteen to seventeen-foot Christmas tree. There is a parlor sized Knabe grand piano at one end of this room and all of this adds up to another one of those appearances of grand things. The height of this room is due in large part to that enormous drop in the land’s elevation and this necessarily ‘sunken’ room simply takes advantage of what nature had already over-generously provided. The guestroom’s most obvious feature is a Kiva fireplace in one of its corners and along with its custom-made southwest furniture and Pueblo Indian artifacts, the room is specifically designed to give the overnight visitor the distinct idea that they have spent the night in this magic Land of Enchantment. Another taste of elegance that defies it appearance! Next to the guestroom and separated by a bathroom suite with sauna is a fully equipped gym. It is sad to say that this mirrored gym, equipped with a five station Marcy piece of workout equipment that was well intended just doesn’t get the workout that it rightly deserves. From that point you take a couple steps down along with a couple of turns in the hallway into the master suite where all of those collected lichen-encrusted rocks I mentioned before have been laid into a two-sided fireplace. The other side of this fireplace is where the Jacuzzi is located in a separate sunroom off of the master suite. Everything about the master suite speaks of ‘two.’ This is the area of the residence that is certainly my own private space and at the same time it was obviously designed to accommodate two individuals. The vanity has two sink, the large shower designed for two-at-a-time has two shower-heads, and the walk-in closet is divided equally with matching cabinetry and two oriental garden seats for putting on shoes. As I write this, half of the closet remains empty, waiting for some special occupant. This past summer I re-tiled that shower and incorporated nine custom ceramic tile orchids into the floor. I hand crafted and fired the orchid tiles myself and modeled them after some of my awarded orchids. Off the master suite is a private deck that has a grand view of the Tijeras Canyon and the southern end of the Sandia Mountains. You can reach this redwood deck that candelabras slightly out over a modest cliff by traversing a barely elevated redwood boardwalk. I specifically designed and constructed this raised boardwalk to keep visitors to San Damiano from trampling what I endearingly and often refer to as “Mother Nature’s million-dollar landscape job.” There is no way to adequately describe the endless beauty of the colorful lichens that encrust the boulders along with the various cacti and yuccas that mysteriously grow in the cracks of the cliff and throughout the landscape. The rest of the indigenous vegetation is an interesting mix of scrub oak, mountain mahogany, western junipers and piñon pine trees. Shortly after I had finished this residence my mother called me from Houston, Texas where she was visiting. She had just purchased two used Mercedes, one diesel and the other gasoline. She would never own a foreign car herself, but she asked that I come retrieve these two cars. She requested that I drive them both for a while and decide which of them that I wanted to keep and then sell the other. Her more than generous and certainly amusing reasoning for this unexpected purchase; “Every grand home should have at least one Mercedes parked in front!” Even my own sainted mother had so interestingly attested to the ostentatious outward appearance of my most beloved and certainly cherished San Damiano. This very distinguished San Damiano has been both a blessing and at times sort of a curse. It’s unique and at the same time deceptive appearance, which has only been improved over the years, once sent me off to California to die. I felt so oppressed and too often misjudged by so many people that only saw me as that rich “lord of the manor,” and gave me far too little credit for the incredibly loving person that I am known as by others. I didn’t want to depart this earth and have this misconception as my only epitaph. It was on this perceived final destination of life to Mendocino, California that I had met John Howell. In the last twelve years that he has been part of this intriguing San Damiano, his artistry and decorating skills finished off the final touches to this elegant home and now we give guided tours to all the visitors. In this same twelve-year period with John, I also added those two greenhouses in the rear of the house, a koi pond and with John’s added touch of a grass lawn; I now often refer to San Damiano as “an estate.” Last year I even added another of those unfinished boardwalks all the way down to that very mystical and spiritual place that I initially christened as, “Meditation Rock.” So much for the physical appearance of things! I sometimes feel equally burdened with my intellect and certainly the number of college degrees that I have earned. But even more than the education I have received over the years, I have been duly blessed with an exceptional mind that has that unique ability to retain the essence of so much of what I have learned. And at the same time I have often been accused of having that abstruse and intensely innate ability to synthesize otherwise unrelated information. Some may wish to see this as some kind of profound confusion; I often see myself as having opened that verboten Pandora’s box or maybe I just too enthusiastically devoured that forbidden fruit from that Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In either case, I have never hesitated questioning the status quo of any subject matter and often offend those who too easily continue to naïvely gobble up the multitude of false mythologies and beliefs. I have too little tolerance of those who refuse to deal with palpable truths that are all too well grounded in reality; call it science if you must. And it is not only the physical sciences that are often serendipitously denied their proper and full acknowledgment, the innate metaphysical nature of man is equally ignored much too often in favor of some diss-empowering religious belief or doctrine. I frequently sense that I am thoughtlessly labeled as that egotistical type probably because I dare to postulate ideologies that fly squarely in the face of conventional wisdom, and I certainly do so with such a commanding sense of reality and a conspicuous air of absolute authority. I have a recondite confidence about my own given ability to accurately discern the obvious truths of our existence all of which was probably inadvertently due to an extraordinary gift of self-empowerment that was lovingly bestowed on me by my own mother. My mother when I was about twelve years old sat me down one day and thoughtfully explained, “I have not had you baptized because I have always wanted you to chose your own faith.” Coming from the daughter of a Church of God lay-minister, I would say that her behavior was rather liberal. The tangible message that this more than thoughtful and empowering pronouncement had for me was that I had the innate ability to think for myself and to not be inordinately pigeonholed by some external ideology that may have had no recognizable semblance to reality as part of my own grand view of the universe. Of course, all of this didn’t really occur to me at that given moment; it did firmly set the groundwork for my own style of self-actualization and my life-long mind-set of viewing this world through my own eyes. The other subtle lesson that this timely scenario with my mother had so intuitively taught me was my unblemished respect for every other individual’s immutable right to think for himself or herself. Until some people really get to know me well, they often get the miscalculated impression that I am rather dogmatic and opinionated. That stoic confidence that I so easily display in expressing my own perspective of the world is often too hastily taken as an aggressive tactic in some covert attempt to alter their own set of cherished and often excessively protected beliefs. I am most adamant about the abstruse notion that it has been the truth that has set me free from the overly oppressive bondage of so many falsely postulated doctrines. And I am admittedly too ardent at times and don’t always make it equally clear that it is my zealous position on that specific freedom of individual thought that is far more important to me than anyone viewing the world with my own set of personal values. I just don’t believe that most individuals take the time to ever seriously question what they have been fed so serendipitously and simply chose to remain in that perceived safety zone that I often refer to as “blissful ignorance.” Keep in mind that slaves don’t labor for themselves; likewise, those of us that are enslaved to other’s contrived doctrines and beliefs don’t have to think for ourselves. That revered Freedom Seeker and consummate rebel-rouser of some two thousand years ago suggested that we employ our minds as well as our hearts when worshiping/loving our gods. Historically, the church has always labeled those who dared to think for themselves as heretics and too often simply eliminated them all together. It seems that our human race has inadvertently become a flock of weak-sheep that have simply adopted a state of ideological complacency as an inevitable and certainly indispensable survival tactic. How dare I suggest that you think for yourself! And even worse, how terribly arrogant and egotistical it is for Joe Walker to elucidate as a given fact that most established Christian churches as well as other world religions are full of that proverbial dogmatic shit. Another illusory appearance of things that inadvertently betrayed the reality of my actual emotional condition was my relationship with John Howell. On the surface I am sure that it appeared that we were intimate lovers when in fact our loving relationship had justly evolved into an unusual friendship of mutual convenience. At the time when John and I had initially connected, I had no idea that I was going to be living more than a few additional years and truly felt that John would make a great companion for those final days. We were intimate lovers at the onset of our relationship and when that phase had passed all too quickly, there was so much mutual compatibility established that we simply continued our relationship with separate bedrooms. Many observers would simply assume that we must have had an “open” relationship since either of us may on rare occasions dated other men. In that state of mind believing that I didn’t have long to live, I just didn’t have any great desire or motivation to seek another partner. And, when all that shit finally hit that proverbial fan in the American Orchid Society my energies got entirely focused on the conflict. It seemed to me at that time that the appearance of a stable home-life would be more favorable to my lawsuit and neither John nor I had any reason to do anything else. The truth of the matter; this external appearance of our private lives being something that it wasn’t in actuality was just another major contributor to the broader fantasy that Humpty-Dumpty was a whole and happy guy prior to the disaster. But once again, what may seem so apparent based on the outward appearance of things, may unjustly betray the reality of a totally devastated and hopeless-feeling human being. I had so little desire to live and with the lack of any binding personal relationships remaining in my life, it was only that altruistic drive to deal with that hideous and oppressive bigotry still so prevalent in our society that actually kept me alive. I really wish that John had been more than just the friend that he had become because there were too many of those lonely nights when I really needed someone just to hold me and help fight those haunting daemons that were relentlessly tempting me with the contemplation of suicide. When you live in grand house, have a Mercedes, as old as it was, parked in the front and display a happy external demeanor, I guess it would be safe to assume that one might be perceived as being somewhat rich or at least enriched. So terribly far from the truth! I had for two many years been living with a negative cash flow believing that I wasn’t going to be around to have to pay the damn bills. I finally put a first mortgage on San Damiano in 1997 to catch up and the added mortgage payment only made things worse in the long run. I am so attached to San Damiano in an emotional sense that I just can’t bring myself to sell the property in order to rearrange my finances into a more survivable and economical reality. In the spring of 2001 I even went so far as to investigate the idea of filing bankruptcy. A plausible idea for some, but I only discovered that I had too much equity remaining in my home that was still on public record as being mine even though I had earnestly executed a deed over to my sister many years ago, again, thinking that I was going to die. The one realistic and viable possibility that I had once seriously considered was establishing an orchid business with my friend Diann, but the unhealthy and dire situation that arose within the American Orchid Society applied the most thwarting skids imaginable to that idea. The spring had become so dire for my personal finances that I sort of declared my own style of bankruptcy. I simply ceased paying my credit card bills and this cessation was particularly inspired by a letter that I had received from one of my credit card creditors. I guess that despite the fact that I had always paid my bills for the amounts due and often a little bit more to get them paid down more quickly, this particularly company had decided to increase my APR to such a ridiculous rate. What was most disturbing about their reasoning was that it “appeared” according to their reporting agency that I was getting in over my head. It was actually true, but instead of helping the situation, the policy was to make it even more difficult for me to ever bail out of debt. Just hit the hell out of a man when he’s already down for the count. Can you believe twenty-eight percent (28%) and just at the time when interest rates were actually decreasing in the country? This following letter eased any conscience I might have had about taking these calamitous financial matters into my own hands.
people’s
bank
Joseph L/Dr Walker
181
March 27, 2001 Dear Joseph
L/Dr Walker, After careful
consideration, we find it necessary to increase the Annual Percentage
Rates (APRs) on your People’s Bank credit card account. This change will
take effect on May 19, 2001.* Your
APRs will increase to 27.99% APR (corresponding daily periodic rate of
0.07668%). These APRs will be in effect for all existing and new
purchases, balance transfers, cash advances and default pricing. All other
rates, benefits and fees will remain the same as disclosed in your credit
card agreement, which is amended from time to time. Recently, we
reviewed how our customers are managing their credit accounts with others
and us. We used a scoring system that assigns a numerical value to the
various items of credit bureau information we consider. Our experience has
shown that this score is an indicator of an individual’s likelihood to
make payments on time. The main reasons you did not score well are: • The total balances on your bank credit cards and lines of
credit are high when compared to the total amount of credit available to
you on those accounts. • You have a large number of credit card accounts, including
bankcard and retail accounts, and other credit lines, with balances
exceeding 50% of their credit
limits. • The total balances on your installment loans are relatively
high compared to the original amount borrowed. Our credit
decision was based in part on information obtained from Equifax Credit
Information Services. They supplied information, but had no part in our
decision and will be unable to answer any questions regarding why we took
this action. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you have a right to know
the information contained in your credit file at Equifax Credit
information Services. You also have a right to a free copy of your report
from them, if you request it no later than 60 days after you receive this
notice. In addition, if you find that any information contained in the
report you receive is inaccurate or incomplete, you have the right to
dispute the matter with them. Equifax Credit Information Services If you would
like to contact us please write to us at P.O. Box 7092, Bridgeport, CT
06601 or call us at (203) 338-2700, 8:00 a.m. through 12:00 midnight ET,
Monday through Friday. Sincerely, *If you request
your billing date to be changed between March 2001 and May 2001, the date
that your APRs increase may be earlier or later in May 2001 than stated in
this letter. The Federal
Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits creditors from discriminating
against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national
origin, sex, marital status, age (provided that the applicant has the
capacity to enter into a binding contract); because all or part of the
applicant’s income derives from any public assistance program; or
because the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the
Consumer Credit Protection Act. The Federal Agency that administers
compliance with this law is the FDLC, 15 Braintree Hill Office Park,
Braintree, MA 02184.
I realized that I was about to totally destroy my once impeccable
credit, but I decided that the credit ratings could go down the tubes in
favor of my attempting some sane manner of surviving.
The one piece of property that I wanted to be sure was totally
protected was my San Damiano. During
the first weeks of May, I executed a rather hefty mortgage to my sister so
that any would-be creditors would have to stand in a long line should they
attempt to fiscally encumber my home.
This was just sort of a housecleaning measure, a belated
followed-up to my initial intentions of having San Damiano in my
sister’s name in the event of any untimely death.
Considering that suicidal ideations continually plague my thoughts,
it was an appropriate step to take in any case.
I had also taken similar legal steps to protect my half-interest in
those apartments that I already shared with my sister.
The idea of having no future credit at that time was rather
comforting for me since it would definitely stop me from getting in any
deeper. The night of the day
that I filed all my papers at the county clerk’s office was actually the
first night that I really had any good sleep in too many years. |
SOLICITATIONS Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; . I'm not convinced that in this present world this profound and well-intended idiom, probably given in some assurance of discovering the truth, is always applicable in an environment where truth itself seems such a rare and illusive commodity. The greed-fed prostituted Defense sought every bit of information about me that could only be employed to discredit not only my good character but to distract from the noble cause to which this whole case was dedicated. That enigmatic expression, "the best defense that money can buy" was most relevantly applied throughout this entire case. One of the most disgusting items for which the Defense must have employed either wire-tapping or surveillance in order to obtain the information was evidenced in the following action received by Mr. Romo April 12:
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT J. LAMAH, an
anonymous JOHN KRAMER, M.D., et al.,
NO. CIV 98-1403 BB/KBM AOSs FIRST
REQUEST Defendant American Orchid Society (AOS), by and through its attorneys of record, Madison, Harbour, Mroz & Brennan, P.A., pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 36, propounds the following Requests for Admissions to plaintiff. In accordance with Rule 36, please admit or deny the following requests within 30 days from service of these requests. Pursuant to SCRA 1-036, any requests that you have not properly admitted or denied within 30 days after service shall be deemed admitted.
1. Admit that you engage in sexual relations
approximately once a month with a married man other than John Howell. MADISON,HARBOUR,MROZ & BRENNAN, P.A.
By:
SPard--
I
was so disgusted with this obvious bit of dirty assault tactics on my good
character. This private matter
that had absolutely nothing to do with the case at hand and was obviously
employed to intimidate my position. The
gentleman that they refer to is a friend of long standing and who, for his
own psychological/sexual and most private reasons does visit my home some
three to four times a year (sometimes I don’t see this man for as much as
a year). John Howell and I have
both been intrigued with this man's hit-and-run manner, which both of us
agree appears much like the adolescent behavior of some naive boy scout. The whole affair is a very private matter and I was most
insulted that the prostitutional Defense would risk exposing this innocent
man in the name of their depraved and perverted manner of defense. Of
course, I rightly denied their statement since there was a gross error in
their over-calculation of the frequency of these intimate encounters with
the "married man." I
chose to place this particular item at the head of this chapter even though
its actual chronology is a little out of synch because it so dramatically
demonstrates the Defense's malicious solicitation of facts that aren't at
all relevant to the case. My
most private sexual behavior is of
no valid excuse for the malicious discrimination and the abhorrent behavior
of too many members of the American Orchid Society.
And the most relevant fact of all is that during this period of time
that this “married man” was making his visits, there was no acts of
infidelity on the parts of either John or myself since our actual
relationship was no more than good friends that lived in the same home.
Because I wasn’t dating and making no attempts at forming a new
relationship, this man was my only sexual contact and for those of you who
wonder; yes, there was only the practice of safe sex.
The fact of the manner is that the relationship was so mild there was
no need for condoms—if you get my point.
And any further explanation is absolutely none of your business. April
4, 2000 Re-
J. Lamah v. Kramer, et al. Dear
Mr. Romo: As
you are aware, defendants believe there are significant problems with
plaintiff's case against these defendants.
First, Kramer and Thompson have pending motions to dismiss this case
due to lack of personal jurisdiction. Based
upon plaintiff's testimony, I believe there is a high probability that the
Court will grant these motions. Additionally,
based upon what die Court stated in its September, 1999 hearing, defendants
plan to file a motion to dismiss the AOS for lack of personal jurisdiction. We also believe there is a high probability that the Court
will grant that motion. Defendants
have numerous pending dispositive, motions, and intend to file more
dispositive motions on the merits of this case.
Again, defendants believe, there is a very high probability that the
Court will find that there was no defamation.
Additionally, as plaintiff had told approximately a dozen people of
Ms health condition prior to any purported disclosures by these defendants,
we believe the Court will rule similarly on the invasion of privacy claims.
Plaintiff has already conceded the ADA claims; we believe the Court
will find that any other purported claims of discrimination are barred by
the exclusivity of the remedy of the ADA. In
regards to damages, plaintiff's expert reports are clearly speculative,
which will be demonstrated by defendant's experts.
We believe that pursuant to a Daubert motion, the Court will
preclude plaintiff's expert testimony.
Finally, various witnesses, including but not limited to Lee McAnena
and Karl Siegler, will testify, in substance, that plaintiff specifically
stated he had no intent to ever run an orchid business for profit.
Finally, we anticipate that Dr. Roll's testimony will minimize any
purported emotional damages by plaintiff. In
summary, liability is questionable and damages are speculative, We believe
that Judge Molzen will point these facts out to plaintiff at the settlement
conference. However, in an
attempt to resolve this matter prior to such time, defendants hereby extend
an offer of $17,500 to plaintiff, which offer is open up to and through the
settlement conference of May 8, 2000.
Sincerely yours,
Shannon
A. Parden Via
Facsimile #555-1313 only Dear
Ms. Parden: Thank
you for your two letters of this morning. I am forwarding the settlement offer letter to Mr. Walker.
My sense, however, is that there is no need to be delaying or
canceling anything based on the amount of Defendants' offer.
As to the other matters: 1.
I have requested that Mr. Werther make himself available at his
office on April 19, 2000 at 9:00 a.m. Passover begins at sundown and this
should allow us to wrap up the deposition before.
I have asked Mr. Werther to bill you directly for all his time
associated with his deposition. 2.
We are checking with Dr. Koster's office.
I will ask Dr. Koster's office to bill you directly for any charges
pertaining to his deposition. 3.
I am happy to enlarge the time for Defendant's to respond to
discovery propunded by Plaintiff so long as we have until April 18, 2000 to
serve any response briefs that are due to you.
I have been sidelined with other things and cannot make it by April
10th. In addition, we will
respond to Defendant's latest RFP by April 27, 2000.
If you need time beyond April 27, 2000 let me know. 4.
Can' I notice Mr. Lee Cooke for Monday, May 15, 2000 for his
deposition at the AOS offices? 5.
The plaintiff and Mr. Foster will be present with me at Ms. McAnena's
deposition tomorrow afternoon I
will arrive a few minutes early tomorrow afternoon to discuss any issues
pertaining to the above. I am
out of pocket on other things the remainder of today. I
look forward to seeing you tomorrow afternoon.
Anthony
Lawrence Romo IN
THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT PLAINTIFF’S
OPPOSED MOTION TO FILE FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT
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