Monday, May 03, 2004

HOMEPAGE

So, as you know I have been making all of this public. By all of this, I am of course referring to the whole of my Polish situation; all of the court documents, all of the names, all of the letters from my attorneys, etc. I k now you know this because if you are reading this right now the connection is obvious.

But I have also been speaking to the press about this. Why? Well, public is public and I have felt that I am doing my small part for the bicyclists and those who would be hindered by extortion and oppression at the hands of the system. And I want just compensation for what they did.

So I have been speaking to some members of the press. Amongst those who I have talked to is Tatiana Menaker. You might remember her name from a few months ago. I blogger her story as I felt that there were a few connections to my own; She is a first generaltion American, from russi, Jewish and was “had” by a local political group from San Francisco State University, where I also have a rather large connection to- being graduate from there.

So when I got word of her situation, I wrote to her and told her about myself and my own situation and offered what support I could for her. That is why I blogged her story and helped to make her a little bit more public in her fight against injustice. Simple. I don’t remember that I insulter her, said anything about her writing style, choice of occupation or lifestyle. I do recall that I opined that perhaps her direct approach to the administrator who started the fiasco that led to her original expulsion from State might have been better directed elsewhere, but under the circumstances, I don’t think that was out of line and in fact might have been somewhat helpful to her overall cause.

But I also asked if she would be kind enough to mention my situation in her writing. Injustice s injustice and a San Francisco connection is a San Francisco connection. But other than some spam and odd jokes concerning the democratic party- apparently Ms. Menaker follows the elephant- she had not until a short time ago even returned any of my letters. I pushed a little and in return, received the following, which I am reprinting unedited:

Dear Adam,
I didn't have time to read about your situation. I am not out of the forest yet myself. War doesn't stop in one day. You need to get together all the pieces of your life including abandoned business, ruined semester, fucked up financial situation with thousand dollars in losses, and even bad situation with my youngest kid in high school which is crying for attention.
Without even reading about your situation in Belarus I can tell as experienced business woman and many times visitor to Russia and person who had business with Russia for many years.
Run away! Take your girl if you can't imagine your life without shiksa and run! This is the main reason why Jews always were treated like shit and killed in those areas because the poulation was generally corrupt and stupid. And still is.
You can work with former Soviet Union population only if it is HUGE money, like when in few years you can make money which you wouldn't make in 20 years in US. Otherwise what for to live in a retarded place of a retarded country? Why not in Africa?
When I will read about your situation I will write you more.

Sincerely yours

Tatiana

So I have some opinions about this letter.

I know that my being in another country is difficulty for some people to accept. I know that there is a certain amount of “nationalism” and separatism in the world, lots and lots actually. I know this because we still seem to have the great need to kill each other in great numbers and spend an enormous percentage of our money on doing so. But I don’t actually remember where it is against the law to do so. There are lots of Americans roaming round the world, living different lifestyles, doing different things. For that matter, there is a lot of everybody roaming around everywhere. Hell, the USA was founded on all of those people who thought there might be a better world for them somewhere on this great blue ball we live on. Ms. Menaker herself is one such example.

But to my mind, there is a certain thing called justice which needs to be remembered. The United States has over the years made an enormous big deal over a concept called “human rights”. This idea, that there might even be such a thing has its origins in our own lionized constitution which dictates certain policies and areas in which, said very basically, a government can not invade the lives of its constituency. Pretty simple really. But our world also seems to lionize the game of cops and robbers (the robbers these days being the romantic figures for some reason) and Ms Menaker is also an example of “being had” by a bureaucratic system which felt it had the power to invade people’s lives and use its power for personal gains. Can you see this connection also?

However, Ms. Menker also had a certain amount of “power” to play with. She had an association to a public forum, had friends willing to bring up some rather emotional intricacies of her personal life in print, and had (and got) apparently some financial and legal aid in fighting her case. She won claiming “total victory” in one of her news letters… Good for you Tatyana, good for you. But why can’t you simply give me a few inches of column space so that I might get a little help and attention for my cause? I do have this “shiksa” and I have had her for two years now. And the eight-year-old boy who is with us and all of my partners and friends all of whom work every day very, very hard and could use a break. This, regardless of their flag or, as you so delicately put it (though without proper use of articles), their mental capacities.

Why not tell my story for me? Maybe it will be interesting for your readers to here about what kind of interesting things have happened to a former SF State Alum, or about what kind of tenacity they might have in side of them- or about social consciousness and fighting for what is right. I mean, I did attend state, don’t you think that a lot of what went through my mind when I decided to fight the system rather than be drowned by it might have at least a little to do with something I may have picked up there? Or at the University of Minnesota for that matter?

I think this is interesting as hell and has applications for anybody who might ever take a moment to spend some of their disposable income of travel abroad. I think San Francisco has a lot of those. I would think that they would like to hear about what happened to me.

The court has agreed to convene and speak about the appeal I wrote myself and turned in about a year ago. It took them a year to even talk about this. Do you think that this is right?

I have to go plant potatoes again today. I like this activity but it is also sort of necessary: if I don’t do this, we won’t eat next winter. Social injustice? Social fabric? Culture? I don’t know? I do know that our lives would have been better if I had not been “had” by Poland and if they had not taken the time to abuse me. But I am here and doing my job just as I have every day that I have been here. Just like I did when I was back in the states. I guess I am just asking people, like Ms. Tatiana Menaker to understand the commonality of all of this.

I learned that at State, I suppose.

More soon….

Time line
Newspaper lists
Bike races
Farming problems
Pickles
Teaching English to ESL people….