ONE VOICE / ONE SOUND
A SAGA CONTINUED ...
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AbuseOn a Different Scale
(An Action taken out of Fear)
SPEAKING INTO THE MIKE - LOUDLY
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When we first went “live” on the Internet on September 2004, we received a lot of entries on our Guestbook, with women wanting to equate Spousal Abuse with Child Abuse, and women wanting to talk about the abuse that they suffered from their men endlessly without justfication seemingly. With that in mind – while not deviating in the least from our work for our African-American Children here in the least, I have to share with you all the “very first” incident of an attempt at abuse of me by a man who didn’t even know my name – but had fear instilled in him by someone who simply told the brother in so many words, that “he needed to fear me … Simply because I could write a "letter”.
Here's the Story:
James Morrison arrived at his place of employment at a D.C. Department of Recreation Pool Facility as Temporary Pool Manager on a 60-some degree day in June of 2009, just nano-seconds after the time that the facility should have been opened. He offered no apology to any of the Patrons, nor acknowledged anyone but me after five minutes of opening the doors. (I had just returned to the facility after numerous weeks of absence from workouts there, due travel and to other business.)
Unfortunately for James, the element of "fear" had been instilled in him before I returned to the facility (I am safely guessing that it had to be a "Superior", since no one else would find it necessary to relay such information to him), who told him simply that because I tend to write letters to the D.C. Director of Recreation or have in the past, that apparently he should fear me. What James was “never” told was that any letters that had been written to the D.C. Department of Recreations’ Corporate Office referencing any employee at that particular site bearing my signature, was nothing more than “Commendations” for each one of the employees - a "good thing", except for the fact that after some thought, I realized that I never wrote one in favor of the one possibly, who felt it necessary to warn him about my possibility of getting him fired with "a letter".
When James decided to pour out his heart and soul to me about his "fear" that morning after taking a seat on the deck of the pool two inches from my face (as I fastened a Voice Activated Recorder / Waterproof MP3 Player to a loop on my swimsuit) while expressing his fear of how I could make him lose his job and all if I wrote a negative letter about him, and how he needed his job, etc., (while he talked extra loud to be heard above the pool water splashing), the device around my neck (which I wear around my neck religiously) picked up his every word with the "most"
Being somewhat sympathetic after listening to him, I took fifteen minutes out of starting my workout in the pool to explain to this brother why he should not walk around that facility or "any" facility fearing me or anyone else, based on the mere "words" of someone. After all, he only knew “of” me, and I didn't know him at all. (I would have continued to explain, had I not been distracted by a pool Patron who was acting extremely erratic in the pool, and needed a few words of “confirmation” from me, as to what would happen if she did not get some control over her actions, which were designed (so she thought) to get the conversation and attention that she had wanted from me for some time.
Understand this right here:
The woman had clearly been entertaining some seriously "unsavory" thoughts that pertained to only her and me - but to her dismay, they would not include me. She was ignored to the "inth" degree from action one, and right there family, was where "her" problem with me began.
The sister had me as "twisted" as a pretzel then based on my "looks", as she apparently did during the latter part of the following year, when she began her strange "mating" behavior whenever she saw me at the facility. At that moment, she decided that jumping around and nearly striking me in the lane where I had been standing while conversing with James Morrison and preparing to swim, would get her a few accomplishments.
James Morrison, instead of seizing the opportunity to make himself "look" good (if this were at all possible) by correcting this patron, saw instead what he thought would be a "great" opportunity to act on his personal feelings and get “rid” of me simply out of “fear”. So, this supposedly educated, In-Charge, Mango head-shaped brother used that situation to what he felt would be its "max" by talking this apparently “mentally challenged” woman into actually writing a letter to the Interim Director of Recreation, reporting a conjured up "physical" attack on her by me right there in the pool that supposedly had happened right in front of him, "after" I left the pool for the morning: an action (mind you) an attack that NO EVIDENCE on any Camera that had been pointing directly into the pool could corroborate - evidence mind you which was searched for at the "same" time that evidence of "another" action was searched for by the D.C. Police, due to a report made by the parents of a child against this man two days later ... An action that I got a tip-call about later on the morning of the accusation.
Within the hour after I left the pool the morning that James Morrison and my "Aqua Stalker" (Ms. Ford) conjured up their lie on me without me knowing that they had done so, I turned the device that I had been wearing that contained James' declaration of his fear of me over to my Attorneys for safe keeping, just on General Principle – something that I do as a habit, and something that if you think about it, would serve to justify his fear of me even if it was a couple of days early. (It's truly One of those "Things that make you go Hmmmmmm".)
(What is truly amazing is how quickly one can get a call from people who know your lifes' and work, wanting to let you know that "Karma" did not waste any time grabbing that brother by his "nuts".)
The then Interim Director of the D.C. Department of Recreation - Ximena Hartsock, had her secretary set up a meeting with us and seven (7) members of her Critical Response Team in the living room of our home: A meeting that her Secretary informed us would "only" consist of Ximena Hartsock and herself mind you - whereas no one was told of the additional people accompanying her until she arrived at the front door), two weeks later after “the accusation" against James. While actually "giving" us the details of the accusation against him made by the other party, she informed us that she had no reason to “ban” me from the pool site per James' efforts, and that the "incident" that he was accused of scared the Patrons something terrible (which was understandable - what with the D.C. Police arriving and all), and that she just wanted the entire incident cleared up - which brought up her question for me: "Who was the individual that called to notify me of "the incident"?
I wished Ximena nothing but good luck in all of her endeavors, and assured her that the "only" way to get anything straight at that facility clearly was to get this man out - particularly due to the high level of drama that he has caused within only two days. I let her know that I was not going to give her information referencing anyone who contacts me "ever", to give me a heads-up for my benefit - especially when the one that "should" have called me never did. My advice to her was to no avail of course, because she allowed James Morrison to remain at the facility at least three (3) weeks longer after "the accusation.
I ended that meeting between her, her cohorts and ourselves, which was nothing more than a "facade" of them addressing us as to how they could make the facility better - turn - fishing expedition for her own benefit, to save the reputation of a D.C. Government employee who wasn't happy in his employment, evidently and to justify her keeping him there.
James Morrison needs to believe that for as good as a “writer” that he fears me to be (even if it were to pertain only to me merely writing a letter”about" him to his Superiors), that I will not disappoint him in writing "something" about him, starting with his attack against me which is verifiable, right here on my non-censored website.
This story will serve as the beginning of my next book, which is already in progress. On the same note, he should remember that things have a way of getting around the Metropolitan Area, what with people knowing people and all. He should also keep in mind too that accusations made against "males" never go away: Not when those actions call for the presence of the Authorities. Not while there are people who listen ... And we all know that there are people listening, and reading.
I have never understood any level of fear being instilled in someone by someone else - “blood connection” or not, by anyone who is supposed to be their friend, etc. I will also never understand "what" would make a supposedly Proud, Standing, Black Man like James Morrison suddenly decide to "slither like a snake" out of the fear of a mere letter - a letter that he only "thought" might be written against him. That non-existant letter had enough power to make him raise up against a Strong, Educated, Intelligent, Eloquent, Articulate, Proud, Talented Black Woman that he didn't even know, but maybe should have gotten to ... for his own sake.
C.J. Brooks