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Linz, I can’t keep silent any longer. Normally, I would have written this to you privately, but since you are not concerned with protecting people from your attacks by at least dealing with them in private correspondence, and since I have exhausted my futile efforts to convince you privately – in correspondence and in person – that insulting and denouncing good and decent people is demeaning to you and to the reputation of Solo, I now feel it necessary to post my comments. I feel it necessary to make my position clear to my fellow Solists.
I am deeply disappointed – no, to put it exactly, I am furiously angry – that you have reneged on your promise to me when we met at Jim Kilbourne’s home in Los Angeles. You said that you understood why I was so opposed to your name-calling (such as “dim-grained, treacherous, fork-tongued groupies), that it was unjust and unreasonable, that it has damaged your own reputation, and that it has severely damaged Solo and may ultimately destroy it. You said that such attacks were at an end.
I don’t know why you found it impossible to remain civil for more than two or three weeks after our conversation. Your attacks on Jennifer, for whom I feel great affection (I don’t know Kelly Elmore but I have no doubt that she is guiltless of the accusations you have thrown at her), are disgraceful. You accused Jennifer of being in league with David Elmore and said that he put her up to leaving Solo – as if she could not think for herself – and you rescinded your request that she return when Joe said he didn’t want such an “ingrate” on Solo. That accusation is the reason why she finally refused to return. You have not been candid about this episode.
And your likening yourself to Ayn Rand in this context is beyond my ability to comment upon appropriately.
I defended you in Holding Court, and I stand by the things I said. But I did not defend you, and cannot do so, when you hurl disgraceful epithets at people whom you have said five minutes ago that you admired and respected. I think you have no idea of how many people have left Solo because of this.
I seriously considered being one of those people. However – unless you insist that I leave because of this post, which you very well may do – I intend to stay, although I have said my last word on the subject of your posts and shall ignore them from now on. I shall stay because there still is much that I value on Solo, and many people whom I greatly value. I am not prepared to abandon this. I wish I could say I won’t abandon it without a fight, but there is no point in fighting with you, arguing with you, or reasoning with you. It is clear to me that you have no intention of changing, and that you even have become defiant about not changing. You still pretend that the essential issue of controversy is that you defended Joe again an unjust attack. Of course, that is utterly irrelevant.
Very well, then. You shall remain Lindsay Perigo, and I shall remain Barbara Branden.
Barbara
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