In a message Jim Gashel typed to All  
 JG> who among us has not had things we have tried to "blow up in our face" 
s
 JG> you put it.  that's part of life and part of being in any organization.
It's also the problem the national leadership has.  They want it both ways.  
they want the power to decide when they will and will not help someone and 
then if they decide not to, then the effected person is supposed to come up 
smiling pretend it didn't happen and just continue to spend their own money 
to go to Washington Seminar, National Conventions Etc. and not react to it.
the national seems to forget that it's a two edged sword, and that people 
have feelings, and that when they hurt people's feelings once too often, they 
get disgusted and say, "the hell with it."
 
They also can dish out the name calling, the psychological abuse and the 
nastyness and its all right, but when the shoe is on the other foot and they 
get it back "ouch!"  then they want to cry, "that's not fair.  That's abuse 
you're being a chronick complainer."
Of course there are times when we have to pick our battles.  I recently 
submitted documentation on an E.E.O.C. complaint I filed and lost.  I felt 
that there was not an optimistic chance of winning it in court but I wanted 
the national to have it on file so that we could collective place our common 
voice to let congress know at the proper time that E.E.O.C. was not taking 
A.D.A. as seriously as it was the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  
And I don't want to be unfair here.  As you well know, I thanked you in an 
e-mail, a written letter, and personally for your help in winning a very 
difficult Social Security case for me.  So I am not at all unappreciative of 
your help or support.  
However, I feel that there were a couple of winnable cases which the national 
left me hanging on neither of which would have involved a great deal of money 
or time.  
In an earlier post, I laid out some recent projects that I had taken on 2 of 
which involved a great deal of work.  I won't go into them again; just check 
the post.  
I could also say that if the national leadership continues on its present 
course, if another civil war comes that would make 1957 to 1961 look like 
child's play, a few of us will have a great big, "I told you so," ready to 
drop on their heads.  Not that we'd be happy about it.  I think such a thing 
would be disasterous, but as has been said, "History repeats itself, and 
those who don't learn from it are doombed to relive it."
An example is when an abused spouse wants out of an abusive relationship, the 
tighter the grip the other spouse tries to put on them the more likely the 
abused party is to get out.Harvey 
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