Re: [NewPacifica] Carol Spooner is destroying Pacifica



Thanks Nalini,

Must admit - I'll have to read most of your post
later. But, yes, I left one (or two) thoughts out and
want to share that, as I quickly pick up some of that
in your thoughts below.

Yes, Carol supported and encouraged and remained
silent and in that way she was an accomplish to all
pacifica campaign activity and ignored folks like me
raising flags - everyone else that I tried to reach
told me to go away - how dare you kinds of stuff - and
worse - the names they called me and what they accused
me of - you know, you saw it happen on these private
boards, as you too suffered the "attacks" when you
tried to share. And yes, some good folks, like Don
White stood in solidarity and later became PIRCR,
which is really the pacifica campaign surrounded with
lots of new folks, ignorant of all that action.  It
gave Terry Goodman what he needed when he responded to
my posts, on these boards, telling folks I didn't know
what I was talking about. And Loraine M. was never
there - What she did on these Boards was propaganda -
and these folks encouraged her.... oh that's right -
she was fed "enough" truth to get away with that.
anyway - please don't respond to that - for I won't
reply... I don't feel the need to do that - at this
time.... and it's complicated - HOWEVER

These are the pitbulls Carol continues to support (or
their followers) and wants to take over and control
Pacifica. Be careful - many now, totally convinced
Carol is a God - and, as I see it, have been
psychologically worked over and actually believe they
are doing the right thing - supporting this "hidden"
faction - they all keep insisting doesn't exist. Well,
it does - it's National and it is pacifica campaign,
But... even though Juan started it - he was on the
outside and they don't like him... Dan Coughlin was
the main organizer of pacifica campaign - they didn't
like him either - look at how they trashed his
character... So, some good folks, caught up in all
that, went along with it. I remained silent too, that
is until I finally started to speak out.

Whoops - sorry - not now

But, yes - I thought Carol was an innocent until
recently because she supports these war makers. The
game - keep taking down management and boards til we
get our folks in. They have money - deep-pocket and
are well organized and enough "good activists"
supporting them - making them look good. 

I could now say things you'd be angry about - but,
really - everywhere you look, even that group - new
and good people who are reachable if we continue to
insist that we come together for dialog, debate and
looking folks in the eye. However, the pitbulls so far
- continue to ignore any suggestions of truth and
reconcilation and or a mortorium (for their bad
behavior) - in order to move on.

That's a concern Nalini - many, many folks - who
support these folks are really good folks, like Don
White.  I remember he apologized to you about that.
Don and I have had our differences - but make no
mistake Nalini - Don is a peacemaker, I really need to
believe that.

I've got to go.

Eileen J. Goodman

--- LasiewiczN@xxxxxxx wrote:

>  
> In a message dated 12/17/2007 6:25:24 P.M. Pacific
> Standard Time,  
> backyardballerina@xxxxxxxxx writes:
> 
> Actually,
> like programming, the Pacifica Campaign was 
> autonomous
> in each area. So you really can't blame her or Juan 
> or
> Dave... like you have, for those horrible actions. I
> tried to stop it  back then and then horrible things
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> For some reason, you separate the campaigns.  Even
> if the groups were  
> autonomous, they formed a coalition.  They used each
> other's resources  and 
> rhetoric.  The vulture flyers featured the "Remove
> the Board"  talking points and 
> quoted the cockeyed legal analysis that Dave and
> Dan, Carol  and Gregory were all 
> dishing out in their various Updates and Marching 
> Orders.  The intent of 
> Juan's campaign was to harass the very same 
> "enemies" on Carol's Remove the Board 
> hit list which happened to correspond with  the
> Defendents named on Dave and 
> Rob's lawsuits.  The various  campaigns were more
> closely intertwined than  
> you suggest.  I don't see that Carol has changed a
> bit.  I see  her using the 
> same approach over and over, in each one of many 
> interventions.  The Carol that 
> made her "demands" about firing four  managers as a
> prerequisite for the next 
> ED to even take the job is the same  outlandish,
> outrageous, ego-maniacal and 
> "off with their heads" approach that  she took
> before.
>  
> Even today, we see the fragile coalition intact. 
> All you guys  need to come 
> together every once in a while is for someone like
> me to  remind you about 
> your old common enemy.   That's the glue that  keeps
> you together, and keeps 
> thousands of long time and former supporters 
> waiting in the wings wondering what 
> the hell you guys are fighting  about.  Y'all can
> dispise each other for 
> months, and years, on this  list, but if it comes to
> admitting that maybe the Old 
> Board really did take some  appropriate actions when
> they let go of certain 
> staff or when they wanted  to create a sustaining
> funding base or when they 
> created successful  national programming, or sought
> to put more accomplished Board 
> members on  the PNB, then you come together like the
> Borg, once again, 
> asserting that you  guys, collective, still know
> what's better for Pacifica and that 
> those  "evil ones" were "trying to destroy
> Pacifica."   Even the move to  
> Washington DC was a smart move, so that our
> organization could have been  
> represented and networked with the leading
> grassroots organizations in the  nation.  
> They were raising money for a Pacifica museum, to be
> housed in a  new building 
> for WPFW, which would have been visited by thousands
> of school  children and 
> tourists who could have learned about Pacifica
> Foundation, people  who would 
> never have set foot in Berkeley.  [But I'll bet my
> bottom dollar  that most of 
> you still think that Berkeley is the center of
> Pacifica Foundation  now and 
> forever.  Why, I have no idea. Talk about a
> provincial  town.  And just look at 
> the new cottage industry "cause" for bay area 
> progressives....sucking tens of 
> millions of dollars out of the local collages  just
> because students don't 
> embrace women's sports as much as they "legally 
> should."  I digress......]
>  
> Among all the campaigns that created the New
> Pacifica, the one  that stands 
> out, that led the movement for 2 1/2 years, was
> Carol's  committee.  Her 
> success in eventually combining all the  lawsuits
> into one complex case was a last 
> ditch strategy that,  combined with Juan's street
> thug tactics, saved the day.  
> They've all  congratulated one another and said that
> it could not have been 
> done without the  combined efforts but they never
> admit to the brute force that 
> used.  Once  the lawsuits were all combined, and the
> paid organizers were in  
> place, there was no way to untangle the lies, stop
> the bleeding or  slow the 
> momentum.  None of you have ever seen the records of
> what Carol's  campaign 
> cost Pacifica.   Ask Lonnie to start tracking
> exactly how  much Mitchel Cohen's 
> lawsuit will cost Pacifica, and you'll get just a
> very  small taste of the 
> direct damage.  Carol signed her fund raising
> letters  with "Pacifica Means 
> Peace."  When, peace?
>  
> The victory of control of Pacifica went not to the
> most deserving, or the  
> most peaceful, but to the ones who used the most
> brute force.
>  
> The entire New Pacifica experiment is a failure and
> I cannot think of any  
> single person more responsible than Carol.  In my
> opinion, and after much  
> research, I feel that the Lawsuits  were baseless. 
> Carol's intent to "take out" 
> the Board,  which had the institutional memory and
> then her support for the 
> political  purging of our management infastructure,
> all of whom had a much  
> broader perspective than Carol ever had, was
> incredibly malicious and, so  far, 
> incredibly destructive to the institution.
>  
> In my opinion, she and the iPNB and the subsequent
> PNBs have all "acted in  
> bad faith and with gross abuse of their authority or
> actual malice" which is  
> what she accused others of.  Granted, she didn't act
> alone....Lorraine  Mizra 
> once said "Anyone with any sense knows there were  a
> lot of factors.  The over 
> 15,000 who demonstrated at Berkeley. The  petitions.
> The stringers strike, 
> Verna Avery Brown's resignation, and the  creation
> of FSRN. Juan's resignation 
> and organizing efforts. And of course  without the
> lawsuits we wouldn't be 
> anywhere."  And that's what makes  today's events
> even more hard to believe.  Carol 
> sueing Dan?  Gregory  bashing Matthew?  Why, there
> were all shoulder to 
> shoulder back in the  day!  Back when those "15,000"
> were all claiming that once 
> the "evil  corporate board" was removed, everything
> would be better and Pacifica 
> would be  safe, and saved.
>  
> It takes brains and patience and vision and talent
> and expertise and  
> perseverance and education to build an institution. 
> That's what Lew Hill  and 
> Eleanor and their colleagues had.  But what has
> followed over the  decades is that 
> far less talented people are using brute force to
> "take back"  something that 
> they never built in the first place.  Pacifica was 
> cheapened by Carol and Dave 
> and Rob's lawsuits.  Pacifica was mortally  wounded
> by the iPNB.  Pacifica is 
> a rudderless ship who falls victim to  waves of
> people who really don't know 
> the first thing about running a  corporation.  
>  
> When I saw Don White and Ed Pearl passing out our
> battle orders, telling  us 
> which of the "evil ones" on the Pacifica National
> Board to "hit" next, I  
> realized that I was witnessing a dark and
> destructive sickness, like aerial  
> bombing, where the pumped up warriors don't stop to
> think about the "collateral  
> damage" that they are causing.  
>  
> While I absolutely do understand and sympathize with
> the intent behind  some 
> of the struggle, and the real need for some of the
> reforms that were  sought, 
> I think that going to WAR with Pacifica Foundation,
> that was the  wrong 
> approach.  
>  
> Like most WARS, this one has left Pacifica
> Foundation worse off then it was  
> before.   There were victors, of course, with Amy
> Goodman and Dan  Coughlin 
> and Dan Siegel and Bernard White, Verna, Valerie,
> chief among them, but  the 
> institution of Pacifica is far worse than if they
> had never tried to "save"  it.  
> They saved themselves....they did not save Pacifica
> Foundation.
>  
> In 1969, KPFK had 10,000 subscribers who were
> willing to give some money to  
> support the station.  In 2007, 38 years later, we
> have  18-19,000.  What more 
> do I need to say?  
>  
> The combined leadership and vision that came from
> all your factions of  the 
> various "save" and "remove" and "take back" and
> "concerned" and  "neighborhood" 
> initiatives have been a colossal flop.  After all
> the  fanfare, we Members 
> don't even get to vote for the Foundation Board of 
> Directors!   This 2007 PNB 
> is probably the most secretive one so  far.  The
> silence IS deafening.  
>  
> Carol's misguided fantasies and often  unilateral
> leadership was key to what 
> we have today in Pacifica.   She was building for
> peace.  She was only at war 
> and  would take no prisoners.  I recall Bessie Wash
> telling me about one of 
> the  trips she took to Berkeley to try to work out
> some compromise with the  
> Plaintiffs and the KPFA listeners after Pat Scott
> was out.  She'll  never forget 
> hearing Carol Spooner, with her face contorted with
> hatred,  yelling, "I don't 
> WANT to like you."  Carol lived (lives?) in a black 
> and white world where 
> Pacifica was invaded by "enemies" and she had some
> sort of  Joan of Arc ideal of 
> herself coming to the rescue.  
>  
> Maybe Carol's lawsuit were motivated by good things,
> but her  utter lack of 
> any pertinent experience in reforming or leading a
> national  institution and 
> even more, her WAR mentality, created a deeply
> flawed  end result.  She's still 
> at WAR with the old board.  She still  slanders them
> and calls them hateful 
> names and lies about them at every election  cycle. 
> As she doles out her 
> wisdom, telling us who to vote for at all the 
> stations, she continues to use the 
> old WAR chants in order to bolster her  credibility.
>  The fact that she's lying 
> and hurting good people every time  she does it
> seems to have no effect on her 
> conscience.  I suspect she will  always maintain
> that there really were "evil 
> corporate hijackers"  trying to "sell off Pacifica
> and pocket the money."  At 
> this point, if she  wavered from the essential
> rhetoric, she would risk 
> showing others the flaw in  her vision.  
>  
> I think many of you took the easy way out, just
> believing every thing you  
> heard on the internet.  This is a demonstration of
> what the Founding  Fathers 
> called "the tyranny of the majority."  What if, as
> in the case of  today's New 
> Pacifica, the "majority" is unreasonable, untalented
> and  inexperienced?  So 
> what if the majority votes a certain way....if the
> long  term interests of 
> Pacifica are being comprimised by poor leadership,
> then the  "democratic" decisions 
> are the worst decisions.
>  
> During the various campaigns, Carols and the others,
> fact checking and  
> reason were thrown out the window.  Carol's intense
> rhetoric gave  strength to Dan 
> Coughlin's rhetoric which directed Juan's (aka Amy 
> Goodman's) rhetoric.  
> Carol's "bravery" made a lot of you feel brave and 
> smart and important.  But 
> honestly, the Lawsuit were seeply flawed  and
> Carol's movement took a fragile 
> institution which was on an  upswing path and turned
> it into a madhouse.  
>  
> In a society, and in government, institutions are
> necessary to the survival  
> and success of ideals being put into practice.  Over
> my lifetime, what I've  
> noticed is a consist ant failure on the progressive
> left to  sustain 
> institutions.  It is a profound failing.  Sorry to
> say,  but our drug which helps us 
> live with the real failures of our  generation's
> legacy, is the rush of 
> adrenaline that holding a protest sign, or  raising
> an angry fist, or making flyers 
> about taking down "the evil  ones."  These WARS
> provide a short term illusion of 
> making a  difference.  
>  
> Nalini Lasiewicz
>  
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
> **************************************See AOL's top
> rated recipes 
>
(http://food.aol.com/top-rated-recipes?NCID=aoltop00030000000004)
> 



      
____________________________________________________________________________________
Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs


questions/problems with archive to: webmaster@mcabee.org
Mail converted by MHonArc 2.6.16