Re: "At the time, Charles was living with Will and had access to guns and neither my partner or I felt safe being near him as it was obvious he was using."
I used to live in Cambodia, Anna.
I dealt with very credible death threats from powerful people in Laos, and equally credible death threats from one utterly powerless person (who nevertheless had a machete in his hands and swung it at me) in Thailand.
I've dealt with threats from corrupt police and Communist government officials in a third world country, and so on.
Can you remember a more recent situation in which I received credible threats of violence?
Can you remember me facing up to someone Durianrider directly said would beat me up, face to face, in Chiang Mai? Depending on how you count them, I met up with at least two of those guys, perhaps four. One was very nervous and trembling when he met me, because he was aware that Durianrider had basically promised that he'd hunt me down. The first thing he said to me was that I was much larger than he'd imagined.
As you may recall: when Durianrider offered to meet me with a gang of thugs to beat me up, I replied by asking for the place and the time. He was quite unprepared for that, and I didn't back down: I had a public event (in Chiang Mai) and let everyone (including Durianrider) know where I'd be in advance, and so on.
Real people do real things.
I still have all my teeth. But I'm generous with them, these teeth. Anyone can take them away from me.
Oh, yes, I actually have a very amusing tale of my facing down a young man who threatened to kill me here in Canada, just about two weeks ago: we were standing right next to a bridge, and the death threats went on and on, it was quite remarkable. I assume he was high on cocaine, because I bumped into him a few days later, and he had no memory of ever seeing me before, but he was swinging his fists at me (and spitting on me) while explaining in detail that if he didn't kill me himself, I would be killed by his own father, who was supposedly some powerful person (whom he named, etc.) who had the ability to get away with murder in Canada. I have two witnesses to the fact that I wasn't afraid.
Real people do real things.
And I am 44 years old now. I deal with threats of violence face to face, on the streets, myself. Even now. At 44.
Tell me something, Anna: who has suffered less?
Who has suffered less, in trying to change the world, than you and I?
Name some revolutionary who had a more comfortable cave to live in.
If you want to do something to make the world a better place, ultimately, Anna, you have to risk your own life: all of us, each and every single one. And some of us risk it by merely mixing ink and paper.
I've suffered. I've suffered terribly. But tell me: who has suffered less?
Re: "I tried to reach out to numerous people to help raise the extra money, but it wasn’t possible in the time allotted."
I was one of them, remember?
You reached out to numerous people, including me.
And I sent you replies, and you didn't want to hear them.
Oh, and please refresh my memory: did you help me with my own fundraising efforts? At any stage, at any time?
Perhaps I don't remember: perhaps you held a fundraising party on Younow, and I just don't recall. Perhaps we recorded a podcast together. Perhaps you made videos about my case, and urging others to support me. Perhaps you've helped me in innumerable ways I don't know of, because you're so shy and bashful about what a generous and supportive person you are toward others.
It couldn't possibly be that you're someone who raised vastly more money in donations than I ever did, and that you collected vastly more in donations than Hannah Chloe ever did…
…and that you nevertheless had the attitude of taking and taking and taking, while showing absolutely zero human interest (or human decency) when another person was going through a (remarkably similar) criminal defamation case "elsewhere" in the vegan world.
Oh, I'm sorry, but you're ex-vegan, correct? So I suppose I can't quite describe "the geography" that way (as you weren't quite "in" the vegan world, hm?).
And tell me, Anna: who have you spoken to more often and more recently, myself or my ex-wife, Mireille?
And did you ask Mireille to help out with fundraising for your court case, too? I'm sure she could have been of tremendous help. I really wonder why you didn't ask her and her father to bankroll the whole thing, frankly.
Re: "What else should I have done? I had already exhausted my own resources."
Oh, I'm very forthcoming with good advice: look back at the email I sent you on April 5th, 2017. For some reason, you didn't reply.
If you go back and re-read that email now… what do you think?
Re: "I’m not sure what I’ve done to make you find me untrustworthy, but in the end, it doesn’t matter…"
No no, Anna: it doesn't matter TO YOU.
It's a matter of indifference TO YOU.
Not to me.
That's why you're supposed to care about it: being a good person, you see, involves caring about others, not just yourself.
Indeed, simply "not being a bad person" requires a great deal of that kind of… thinking. Making an effort along those lines, you know: short term, selfish thinking starts to resemble evil, with time.
Re: "[Zoom calls are] often used in court, so it was also shocking that I had was required to be there in person."
I'm an old political science major, Anna: I am not surprised that you were required to be there in person at all. I had to testify in Thailand repeatedly in the court case against Durianrider, at great inconvenience and at great expense. Take a vow on a stack of bibles and all that.
And tell me, honestly: if I talked to Bruce, you don't suppose I'd get a very different version of events?
The client may decide to terminate a court case for many reasons: a client may decide that the case is untenable because she can no longer afford the fees —and she may decide the case is untenable because of the poor quality of the lawyer, or for innumerable other reasons. You have already stated that you had SOME OTHER court case ongoing at the same time.
What I know about your court case (and how and why it ended) is based on no other source of information than you, Anna: I think you're kidding yourself about what a bad job you did of communicating what happened in the court case and why. It's quite possible that this was because you were struggling to maintain a working relationship with your lawyer (Bruce) while also trying to find a better lawyer (or a second opinion, etc.) as you've already described.
For whatever combination of reasons, you ended the case because you found it untenable: you explained that —publicly, on youtube, years ago— and you explained it very poorly. And so it is, now, that you're writing to me with this grievance.
E.M.
