The following is my response to Bruce Hulme’s letter on behalf of ISPLA concerning the discussion and ongoing controversy over whether CALI should reduce funding of NCISS (as proposed by a motion made by CALI VP Administration Ed Saucerman) and begin to fund ISPLA (again based upon a motion by Ed Saucerman). I find it unnecessary to respond to most of the letter at this time but I do think I need to expound upon certain issues that emanate from the letter and the context of other organizations and individuals communications on the issues.
First, my blog posting had nothing to do with a lobbying effort directed towards CALI members on the subject. Off the top of my head, I can think of only one subscriber to this blog who is a CALI member and he happens to be a non-voting service and industry member. I did nothing out of the ordinary to publicize my 7/23/10 blog entry so the only people who’d be automatically notified of the posting were my subscribers. I don’t even know who most of my subscribers are, so it’s entirely possible that there may be CALI members amongst them whom I don’t know by username or email address.
Regardless of the fact that I made no particular attempt to lobby CALI members on these issues with my blog, that was the interpretation given by people like Rick Von Geldern and Ed Saucerman who (a) made all sorts of fantastic accusations about the blog which included taking portions of it and spinning them out of context, (b) resurrected their attack of last year when they claimed that I was purportedly “anti-law enforcement” and therefore not to be trusted by anybody, and (c) my blog seems to have been an issue with PICA President David Hererra’s pronouncement that PICA was severing all ties with NCISS and transferring its support lock, stock and barrel to ISPLA. Macchiavelli never said or wrote that the “ends justify the means;” properly translated his phraseology is more akin to the “outcome is what counts.” Well the outcome of all this attention that was generated by Von Geldern, Saucerman, and Hererra is that I had about 200 hits in a single day on my blog and website, the most I’ve ever had in a 24 hour period. I’m still getting way over average hits in light of the latest postings on this subject.
But of course Von Geldern, Saucerman, and company should have nothing to fear by having generated so much interest in the posting. After all, they are of the opinion that their relentless attacks on me have paid off in spades and that my opinions have been thoroughly discredited and my credibility shot all to hell on these subjects. Instead of getting in a tizzy over a blog with a single CALI service and industry subscriber, they should have adopted Alfred E. Neuman’s Mad Magazine philosophy of, “What? Me worry?”
I also have to give some context to the quote that Bruce utilized to illustrate his points from the Nez Perce Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph, when the Americans betrayed him and his tribe and stole their land at gunpoint, changed his christian name to a Nez Perce name, “Thunder Rolling in the Mountain.” He fought with tenacity, bravery and great tact. But it was only after the U.S. Army had as a matter of strategic policy killed the tribe’s Appaloosa horses, almost wiping out the breed, that Chief Joseph finally said that he would fight no more. Deprived of its transportation and war vehicle, he could fight no more.
