it sounds like 2 different things. When you are going to make a speech, you've
chosen to be conspicuous, and you might make a mistake or something so you get
stage fright. But when you're blind, you haven't chosen to be conspicuous and
you can't even tell that people are watching you. They're watching you and it's
because of something about you that makes them uncomfortable, or about which
they have all sorts of complicated feelings. It's like giving up the right to
privacy.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2018 11:42 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Keith Ellison and Domestic Violence - So What's
the Story?
Re: [blind-democracy] Re: Keith Ellison and Domestic Violence - So What's the
Story?
Have you ever had stage fright? I have long been plagued with it. I would stand
up to give a speech at a public meeting and be scared shitless. Afterwards I
would mention it to someone fully expecting that I had ruined the whole speech
and then be told that if I was feeling stage fright it didn't show in the
least. I still felt it though. Anyway, that experience of being pointed out in
public by someone who is a perfect stranger to me feels just like stage fright.
I don't like it, but I suppose it doesn't show any more than when I am at a
podium. I can give another example that came much later than when I was a minor
public figure. It was after I became blind. I was walking down the street and
in the moderate distance I hear a surprised voice say, "Blind!?
Well, I always wondered why he walks around waving that stick in front of him."
Again, the feeling of stage fright. Or, there was another time I met a woman
for the first time. Until that moment I didn't know she existed.
Then she said that she felt like she already knew me because she had seen me
for so long walking around tapping my cane. I think about her watching me for
all that time and suddenly I get retrospective stage fright. Then it doesn't
even have to be caused by an incident. I can just be walking along and start
thinking about how you don't see many blind people and so every eye around must
be on me. Suddenly I start wishing that a hole would open up in the ground for
me to fall through. But I suppose I can take solace in something that Fidel
Castro once said in an interview. He said that when he stood up to give a
speech at a May Day event and looked out at the sea of people stretching to the
horizon and every one of them was looking right at him he felt more scared than
he ever did on the battlefield. Apparently, though, like me, it didn't show.
On 8/18/2018 10:03 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
block quote
Interesting comments about being pointed out in public. As wide spread as my
name is, both within Washington State and in the ACB and NFB circles, I have
never been singled out in public. Although I have fantasized over being mobbed
by a crowd of scantily dressed beauty queens.
There was one time, however. I had been waiting for Cathy to get off work so
we could head out for our cabin. A fellow walked up to me and asked, "Aren't
you Cathy Jarvis' husband?" Seems it was Cathy's boss.
Cathy was head of the Seattle Prosecutor's Para Legal Division. "She is our
most valued employee," her boss told me.
For months after that I would say to Cathy, "You are my most valued wife."
Carl Jarvis
On 8/18/18, Roger Loran Bailey
<rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
wrote:
block quote
I suppose I have been a semi public figure. By semi I mean locally famous for a
limited time and once my fame passed people seemed to completely forget about
me. I can assure you that I did not like it even if I thought beforehand that I
would. Worse than having everything about you flapped in front of everyone is
the completely false rumors that everyone are really anxious to believe.
Walking down the street and hearing my name shouted only to look up and see a
perfect stranger pointing me out to someone else wasn't a lot of fun either.
On 8/18/2018 1:18 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
block quote
These may be the days to heed the admonition of Jesus when he said, "Let he who
is without sin cast the first stone."
Using myself as my favorite example, I would never choose to become a public
figure. While I talk freely about my opinions and my past and present personal
life, there are things that I do not want flapped in front of the world. I
think that I am a decent person. I hope that in my life I've done more to
assist others, than I have done to impede them. But I am Human. And I'm not
proud of everything I've done.
But I never consider whether that makes me a "good person" or a "bad person".
In my opinion it merely makes me Human.
If, and again this is my personal opinion at this moment, we put our resources
and our talents to work solving our social problems, developing ways of sharing
and supporting one another, rather than to devise more hideous methods and
devices for murder, we could easily begin the process of returning Planet Earth
to her former self.
But we have built up such a history of misconceptions about our place in this
ecosystem that it would take total commitment in order to change direction.
The very first agreement, and the one to block any other efforts, is to agree
that we are not Superior Beings. Next we would need to agree that all humans
are related and deserving of respect. We must denounce the Corporate bottom
line of Profit, and proclaim a bottom line of Human Care. And along with that
needs to come, Earth Care. We also must commit to giving back, pound for
pound, that which we take from Earth.
Well, I could ramble on, but I'm speaking from a position of considerable
weakness. I have no part in the direction our "leaders"
are taking us. But even so, I, like all of you, are a passenger on this Ship
of Fools. And our Captain is named Ahab.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/18/18, Carl Jarvis
<carjar82@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
block quote
On 8/17/18, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
block quote
What I keep wondering is, is it necessary for us to know about the personal
lives of government officials? Does what happens in their private lives have to
be relevant to how they do their jobs? Did the fact that Elliot Spitzer
purchase sex while on business trips, make him a bad New York State attorney
General? Now if he'd murdered someone, I think that would be relevant.
While
reading that excellent three book biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, I learned
that as a young, inexperienced mother, she physically and emotionally abused
her children. The author didn't use those words. She described what Eleanor did
and to me, what she did was physical and emotional abuse, and it was normal
practice, given the times, her social class, and her lack of good parenting. So
does that fact subtract from all of the good that she's done in the world? So
if Al Franken kissed some women who didn't want him to, did that make him a bad
senator who had to resign?
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From:
blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2018 11:34 AM
To:
blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Keith Ellison and Domestic Violence - So What's
the Story?
Fools rush in where Reason fears to tread!
In domestic battles such as this one, every participant has their own story.
And each participant has their own reasons for telling their own version.
Unless a victim is willing to take their story before a judge or jury, I simply
find it a sad, frustrating story.
Carl Jarvis
On 8/17/18, Miriam Vieni
<miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
block quote
Keith Ellison and Domestic Violence - So What's the Story?
By William Boardman, Reader Supported News
16 August 18
I have offered him restorative justice and for him to seek some sort of help
for over a year and half. He would not take me up on it. I told him I have not
lost sight of his humanity and he deserved to take that time for himself to
heal. I told him time and time again, I didn't want to share my story publicly,
it was more important for healing and restoration to occur with this situation.
I told him not only he deserved it, but his family and constituents deserve it
as well. For me, that alone would have been justice as far as my situation. But
no matter how many times I offered, he wouldn't take me up on it.
- Karen Monahan, statement to Fox 9, Minneapolis, August 12, 2018
On August 11, Karen Monahan's 25-year-old son, Austin Aslam Monahan, apparently
acting on his own for unexplained motives, went public on Facebook with a
domestic violence accusation against Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, a
Democrat running for Minnesota Attorney General in a five-way race. Austin
Monahan's timing, three days before the Minnesota primaries, suggests political
motivation. He sent his missive to numerous recipients, including Ellison, two
of his opponents, and several news media.
But the content of his lengthy post is fundamentally personal, not political.
And even though it immediately became a hot story, Ellison won his primary on
August 14 with 49% of the vote, 30 points ahead of his second-place challenger.
Minnesota hasn't elected a Republican attorney general since 1955.
Keith Ellison and Karen Monahan ended their relationship in 2016, but not
without difficulty before and after. Most of the details remain unclear.
Austin Monahan's post "on behalf of me and my brother" is agonizingly personal
and apparently heartfelt, as he describes watching "our mom come out of pure
hell after getting out of her relationship with Keith Ellison."
As to the timing of his going public, Austin Monahan offers a somewhat
disconnected explanation that implies he acted without consulting his
mother:
My mom has always tried to protect me and my brother. She doesn't have to
protect us anymore and we aren't letting her stand alone. When we found out our
mom was planning on sharing her story, that is all we needed to hear for us to
share ours and stand with our mom. You want to smear someone, try to lie about
a person who didn't do shit to deserve the ongoing emotional, physical abuse,
smear me and my brother.
He doesn't explain why he decided to go public ahead of his mother. He does
explain why he didn't go public in 2017, because "our mom begged us not to and
she along with others convinced us is wasn't in our mom's best interest."
[emphasis added] But that raises the question:
if he was consulting with his mom and others in 2017, who (if anyone) was he
consulting with in 2018? What changed? But his own account, the impetus to go
public was much stronger more than a year earlier:
In the middle of 2017, I was using my moms computer trying to download
something and I clicked on a file, I found over 100 text and twitters messages
and video almost 2 min long that showed Keith Ellison dragging my mama off the
bed by her feet, screaming and calling her a "fucking bitch"
and telling her to get the fuck out of his house. The messages I found, were
mixed with him consistently telling my mom he wanted her back, he missed her,
he knew he fucked up and we wished he could do things different, he would
victim shaming, bully her, and threaten her if she went public. I text him and
told him I know what you did to my mama and a few other things.
So here's a 25-year-old man basically admitting he invaded his mother's
privacy, not just accidentally and briefly, but long enough to, in effect,
compile a dossier on her ex-lover. OK, that seems unusual, but the facts remain
the facts, whatever they are. So far, the Monahans have released edited
versions of much of the correspondence. Those who have seen it say it shows no
domestic violence. But the videotape, which would be dispositive as described,
remains private.
On August 12, in mid-afternoon, Keith Ellison responded to the Monahan post
with a brief statement issued by his campaign:
Karen and I were in a long-term relationship which ended in 2016, and I still
care deeply for her well-being.
This video does not exist because I never behaved this way, and any
characterization otherwise is false.
A little more than an hour later, KarenMonahan01 posted on Twitter:
What my son said is true. Every statement he made was true.
@keithellison, you know you did that to me. I have given every opportunity to
get help and heal. Even now, u r willing to say my son is lying and have me
continue to leak more text and info just so others will believe him
Someone called ChattyEmu later responded on Twitter, going to the heart of the
matter:
Karen, your son says there's a video. You say your son is telling the truth.
There's no evidence of abuse in the text messages you showed MPR [Minnesota
Public Radio], according to MPR. If you have video evidence
- or *any
evidence* - of abuse, please release it now.
That evening, Karen Monahan released her own, very long statement that Fox
9
in Minneapolis posted on its website. In setting the context for her own story,
Karen Monahan referred to Anita Hill, adding: "There are countless stories
throughout history and currently where women who break their silence are
smeared, minimized, punished, bullied and cast out of communities." She also
cited another Minnesota woman, Lindsey Port, whose promising political career
took a hit after she blew the whistle on sexual harassers in the Democratic
patriarchy, her own party (at least one state senator resigned).
Instead of supporting her, "the progressive community, who was pointing fingers
at the other party about the same atrocities, crucified her. They bullied her,
isolated her, withheld promised donations to her organization, which helped
build individuals capacity to be part of the social change, and much more,"
Monahan wrote. She has now challenged the same "progressive"
community.
Monahan's account of her relationship with Ellison is credible as presented,
but without a great deal of specificity. An exception is her very specific
account of what supposedly appears on the video her son came across:
One night I confronted him [Keith Ellison] very calm about a lie he had just
told me straight to my face. What happened next was a rage that I had never
witnessed to that magnitude. He was becoming a person I had never seen before.
The next morning, he came into the room I was sleeping in. I was laying across
the bed with my headphones on, listening to podcast on my phone. He said he was
about to leave town for the weekend and told me to take the trash out. Given
the explosive outrage that occurred the night before, I just should shook my
head yes. I didn't look up at him or saying anything. That is when he tried to
drag me off the bed by my legs and feet, screaming "bitch you answer when I am
talking to you. I said take out the trash, your a bad guest (even though we
were living in the same place). He kept trying to drag me off the bed, telling
me to get the fuck out of his house, over and over. I froze.
He had to leave and get on the plane. He knocked the shoe off my foot and
told me I better be gone when he gets back (which was in two days). This
happened in 2016. The gaslighting, manipulation, name calling and cheating
started in 2014. By time the physical abuse occurred, I was dealing with the
PTSD full blown. I secured an apartment within those two days. I borrowed the
money I needed and spent that whole weekend searching for an apartment until I
found one.
I couldn't move in until a couple months. During the waiting period he asked me
several times to please not move out, he would reimburse me for the deposit. In
my gut, I knew it was the right thing to do and said "no".
After describing additional abusive behavior that she says Ellison participated
in, Monahan refers to her offer of "restorative justice"
(quoted above). Is that where she wants this process to go? In the middle of an
election? She does not articulate any way out of this quandary created by her
son. She doesn't offer an opinion as to whether Ellison should be the next
attorney general of Minnesota, but her allegations, left unresolved, could
determine the outcome. The electorate needs to know whether the video exists.
And who shot it.
How can there be a video without a videographer?
As
a victim, Karen Monahan deserves a fair hearing, but she also has an obligation
to full and precise disclosure, as does Ellison. But as a presumed victim, she
still has no right to victimize the people of Minnesota.
After his primary victory August 14, Ellison again denied the Monahans'
claims, calling them "other stuff," while adding: "We'll be talking about this
other stuff in the next few days. We're not trying to avoid the topic.
We will handle it head-on."
Depending on how all this plays out, Minnesota voters face the possibility that
their next attorney general may be either someone who indulges in personal
domestic violence or a Republican, whose domestic violence is national policy.
[NOTE: here endeth the story, a gratuitous photo follows]
Karen Monahan & Keith Ellison circa 2015 (Twitter: @keithellison)
William M. Boardman has over 40 years experience in theatre, radio, TV, print
journalism, and non-fiction, including 20 years in the Vermont judiciary. He
has received honors from Writers Guild of America, Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, Vermont Life magazine, and an Emmy Award nomination from the
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work.
Permission
to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported
News.
e-max.it: your social media marketing partner
block quote end
block quote end
These may be the days to heed the admonition of Jesus when he said, "Let he who
is without sin cast the first stone."
Using myself as my favorite example, I would never choose to become a public
figure. While I talk freely about my opinions and my past and present personal
life, there are things that I do not want flapped in front of the world. I
think that I am a decent person. I hope that in my life I've done more to
assist others, than I have done to impede them. But I am Human. And I'm not
proud of everything I've done.
But I never consider whether that makes me a "good person" or a "bad person".
In my opinion it merely makes me Human.
If, and again this is my personal opinion at this moment, we put our resources
and our talents to work solving our social problems, developing ways of sharing
and supporting one another, rather than to devise more hideous methods and
devices for murder, we could easily begin the process of returning Planet Earth
to her former self.
But we have built up such a history of misconceptions about our place in this
ecosystem that it would take total commitment in order to change direction.
The very first agreement, and the one to block any other efforts, is to agree
that we are not Superior Beings. Next we would need to agree that all humans
are related and deserving of respect. We must denounce the Corporate bottom
line of Profit, and proclaim a bottom line of Human Care. And along with that
needs to come, Earth Care. We also must commit to giving back, pound for
pound, that which we take from Earth.
Well, I could ramble on, but I'm speaking from a position of considerable
weakness. I have no part in the direction our "leaders"
are taking us. But even so, I, like all of you, are a passenger on this Ship
of Fools. And our Captain is named Ahab.
Carl Jarvis
block quote end
block quote end
block quote end
block quote end
