Soap Opera Update

So, like, after English, Britney found Haley crying in the bathroom because Caitlyn called her a bitch and stole her boyfriend! No, wait... that’s an episode of Glee.

Here in the nations Capital, however, another high school drama is playing out in the never-ending saga of the once great Beltway Atheists.

It would be merely comical and a little pathetic, except that Shelley/Christopher/Travis have publicly made some rather serious charges against me.  Harassment has a specific legal meaning and has serious legal ramifications.

The charges are entirely false as I’ll explain below.

But First, I want to point out that Shelley/Christopher have placed their own account of the events surrounding the decline of Beltway Atheists on shelleymountjoy.com.  This was recently revised so that I appear much more sinister and conspiratorial than in the first version. Apparently, I am a very despicable person.

I won't quibble over the Shelley/Christopher version of the inner machinations of Beltway Atheists.  I can’t imagine that my level of participation in the meetup I founded is of any interest to anyone. It’s boring, inside game stuff and nobody cares.  Even if 100% true, it begs the question, "Seriously?"

I’ll just stipulate that my affiliation with Beltway Atheists Meetup is at an end and that Shelley/Christopher shot me trying to escape.  Me and everyone else who criticized her in the now-famous April Shitstorm.

But back to the charges of harassment:  If you read their page, you will spend about 7 paragraphs of history and self-serving justifications for their purge. But, in the last couple of paragraphs you will find those very specific charges against me.

“[Rick Wingrove] later increased the campaign of vilification to include harassment -- to them and other members and leaders of various groups in the DC secular community. To date, 16 individuals and 7 organizations have been targeted by the harassment.“

This is direct, specific, and it is demonstrably false. OK, I was going to say it’s a lie but maybe it’s just a mistake because they really don’t know the facts, but, either way, they are just plain wrong.  In which case they are being shockingly irresponsible and cavalier as they defame me.

Twenty (up from 16 in the first draft) individuals and seven organizations? I’d be really interested to hear where those numbers came from.  As we know from the movies, any number ending in 7 is a made up number. If you knew how many hours I billed in May and June, you would realize how bogus those numbers are.

As stated previously, in April, there was an email storm over an event which Beltway/Shelley/Christopher cross-promoted. I did not start that email thread and never addressed an email to Shelley. It did not even take place on the Beltway message board. Shelley jumped in, uninvited by me, and participated freely, until she failed “win” and started kicking her critics out of Beltway Atheists. Or having Christopher do it.

In that exchange, I used no profanity, no ad hominems, no threats, no personal attacks, and suggested no action either by or against Shelley. In fact, in one email, I even acknowledged her contributions. So, no harassment there.

Be that as it may, at the end of the April Shitstorm, I was kicked out and that was pretty much the end of it for me. I wrote no further public emails on the subject. So, no harassment there.

Naturally, this was a subject of a great deal of conversation in the DC Atheist community and, when questioned, I attempted to explain the facts as well as possible. But private conversations surely cannot be counted as harassment. So, no harassment there.

To defend myself against charges of threats and harassment, I have been forced to put up these pages which briefly recounts specific facts about the April events. As a free man in America, I reject the notion that reporting facts ever qualifies as harassment. So, no harassment there.

In other words, no emails, no phone calls, no letters, no sock puppet accounts, no web sites, no facebook pages, no tweets, no whispers in the girls bathroom, no TP on her house, no flat tires on her car, no anonymous harangues, no contact of any kind – nothing which could be remotely called obscene or threatening or come anywhere near the definition of harassment.

That is, unless the definition of harassment has been changed to be whatever pisses Shelley off. That would be unfortunate because, judging from personal experience, (a) quite a lot pisses her off and (b) her only mode of response is thermonuclear.

Indeed, The only person suffering from an ongoing campaign is me. And the person(s) conducting that campaign is(are) Shelley/Christopher/Travis. I initiated none of this. Her charges against me are both Rovian (blame the other guy first) and Orwellian (facts are irrelevant if they contradict the essential narrative). That’s Rovewellian (Copyright pending!) and that can’t be good.

Whoever else was doing any of these things, I was not involved, did not condone it, did not participate in it and, did what little I could to discourage it.

But this is where this tale gets  a little sick and twisted.

This started off as a local email storm, voicing valid criticism of things that Shelley actually did. For my part, it was a local debate never intended for a wider audience. Shelley, however, ramped it up to a national shitstorm and continues to publicly accuse me of harassment, and in at least one email, to imply that I had made personal threats against her.  I am getting emails and phone calls from across the country asking me ‘what’s up with that Shelley chick?’ Even as I was writing this, I got 2 more emails wondering why this kiddie drama is taking up space in their mailboxes. Some of those emails alleging harassment are coming from her boyfriend/fiancé/husband/roommate/(?) Travis Ebert.

This is, indeed , an ongoing and coordinated assault on my integrity and my reputation and is an attempt to get me “fired” from my volunteer position in the worlds oldest atheist organization. Her charges are not only false, they are malicious, defamatory and libelous.

To paraphrase Forrest Gump, ‘Harassment is as harassment does.’

To put this in perspective, whereas  Shelley suffered a certain amount of criticism for things which she really did, She responded with a flamethrower and is attempting to do real damage to peoples lives.

Ask for proof!

My request to anyone who receives an email from either Shelley Mountjoy or her surrogates Christopher Arntzen or Travis Ebert, is to request proof - evidence of any kind – that I am or have been engaged in harassment or have made threats to Shelley Mountjoy. An email, a phone record, a tweet... anything.

Some of the people she has contacted have asked for proof but none has been forthcoming. When pressed, Shelley will be unable to provide any evidence whatsoever that I participated in, endorsed, directed, encouraged or had prior knowledge of such activities. She will be able to provide no emails, no phone calls, no letters, no contact of any kind, no nothing. And that is not because I am so devious and clever that I have totally covered my tracks. It is because I have not engaged in any such behavior against her or, as she claims, against 20 individuals and 7 organizations. This allegation is an entirely made up lie that is not based on a single fact.  

Any other person(s) who might be engaged in a “campaign of harassment” against Shelley is neither my fault or my responsibility.  I am not that/those person(s). I do not condone it and I certainly have not participated in it. I have neither the time in my day nor the inclination to launch and maintain a “campaign of harassment” against Shelley, let alone 17 other people and 7 organizations. Where did those numbers come from?

I was through with this fight at the end of the April shitstorm, months ago. That it has continued is largely due to the false charges that Shelley Mountjoy and her surrogates continue to spread about me.They have not ceased in circulating these unfounded allegations and in demanding that people take action against me. My only response has been in defense of my reputation. I cannot let lies about my conduct and participation stand in public unanswered.

A word about credibility

When someone cries 'Wolf', it is reasonable for a skeptical person to request further documentation. When the wolf fails to appear, it is not unreasonable to ask (a) why they were saying what they were saying, (b) is this a dependable source of information going forward, (c) what else have they spoken falsely about, and (d) is this the public face and behavior we want for the atheist community?

As of October 2010 Shelley continues to trash me publicly and is attempting to coerce American Atheists to eject myself and Ellen.