Re: Well, as long as we're talking about the real world...

Luke: "In the real world, a highly confrontational attitude tends to attract trouble. So my intuitive analysis is that you have brought some of the problems on yourself."

I know you may have some difficulty believing this, but I never had a "confrontational attitude," before working at Suspended Animation. I worked in heart surgery for nine years, where egos abound. I worked with the same two senior cardiac surgeons, for all of those nine years, and two others joined our practice for the last 2-3 years I was there. Just like everyone else on our team, I was free to voice my opinions, at all times. When people disagreed about things like equipment, or protocols, we called meetings and calmly, (and respectfully), debated the issues, until they were resolved. Not only did I work with those four surgeons, but I worked with a couple dozen anesthesia doctors, lots of nurse anesthetists, a few general surgeons and orthopedic surgeons, and probably hundreds of nurses and scrub techs, over the years.We did our cases at two hospitals, where I sat on various committees, such as those involving cost control, so I also had good working relationships with hospital administrators. During all that time, I never had a cross word with anyone. A while back, I told one of my friends that, while I felt I was right in my opinions of the people at SA, I felt I had been overly-"mean" to some of them, online. She laughed and said, "Mel, you've never been mean to anyone in your life." As I told her, that was before I got involved in cryonics, where I believe a lot of people behave unethically.

Luke: "If Charles has issues with telling the truth, it is something he needs to resolve within himself and seek forgiveness for. I think that is obvious (should be obvious) for anyone. However I am willing to consider that he might have felt it was serving a higher purpose at the time, or that he was actually under a mistaken impression that it was true at the time. That's what happens in the real world."

Your speculations are very generous, but they don't agree with my opinions of what happened, and I was personally involved.


Luke quoting Platt: "... I don't believe in libel laws, because the only kind of printed statement that really hurts is the kind that exposes truth..."

False statements about someone's work can hurt, both emotionally AND financially, for many years to come.


Luke: "Ironically, by having his highly-paid lawyer contact you, Charles may have convinced you that he took the matter more seriously than was necessary. Hopefully you will both be able to laugh about it at some point thousands of years into the future."

I'm guessing he would like you to believe this. The truth is, all I asked was for him to correct the false statements he had made. He didn't need to spend a penny on an attorney. I could be wrong, but I don't think he knew that attorney, beforehand. In other words, I think he took the matter so seriously that he sought out an attorney.


Luke: "While I agree that factual truth is important, in our fragile human frames it is a fact that we need to give each other time to cool off emotionally before we can handle even perfectly valid criticisms. I am sure Charles was hurting from the Larry Johnson events, as he was the one who suggested to hire him... It seems that much of the opposition that came your way was probably in reality backlash from that.

I don't know where you get these impressions from, but the Ted Williams/Larry Johnson events took place THREE YEARS before I went to work at SA. At the time I started working there, most people in cryonics thought Larry Johnson had been killed in some sort of mysterious motorcycle accident. I believe Charles and I fought because it was my (frequently expressed) opinion that most of his design and fabrication projects were a foolish waste of time and money.

Also, you seem to assume it was a "mistake" for Charles to suggest hiring Larry Johnson. How do you know that? Maybe Alcor should have hired more people like Larry Johnson, and let some of their other people go. Maybe they should have listened to Johnson and others who advised against cryopreserving someone whose legal will called for cremation. (Funny, how they are now arguing the Richardson case, based on the fact that the will calls for cryopreservation, but they were willing to go against Williams' will, don't you think?) I've heard Larry Johnson has been a paramedic for many years, and is well-respected within the medical community. The only people who don't respect him are the people on the other side of the Ted Williams scandal. Please have an open-mind about this. I don't know why Johnson's book did not come out in May, (as it was supposed to), or if it will ever come out, but I hope it does, because it would be helpful to know his side of the story.