Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Alicia's Bridal & The Formal House Bowed Out
As you can see, I approached Alicia's Bridal in Bellingham, regarding the possibility that they might help Get Hitched, by sponsoring the group on Meetup.com. (It seemed like a logical partnership to me.) http://alturl.com/2jttj is the link to the Facebook post where I presented that possibility to them. But they replied " I'm sorry but at this time our marketing dollars are already allocated. Good luck with your venture!" Good luck indeed. I will need luck, since God knows that I have very little money. Rather discouraging, as many events in my life have been.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
An Innocent Man
Currently, I am listening to the Billy Joel song An Innocent Man, on Spotify, while looking at the Wikipedia article about the John Grisham book ("his first outside of the legal fiction genre") entitled, "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town".
I don't know how applicable Billy Joel's protestations of innocence were, but I know that the Grisham book was about a man named Ronald Keith Williamson who served time on death row, for the murder of Debra Sue Carter, before DNA evidence cleared his name. I read that book, and as I recall, Williamson spent a little bit of time in the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (in my hometown of Springfield, Missouri), even though he was no longer on death row in Oklahoma. The trauma he suffered as a result of his wrongful conviction was severe, and he paid for that experience for the rest of his life. It took a fair amount of work on the part of The Innocence Project to clear his name, but thankfully, our courts are structured in such a way that there are provisions for the fallibility of the system.
Why do I now find myself thinking about such things? Have I been accused of committing a horrendous crime? Well, no, not at least in terms of accusations from law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys. But the bar is considerably lower for pastors, who seem to think that the mere fact that they "speak for God" entitles them to impugn the integrity of fellow Christian believers, without a shred of evidence to support their insulting accusations. Matt Atkins, the pastor of the Mosaic church in Bellingham, Washington, recently sent me an e-mail message, in which he said that he thought that I was guilty of seeking "nonconsensual" relationships with adult women, and of seeking loving and sexual relationships with "minors". That was an idiotic accusation. Matt clearly needs to brush up on the law. According to the Wikipedia article, "minor" is a legal term. "The age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is generally 18." In the context of laws pertaining to consumption of alcohol, the term is a bit broader. People younger than 21 are considered to be minors in that context. But drinking coffee at Starbucks is legal for a person of any age.
At a service Mosaic called "Listening Sunday" (when we were encouraged to listen for the voice of God, during a visit to a park at Lake Whatcom), I approached a somewhat attractive young woman and passed her a note, expressing my desire in exploring the possibility that she and I might be compatible, and asking her to call or e-mail me if she would be interested in meeting with me for a cup of coffee. For that, I was repaid by Matt Atkins' insulting accusations. I later learned, from a pastor named Mitch Senti, that she had been 19 years old at the time. As I told him, I had no idea what her age was, since people do not typically walk around wearing big signs around their necks telling people how old they are. If I'd known that she was that young, I probably would not have handed that note to her. But 19 years of age STILL IS NOT A MINOR.
In 1974, I sat in front of the draft board in Springfield, Missouri, and explained my reasons for considering myself to be a conscientious objector. I had to do so, because I was eligible to be drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Apparently, the U.S. government thought that an 18-yearr-old young MAN was old enough to make such decisions, and to kill and die on behalf of his country, unless he could come up with a darn good reason why he should be made exempt.
So let me get this straight: I was old enough, at age 18, to do those things. But a woman 1 year older is not old enough to say "no" when she is handed a note asking her out for a cup of coffee. GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK!!!!!
And as for the "nonconsensual" accusation, I have never even kissed a woman or girl without first asking her if it was OK for me to do so. (One girl, named Cathy Boysen, said no. I didn't like it that she did, but I am a gentleman, and I know how to take no for an answer.) If Matt Atkins thinks that I am some kind of a rapist, he knows where I live, since he was there when Mosaic helped me to move from Apartment 107 to Apartment 118 in the same apartment complex. Matt has as much access to the Bellingham Police as any other citizen of this city. But I have not noticed that any of them have shown up with warrants for my arrest, even though I sent an e-mail to Allan Jensen (a detective) with the accusatory paragraph contained in Matt's e-mail.
The Ninth of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." You know something? If a man is not willing to at least obey that commandment, he isn't qualified to be chief bottle washer, much less the pastor of a church.
I don't know how applicable Billy Joel's protestations of innocence were, but I know that the Grisham book was about a man named Ronald Keith Williamson who served time on death row, for the murder of Debra Sue Carter, before DNA evidence cleared his name. I read that book, and as I recall, Williamson spent a little bit of time in the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (in my hometown of Springfield, Missouri), even though he was no longer on death row in Oklahoma. The trauma he suffered as a result of his wrongful conviction was severe, and he paid for that experience for the rest of his life. It took a fair amount of work on the part of The Innocence Project to clear his name, but thankfully, our courts are structured in such a way that there are provisions for the fallibility of the system.
Why do I now find myself thinking about such things? Have I been accused of committing a horrendous crime? Well, no, not at least in terms of accusations from law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys. But the bar is considerably lower for pastors, who seem to think that the mere fact that they "speak for God" entitles them to impugn the integrity of fellow Christian believers, without a shred of evidence to support their insulting accusations. Matt Atkins, the pastor of the Mosaic church in Bellingham, Washington, recently sent me an e-mail message, in which he said that he thought that I was guilty of seeking "nonconsensual" relationships with adult women, and of seeking loving and sexual relationships with "minors". That was an idiotic accusation. Matt clearly needs to brush up on the law. According to the Wikipedia article, "minor" is a legal term. "The age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is generally 18." In the context of laws pertaining to consumption of alcohol, the term is a bit broader. People younger than 21 are considered to be minors in that context. But drinking coffee at Starbucks is legal for a person of any age.
At a service Mosaic called "Listening Sunday" (when we were encouraged to listen for the voice of God, during a visit to a park at Lake Whatcom), I approached a somewhat attractive young woman and passed her a note, expressing my desire in exploring the possibility that she and I might be compatible, and asking her to call or e-mail me if she would be interested in meeting with me for a cup of coffee. For that, I was repaid by Matt Atkins' insulting accusations. I later learned, from a pastor named Mitch Senti, that she had been 19 years old at the time. As I told him, I had no idea what her age was, since people do not typically walk around wearing big signs around their necks telling people how old they are. If I'd known that she was that young, I probably would not have handed that note to her. But 19 years of age STILL IS NOT A MINOR.
In 1974, I sat in front of the draft board in Springfield, Missouri, and explained my reasons for considering myself to be a conscientious objector. I had to do so, because I was eligible to be drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Apparently, the U.S. government thought that an 18-yearr-old young MAN was old enough to make such decisions, and to kill and die on behalf of his country, unless he could come up with a darn good reason why he should be made exempt.
So let me get this straight: I was old enough, at age 18, to do those things. But a woman 1 year older is not old enough to say "no" when she is handed a note asking her out for a cup of coffee. GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK!!!!!
And as for the "nonconsensual" accusation, I have never even kissed a woman or girl without first asking her if it was OK for me to do so. (One girl, named Cathy Boysen, said no. I didn't like it that she did, but I am a gentleman, and I know how to take no for an answer.) If Matt Atkins thinks that I am some kind of a rapist, he knows where I live, since he was there when Mosaic helped me to move from Apartment 107 to Apartment 118 in the same apartment complex. Matt has as much access to the Bellingham Police as any other citizen of this city. But I have not noticed that any of them have shown up with warrants for my arrest, even though I sent an e-mail to Allan Jensen (a detective) with the accusatory paragraph contained in Matt's e-mail.
The Ninth of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." You know something? If a man is not willing to at least obey that commandment, he isn't qualified to be chief bottle washer, much less the pastor of a church.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Dues for Get Hitched
I have created a document which lists various expenses for which dues would be needed in relation to the Get Hitched singles group in Bellingham. Among other things, dues would pay for EDDM mailings with which to publicize the group, since I do not trust in the promotional emails from Meetup.com to the extent that I am confident that they could help the group to expand to the point that the group would be really useful to its male and female members. Other options for raising funds would include crowdfunding, selling products pertaining to the group (e.g., T-shirts) and so forth.
The idea of paying dues might sound like a negative thing, but when you compare the option of paying $5 per month ($60 per year) to the option of paying at least $2,000 per year to belong to a group like Events and Adventures, $60 per year sounds like a real bargain. I would not be getting rich from such dues, believe me. In fact, I might have to raise the dues to an amount higher than $5 per month (the default setting at Meetup.com), since the group would need at least 17 members just to pay the $1000 needed for an EDDM mailing from Postcard Mania. That would particularly be the case if payment of dues was voluntary. I think that it should be, because I like the "pay what you can" model established by the Panera Cares program at Panera Bread. That program got acclaim from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. It's ridiculous that some singles groups, such as Events and Adventures, insist on payments as high as $2,000 per year! Of course, I understand that they have a very nice web site, and such things are not free. But really, that seems to me to be a bit excessive.
Meetup.com uses WePay.com, not PayPal, to collect payments. I think that responsible leadership of any group includes a certain level of accountability, in terms of how the funds raised via fundraising are used. So anyone who chooses to e-mail me at mwp1212@gmail.com or mark_w_pettigrew@hotmail.com is free to ask me about the group's current financial situation, and about plans for the use of the funds paid to the group in the form of dues. I am also looking to the option of sponsorships and financial "perks" with which to raise funds. A financial arrangement with the Lovers store in Bellingham would seem to be a particularly appropriate choice, in terms of sponsorships. Bridal supply stores (e.g., Alicia's Bridal) would also seem to be a logical choice.
The idea of paying dues might sound like a negative thing, but when you compare the option of paying $5 per month ($60 per year) to the option of paying at least $2,000 per year to belong to a group like Events and Adventures, $60 per year sounds like a real bargain. I would not be getting rich from such dues, believe me. In fact, I might have to raise the dues to an amount higher than $5 per month (the default setting at Meetup.com), since the group would need at least 17 members just to pay the $1000 needed for an EDDM mailing from Postcard Mania. That would particularly be the case if payment of dues was voluntary. I think that it should be, because I like the "pay what you can" model established by the Panera Cares program at Panera Bread. That program got acclaim from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. It's ridiculous that some singles groups, such as Events and Adventures, insist on payments as high as $2,000 per year! Of course, I understand that they have a very nice web site, and such things are not free. But really, that seems to me to be a bit excessive.
Meetup.com uses WePay.com, not PayPal, to collect payments. I think that responsible leadership of any group includes a certain level of accountability, in terms of how the funds raised via fundraising are used. So anyone who chooses to e-mail me at mwp1212@gmail.com or mark_w_pettigrew@hotmail.com is free to ask me about the group's current financial situation, and about plans for the use of the funds paid to the group in the form of dues. I am also looking to the option of sponsorships and financial "perks" with which to raise funds. A financial arrangement with the Lovers store in Bellingham would seem to be a particularly appropriate choice, in terms of sponsorships. Bridal supply stores (e.g., Alicia's Bridal) would also seem to be a logical choice.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
TFund, Cafe Press, and Fund Raising Options for Get Hitched and Other Meetup.com Groups
Crowdfunding is "hot", as a means of enabling people to raise money for expensive projects. Kickstarter.com may be one of the best-known crowdfunding web sites, in relation to "creative" or artistic projects, like movies and so forth, but there are a number of other competing sites, and they do not all have the drawbacks associated with Kickstarter, which a.) Requires the ability to create and submit digital videos, and b.) Has an "all or nothing" fund raising model which requires that folks meet a particularly deadline or forfeit any of the funds raised via the site for that particular project. (Kickstarter has raised funds for some worthy projects, like the movie Blue Like Jazz, which took the Christian message into the mainstream, so I'm not knocking the site. But it's just one of the ten companies listed in this article about crowdfunding web sites for small businesses.)
Donald Trump, the real estate magnate who once ran for U.S. President, has chosen to back a crowdfunding web site called FundAnything.com. I haven't used that site much, but it seems to have some potential, and the idea of funding "anything" is certainly appealing.
WeFunder.com is listed at the top of the aforementioned article. On the company's home page, they list a project involving the creation of flying cars. Seriously! It's called the Terrafugia Transition, and it can be seen at www.terrafugia.com or www.driventofly.com or https://wefunder.com/terrafugia. There are also plans for a flying car that can take off and land vertically, without the need for a runway. It's called the TF-X, and won't be available for another ten years.
GoFundMe.com. http://www.gofundme.com/47hpeg is the page I have set up for the purpose of raising funds with which to promote Get Hitched, via EDDM mailings, printed by a company such as Postcard Mania.
Quirky.com is specifically for inventors. One of the images on the home page shows a nice AC power strip I have actually seen in local stores.
Many crowdfunding web sites operate by offering various levels of "perks" for donors. That's a good thing to do, in terms of offering an incentive to people who might donate funds. But it usually is not tied directly to specific products.
Cafe Press (www.cafepress.com) has a new crowdfunding option which seems pretty attractive. It's called TFund (www.tfund.com). By designing "Direct To Garment" products, one can create salable products which can be used to raise funds, and which can also promote one's product or project or group. So, for example, I could design a T-shirt with the text "Get Hitched: A Group for Men and Women Seeking Spouses". It would include a graphic image consisting of a QR code which would lead people to that Meetup.com site, or to this blog. Not everyone has a "smart phone" with which to easily scan the QR code, and not everyone knows how easy it is to upload digital photos of QR codes to sites which will decode them, so it would also be important to include contact information such as a phone number and an email address.
The Meetup.com site offers the ability to create "sponsors" for various groups there, and to link to the relevant pages for those sponsors. I could be wrong, but it seems likely to me that one could designate one's TFund.com as one of the sponsors for one's Meetup.com site/group. I haven't yet done that, but I plan to explore the option of doing so, because none of my Meetup.com groups, like Get Hitched or Bellingham Socials, are likely to succeed unless and until they can be adequately promoted.
Donald Trump, the real estate magnate who once ran for U.S. President, has chosen to back a crowdfunding web site called FundAnything.com. I haven't used that site much, but it seems to have some potential, and the idea of funding "anything" is certainly appealing.
WeFunder.com is listed at the top of the aforementioned article. On the company's home page, they list a project involving the creation of flying cars. Seriously! It's called the Terrafugia Transition, and it can be seen at www.terrafugia.com or www.driventofly.com or https://wefunder.com/terrafugia. There are also plans for a flying car that can take off and land vertically, without the need for a runway. It's called the TF-X, and won't be available for another ten years.
GoFundMe.com. http://www.gofundme.com/47hpeg is the page I have set up for the purpose of raising funds with which to promote Get Hitched, via EDDM mailings, printed by a company such as Postcard Mania.
Quirky.com is specifically for inventors. One of the images on the home page shows a nice AC power strip I have actually seen in local stores.
Many crowdfunding web sites operate by offering various levels of "perks" for donors. That's a good thing to do, in terms of offering an incentive to people who might donate funds. But it usually is not tied directly to specific products.
Cafe Press (www.cafepress.com) has a new crowdfunding option which seems pretty attractive. It's called TFund (www.tfund.com). By designing "Direct To Garment" products, one can create salable products which can be used to raise funds, and which can also promote one's product or project or group. So, for example, I could design a T-shirt with the text "Get Hitched: A Group for Men and Women Seeking Spouses". It would include a graphic image consisting of a QR code which would lead people to that Meetup.com site, or to this blog. Not everyone has a "smart phone" with which to easily scan the QR code, and not everyone knows how easy it is to upload digital photos of QR codes to sites which will decode them, so it would also be important to include contact information such as a phone number and an email address.
The Meetup.com site offers the ability to create "sponsors" for various groups there, and to link to the relevant pages for those sponsors. I could be wrong, but it seems likely to me that one could designate one's TFund.com as one of the sponsors for one's Meetup.com site/group. I haven't yet done that, but I plan to explore the option of doing so, because none of my Meetup.com groups, like Get Hitched or Bellingham Socials, are likely to succeed unless and until they can be adequately promoted.
Saturday, December 14, 2013
My Other Meetup.com Groups
From what I have seen, once a person pays the fee in order to become an Organizer for a group at Meetup.com, one can take on that role for other Meetup.com groups, even if they were not that person's idea. I currently have 3 Meetup.com groups:
The Bellingham Artistic Christians Network (http://www.meetup.com/Bellingham-Artistic-Christians-Network/)
Get Hitched Northwest in Bellingham Washington (http://www.meetup.com/Get-Hitched-Northwest-in-Bellingham-WA/)
Bellingham Socials (http://www.meetup.com/Bellingham-Socials/)
NW Washington Entrepreneurs (http://www.meetup.com/NWWashingtonEntrepreneurs/)
The first 2 groups were groups I created myself, one of which was related to my interest in Christianity and the Arts, and the second of which was related to my desire to find a spouse for myself.
The 3rd group, Bellingham Socials, was originally led by a woman named Eva, but she apparently stepped down, and the group was about to become history if no one stepped in to take the reins she had dropped. So I did.
The 4th group is probably the only one of the four that has actually had a very nice meeting, at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham. A group for entrepreneurs is likely to be very popular. I liked their meeting, but I inadvertently offended the Organizer of the group, Silvia Reed, when I attempted to use business card info I'd gotten at that meeting in order to spread the word that I was looking for a compatible woman. She made it very clear to me that the group was ONLY for business-related activities. Oh, well. That was why I created Get Hitched.
The Bellingham Artistic Christians Network (http://www.meetup.com/Bellingham-Artistic-Christians-Network/)
Get Hitched Northwest in Bellingham Washington (http://www.meetup.com/Get-Hitched-Northwest-in-Bellingham-WA/)
Bellingham Socials (http://www.meetup.com/Bellingham-Socials/)
NW Washington Entrepreneurs (http://www.meetup.com/NWWashingtonEntrepreneurs/)
The first 2 groups were groups I created myself, one of which was related to my interest in Christianity and the Arts, and the second of which was related to my desire to find a spouse for myself.
The 3rd group, Bellingham Socials, was originally led by a woman named Eva, but she apparently stepped down, and the group was about to become history if no one stepped in to take the reins she had dropped. So I did.
The 4th group is probably the only one of the four that has actually had a very nice meeting, at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham. A group for entrepreneurs is likely to be very popular. I liked their meeting, but I inadvertently offended the Organizer of the group, Silvia Reed, when I attempted to use business card info I'd gotten at that meeting in order to spread the word that I was looking for a compatible woman. She made it very clear to me that the group was ONLY for business-related activities. Oh, well. That was why I created Get Hitched.
Is Love Available for Poor Men?
A while back, I had coffee with a friend of mine named Fred Sprinkle. As we sat out in front of the Starbucks on Railroad Avenue in Bellingham, Washington, he said, with regard to my desire to meet a woman I might marry: "You don't have a 'right' to have a wife." I replied that it was not a matter of rights, it was simply a matter of an intense desire on my part.
I said that to placate Fred, because I did not want to end our meeting on a hostile note. But truthfully, I was really, really offended. What if he had substituted the phrase "home in which to live" for the word "wife"? What if he'd substituted the phrase "food to fill your stomach"? Does not the right to life include such basic things? Just because there are idiots who cannot grasp the importance of the right to life, with respect to unborn children and abortion, does not make that right go away, nor does it mean that the right only applies to some categories of human beings and not to other categories.
When it comes to love and romance, the odds are heavily weighted against men who are poor economically, whether or not they are homeless or recently homeless. It was not any flaw in my character that forced me to live at the Lighthouse Mission. The economy stunk in general, as anyone who watched the news could tell you. The fact that I'd suffered several disabling "ministrokes" did not help.
Women often talk about the "glass ceiling", and about how they are disadvantaged in the workforce. All they want, they often say, is "economic equality".
Well, I am here to say that that is pure unadulterated bovine excrement. To a lot of women, men are nothing but wallets with legs. There are quite a few "sugar daddy" web sites where women go to seek men who will support them in the lives of luxury they desire for themselves. One such site is SeekingArrangement. Another is MutualArrangements. A third is Sugardaddie.
The Sugardaddie site ("Dating for the Attractive and Successful") says it's "millionaire dating for attractive and successful people". One might naively think that men who wanted to be supported by women could hope to find such women there. After all, there are plenty of women with substantial amounts of money of their own. Women like the ones at http://money.cnn.com/gallery/magazines/fortune/2012/09/27/25-highest-paid-women.fortune/ certainly do NOT need "sugar daddies" in order to avoid living in the poor house. Safra Catz, according to the article, rakes in roughly 51 million dollars a year in her job working for Oracle Corporation (responsible for all those annoying ads pertaining to updates of your JavaScript). Sheryl Sandberg, at Facebook, "only" makes 31 million or so per year. Oh, boo, hoo, hoo, "cry me a river". And here I am, expected to feel that I am fortunate to actually have half of one apartment, after spending 9 months of my life living in a homeless shelter known as the Lighthouse Mission. I still can't afford a car of my own, so I have to get rides on the WTA paratransit vans ("buses", as they call them).
Regarding the Seeking Arrangement web site, one oneline article says, "SeekingArrangement.com reports that the average registered public school teacher on the site is between the ages of 28 and 33 years old, and asks for $3000 a month in financial assistance." $3,000 a month?!? Wow, there goes my entire budget, and then some. I'm only getting about $700 a month altogether, most of which comes from my SSI benefits.
Not long ago, Fred told me that he thought I was "obsessed" with getting a woman of my own. Yeah, kind of like I was obsessed with getting the bleep out of the Lighthouse Mission, so that going to church would be a matter of my own free will decisions, not a matter of rules and regulations forced on me as a condition for getting any kind of housing at all! Fred has a car. Fred has a wife. Fred has a paying job. How dare he, or anyone else who has been blessed with such things, imply that they are entitled to experience such things but I am not? I worked for the bulk of my life, when I could find work, and I often stayed after work and put in extra hours, to make sure that the job was done right. That was the case when I managed the database at YMCA Child Welfare in Chicago, where we handled the care of 950 foster children in need of loving homes.
I said that to placate Fred, because I did not want to end our meeting on a hostile note. But truthfully, I was really, really offended. What if he had substituted the phrase "home in which to live" for the word "wife"? What if he'd substituted the phrase "food to fill your stomach"? Does not the right to life include such basic things? Just because there are idiots who cannot grasp the importance of the right to life, with respect to unborn children and abortion, does not make that right go away, nor does it mean that the right only applies to some categories of human beings and not to other categories.
When it comes to love and romance, the odds are heavily weighted against men who are poor economically, whether or not they are homeless or recently homeless. It was not any flaw in my character that forced me to live at the Lighthouse Mission. The economy stunk in general, as anyone who watched the news could tell you. The fact that I'd suffered several disabling "ministrokes" did not help.
Women often talk about the "glass ceiling", and about how they are disadvantaged in the workforce. All they want, they often say, is "economic equality".
Well, I am here to say that that is pure unadulterated bovine excrement. To a lot of women, men are nothing but wallets with legs. There are quite a few "sugar daddy" web sites where women go to seek men who will support them in the lives of luxury they desire for themselves. One such site is SeekingArrangement. Another is MutualArrangements. A third is Sugardaddie.
The Sugardaddie site ("Dating for the Attractive and Successful") says it's "millionaire dating for attractive and successful people". One might naively think that men who wanted to be supported by women could hope to find such women there. After all, there are plenty of women with substantial amounts of money of their own. Women like the ones at http://money.cnn.com/gallery/magazines/fortune/2012/09/27/25-highest-paid-women.fortune/ certainly do NOT need "sugar daddies" in order to avoid living in the poor house. Safra Catz, according to the article, rakes in roughly 51 million dollars a year in her job working for Oracle Corporation (responsible for all those annoying ads pertaining to updates of your JavaScript). Sheryl Sandberg, at Facebook, "only" makes 31 million or so per year. Oh, boo, hoo, hoo, "cry me a river". And here I am, expected to feel that I am fortunate to actually have half of one apartment, after spending 9 months of my life living in a homeless shelter known as the Lighthouse Mission. I still can't afford a car of my own, so I have to get rides on the WTA paratransit vans ("buses", as they call them).
Regarding the Seeking Arrangement web site, one oneline article says, "SeekingArrangement.com reports that the average registered public school teacher on the site is between the ages of 28 and 33 years old, and asks for $3000 a month in financial assistance." $3,000 a month?!? Wow, there goes my entire budget, and then some. I'm only getting about $700 a month altogether, most of which comes from my SSI benefits.
Not long ago, Fred told me that he thought I was "obsessed" with getting a woman of my own. Yeah, kind of like I was obsessed with getting the bleep out of the Lighthouse Mission, so that going to church would be a matter of my own free will decisions, not a matter of rules and regulations forced on me as a condition for getting any kind of housing at all! Fred has a car. Fred has a wife. Fred has a paying job. How dare he, or anyone else who has been blessed with such things, imply that they are entitled to experience such things but I am not? I worked for the bulk of my life, when I could find work, and I often stayed after work and put in extra hours, to make sure that the job was done right. That was the case when I managed the database at YMCA Child Welfare in Chicago, where we handled the care of 950 foster children in need of loving homes.
Fred's pastor, Matt Atkins, recently sent me an email that implied that I was some kind of rapist or wannabe rapist, saying, "I truly hope you find a spouse, Mark. I pray that that
happens. As for your accusation that you are being falsely accused, why don't
we sit down with a police officer and one of the young women you gave a note
too, and ask the police officer if your actions could be deemed
"predatorial"? I think the
answer would be very clear. Your actions
cause me to think you are predatorial, whether you are or not doesn't matter. I
am a mandatory reporter if I am concerned that someone might "offend"
with a minor or non-consenting adult, I am concerned enough with you that if
something else happens I'll report it to the police."
So, in other words, it doesn't matter much to Matt whether there is any substance to his accusations or not. (There isn't. I have NEVER EVEN KISSED A WOMAN WHO DID NOT WANT TO BE KISSED. As for his comment about "a minor", he needs to check his laws. 19 years old is NOT A MINOR. If a 19-year-old female wants to star in a porn film (or work as a legal prostitute in the state of Nevada), she is legally free to do so. I freely admit that when I asked a woman of that age out for a cup of coffee with me, I did not know that she was 19 years old. I could be wrong, but I think I spotted that young woman in the company of the Bellingham High School Show Stoppers, which provided musical entertainment for Heather Ludwig's Stroke Support Group at our annual Christmas party on December 12. Interestingly, the woman who directed to that music group called the members "kids", but she then corrected herself and said YOUNG ADULTS.
Oh, by the way, I followed Matt's advice regarding presenting my case to a police officer, when I sent an e-mail to another pastor named Mitch Senti, and when I sent a copy of that email to Detective Allan Jensen of the Bellingham Police. The letter included my current address and my current cell phone at the end. If Allan Jensen honestly thought that I posed any kind of threat involving "non-consenting adults" or minors, don't you think that he would have showed up on my doorstep before now? Yeah, I think so. But after being sent after me one time already, by Brad Howell from Hillcrest Chapel, and after having seen for himself that the only "threat" I posed to anyone was the threat that I might actually speak my mind, I think that Allan is probably tired of being jerked around by power-hungry pastors who are too loose with their accusatory words.
Sunday, December 8, 2013
Lots of Choices and Considerations
When looking for love and/or sex, there are loads of choices out there. There are online services, like Match.com or Plenty of Fish (www.pof.com), Match.com, ChristianMingle.com and so forth. There are services like Events And Adventures, It's Just Lunch, Great Expectations and so forth.
What most of these options seem to have in common is that they are fairly expensive, for people living on fixed incomes (as I currently am, until I can get a job with the help of Cascade Vocational Services and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation).
Events and Adventures is a case in point. I'd heard that company advertised on The Peak FM from Vancouver, British Columbia. The premise of the group was that the best way to meet potential partners was to engage in various fun activities (e.g., hiking, concerts and plays, etc.).
When I first heard about E & A, I was very interested. But when I called and asked about prices for joining, they said that it would cost $2,000 for a one-year membership, or $4,000 for a lifetime membership. Obviously, the latter would be a better deal, if one could afford it, but BOTH are big investments for someone who only makes about $700 per month, most of which goes into rent and electricity. When I objected that that was an awful lot of money to invest, the guy just said that E & A was "not for everyone".
In order to properly promote Get Hitched, some funds would be needed. (My preference would be EDDM mailings, in order to blanket entire zip codes.) But I don't imagine that those funds would be raised by charging a big feel that not everyone could afford. Crowdfunding via a site like GoFundMe.com would be an option. Ditto for a system inspired by the Panera Cares program. Panera Bread, praised by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, is a program in which people pay what they can afford to pay. That means that some folks pay small amounts, and others pay more, based on the desire to help those who are less fortunate.
What most of these options seem to have in common is that they are fairly expensive, for people living on fixed incomes (as I currently am, until I can get a job with the help of Cascade Vocational Services and the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation).
Events and Adventures is a case in point. I'd heard that company advertised on The Peak FM from Vancouver, British Columbia. The premise of the group was that the best way to meet potential partners was to engage in various fun activities (e.g., hiking, concerts and plays, etc.).
When I first heard about E & A, I was very interested. But when I called and asked about prices for joining, they said that it would cost $2,000 for a one-year membership, or $4,000 for a lifetime membership. Obviously, the latter would be a better deal, if one could afford it, but BOTH are big investments for someone who only makes about $700 per month, most of which goes into rent and electricity. When I objected that that was an awful lot of money to invest, the guy just said that E & A was "not for everyone".
In order to properly promote Get Hitched, some funds would be needed. (My preference would be EDDM mailings, in order to blanket entire zip codes.) But I don't imagine that those funds would be raised by charging a big feel that not everyone could afford. Crowdfunding via a site like GoFundMe.com would be an option. Ditto for a system inspired by the Panera Cares program. Panera Bread, praised by the Stanford Social Innovation Review, is a program in which people pay what they can afford to pay. That means that some folks pay small amounts, and others pay more, based on the desire to help those who are less fortunate.
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