Stop, Drop and Roll

10 August 2007 | Alameda Community, Alameda Truthiness | John Knox White

I really would like to write a bit about the recent ruling on the Howard v. White lawsuit which, if you haven’t heard, I won. But I’m having a hard time stopping my happy-dance and so am going to limit myself to Mr. David Howard’s most recent letter to The Don, attempting to spin his complete defeat in a court of his choosing.

This posting refers to the Howard v. White Exhibits, a rather long document encompassing the exhibits backing up the motion to strike posted yesterday. It’s a PDF, appropriate page numbers are listed below.

For those who are new to this tiring drama, here’s a brief recap:

Last fall, a discussion about the anti-community behavior of one Donald Roberts, a self-proclaimed Alameda “journalist” who decided to film my house, and announce where I live on TV for no reason other than “he could.” Some folks felt it was distasteful, even a bit threatening. Others, not so much. Mr. Howard decided to dig out information about my address and household income and post it on the web, actions I found unbecoming of a person who claims to want to build a community spirit in Alameda. In the midst of a spirited discussion, in which Mr. Howard called me a liar and an elitist, the first grader in me, over-powered the more composed grown up and blurted out (actually typed) the word “stalker.” And Mr. Howard threatened to call a lawyer, pick up his toys and go home. (This is all captured starting on Page 81 of the Court Exhibits document).

Eventually, in March of 2007, Mr. Howard filed suit in Alameda County Small Claims Court (bringing a whole new meaning to “small claims”). Long story short, He lost on all counts. Phew.

Back to the letter to Don, I’ll leave alone the utter ridiculousness of trying to frame me as a bully while writing about an utterly frivolous lawsuit he filed against me. I want to focus on this passage of the letter:

“Mr. White and his friends, many of whom are Measure A critics, such as Helen Sause (who referred to me as a “twerp” in submissions she provided to Mr. White for the case), like to claim the high road when it comes to public debate. But Mr. White’s defense, which he argued ardently, was that he was engaged in “childish namecalling” - hardly a hallmark of intelligent debate.”

As the one who personally argued that I was “engaged in ‘childish namecalling’,” I find it odd that he’s making the “hardly a hallmark of intelligent debate” argument. Isn’t “childish name calling” almost the definition on un-intelligent debate? It’s an odd comment. But I’m more interested in his comment about Helen Sause.

Honestly, Mr. Howard should handwrite a thank-you note to Helen Sause for what must have been a Herculean effort to limit herself to the invective “twerp.”

Mr. Howard has a long history with Ms. Sause. After disparaging her name across the blogs, he created a wikipedia listing specifically about her (see page 24 of the Court Exhibits PDF below), in which he completely made up a resume/biography for her.

Howard’s creation blamed Sause for ill-will and bitterness during a major development process in San Francisco. But the exact opposite was true. Sause was awarded a prestigious honor for her work in stepping into a contentious community fight over development. Specifically, she brought all sides to the table and successfully fostered an environment of trust and good-feeling among the warring parties. Wikipedia removed the posting immediately, apologizing to Sause. (Page 25)

Howard’s ill-fated blog (see selections in the court exhibit document starting on page 1) lobbed unproven accusation after unproven accusation at Sause.

When someone forwarded an email that Sause had sent a list of friends (who’s email addresses were captured in the body of the email that was forwarded), Howard emailed all the people on the list a harassing email about Sause. To repeat, Howard sent an obnoxious, anti-Sause email to a list he knew comprised her friends, churchmembers and family. When she called him on his unfriendly behavior, he taunted her (page 27-29).

His public name-calling, all of which I guess has not been childish and therefore intelligent, continues.

As I said earlier, at the very least, Howard ought to take the time to send an electronic thank you to Suase for not unleashing a much more nasty stream of invective and instead falling on “Twerp.” We know he has her email address.

On Monday, we can talk about what makes a bully.