Mav,
The clarification of the identity is very helpful. There are many links with an Alan Simmons in video production, so he is going to have to be accountable for the SGI "horror stories" he is running around and telling about people who are no longer alive to defend themselves.
Just reading some of Byrds blog, shows she was very intelligent and well-spoken, and one can be certain that "Alan Simmons" would not have gotten away with that while she had her blog up.
The point of looking into this, is to see how SGI-USA operates on the local level, with people who speak out. This is not an isolated case, its just a case that happens to have written information that can be looked into.
There are even more disturbing aspects to this.
On her blog, Wendy "Byrd" Ehlmann mentioned that the SGI people were contacting her, and bugging her, due to her speaking her own thoughts about SGI in her blog.
This is what she said on Jul 14, 2008.
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[
www.fraughtwithperil.com]
[
www.fraughtwithperil.com]
It's a Blog, Guys!
I was really looking forward to an SGI-USA women's division pot luck this past Sunday. ...
I was startled, therefore, to receive a telephone call on Saturday night at about 8:00 from a woman's division leader who was "assigned" to my district about a year and a half ago. She informed me that she and a men's division leader wanted to come by to my home immediately in order to chant with me and "have a talk."
I declined their request to drop by, and asked what it was that they wanted to talk about.
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So some new SGI women's leader, assigned from the SGI-USA higher-ups, calls her up out of the blue, and kicks her out of the SGI social events, obviously as a tactic to hurt her relationships, and to get her to close down her blog.
Worse, this leader said she wanted to come to her home with a man from SGI (was that Alan Simmons?), so they could try to run the SGI psychological persuasion tactics on her.
Then in print, Wendy DECLINED their request to enter her home. She said NO.
Then after she passed, you have Alan Simmons claiming he entered her home?
How can Alan Simmons enter her home many weeks after she died, when her LAST communication on the issue, she stated very clearly she did NOT want the SGI "leaders" in her home?
That has to be illegal, not just immoral.
Did the SGI members persuade the Office Administrator at the Co-Op where she lived to enter her home? That doesn't make any sense, as the police were in control of the scene, and then it would be released to next of kin. You cannot open up the home of deceased people to be rummaged around in by random people.
Wendy stated she did NOT want the SGI people in her home.
So which is it? Did Alan Simmons (possibly illegally) enter the home of Wendy after her passing, and against her written wishes?
Or did he just fabricate the entire story, to try to earn an SGI cookie and pat on the head from SGI-USA?
The evidence looks like Alan Simmons just confabulated the entire "story", like his other obvious confabulations.
Since Alan Simmons has been in SGI for 25 years, and is "bragging" about being a Division "leader", and trying to brag about the SGI bigshots he's known, he clearly wants to try to move up in the SGI-USA organization.
What most likely happened is that since Wendy "Byrd" Ehlmann was so intelligent and such a good writer, her intelligent blog hit the radar screen of the SGI-USA head office.
And there were many Ex-SGI people posting comments there as well.
So the order came down from SGI-USA head ofice to get her blog shut-down.
The first tactics SGI will try is local harrassment of the person, coercion, and personal pressure.
Then, they find her SGI longterm friends, and try to SHUN her and cut her off from all the SGI social activities, to try and stop the speaking out. Byrd did admit those tactics depressed her and she was bummed out on the July 16 blog post, where she saiys SGI was kicking her out for saying things about Ikeda on the internet. SGI kicked her out for her blog, as actual Free Speech is forbidden in the SGI-USA cult. [
www.fraughtwithperil.com]
And check-out the SGI by-laws, the people who were kicking her out of SGI were from the head office of SGI-USA, that's not just the local yahoos doing that.
What would have happened next? What happened to Lisa Jones, SGI-USA would have gone after her with some trumped up legal threats. The thing is, if she had not passed away, one gets the sense that Byrd would not have backed down from writing what she wanted to write.
So the point of this, is to look at how SGI-USA really operates.
They are aware of any blog by any SGI member, and if they don't like it, SGI will come down on your head. They will pressure you, call you, harrass you. They will try to take away all your SGI friends. They will kick you out of SGI.
They will threaten you with legal action, they will do anything to silence you.
And then you have SGI propagandists like Alan Simmons.
Long-term "true believers" who want to move up in SGI-USA, who brag about being a Division "leader", when in fact they are just doing SGI's work for them for no pay.
But the ambitious guys like Alan Simmons, they want to get in on the SGI scare tactics too. They want to play some of the SGI mind-games.
The problem is, they are amateurs, and they run around made crude and disgusting remarks about someone after they have passed away, and its obvious to anyone who reads it.
The local SGI members can be irritating, always trying to get people to join SGI.
But the level to really start to watch out for, and the SGI division "leaders" and above that level. SGI-USA selects from those people, the kind of people who will do what they are told. They become the SGI-USA local hatchet-men and hatchet-women, who keep people in line, and keep the money flowing in.
There are many SGI people like Alan Simmons running around on the local level.
He should be ashamed of himself for trying to start such disgusting "stories" from circulating about someone. Is he ashamed of himself, or proud of his "stories" and smear tactics?
But that is a lesson in how SGI-USA really operates. If you dare to speak up, they will go after you with guns blazing, and they will kick you out, and worse.
Even Wendy was telling them to take a chill pill and stand-down. SGI-USA must have had some meetings where they decided to target Wendy, to get her blog shut down, AT ALL COSTS. So a group of SGI maniacs started calling her, and contacting her, and its overwhelming.
That is the American version of the stalking and severe SGI harrassment one hears about in Japan.
That is very common in these sects and cults like SGI. If you try to speak out, they will try to silence you. And when you are intelligent, and have a blog that people are reading, they will pull out all the stops, and come at you from all sides.
The only reason there are no SGI promoters and attackers in this forum, is they know that there is nothing they can do. The forum's free speech is protected, and they know the SGI propaganda techniques and SGI-lies won't work either. So the SGI-USA head office can't do anything about this forum, unlike an independent blog of an SGI member.
The more in looks into SGI and SGI-USA and Ikeda, the worse it gets.
Below for reference, is a cross-post of the blog post by Wendy, in case it gets "disappeared" from the internet.
Please carefully read what she has written. It proves that SGI-USA contacts SGI bloggers, and has them submit their blogs to SGI-USA first to be "approved" before they are published. Think about that. That is what they were trying to do to Wendy, and of course, being an American, she refused. The fact that SGI-USA is trying to completely control the writings of their members, shows what an extreme sect/cult they are.
She also mentions the person who was going to censor...uh...approve of her writing was a criminal prosecutor. Who in that area is an SGI member, who is also a prosecutor?
Think of how they were trying to intimidate her, and others. SGI-USA, tries to force bloggers who belong to SGI, to submit their writings to an employed criminal prosecutor.
That is getting extremely serious.
And below, she also clearly states SGI-USA were threatening her with legal action...
QUOTE: "I also hope that the SGI-USA leadership will seriously consider that since the SGI's Mentor Daisaku Ikeda is the founder of a university here in the United States, a documented campaign by the SGI-USA to enforce reverence for him by prosecuting blogsites might not make him look too good.."
She also made it clear she would fight back, and tell everyone what SGI-USA was trying to do to her.
Notice below, Wendy clearly repeats..."I will not, however, open my home to people who are coming there to restrict what I believe to be my rights..."
This is getting even worse and more serious when you look into it.
SGI-USA is using a local SGI person who happens to be a criminal prosecutor, to totally control the blogs of SGI members.
Notice earlier in this thread it was said that SGI controls all so-called non-SGI blogs and websites in the USA. They do that using the technique described by Wendy, they censor it BEFORE its published.
So SGI-USA is literally like Goebbels, who also believed in Free Speech, as long as he approved of what was written first. (that is sarcasm)
SGI-USA obviously totally controls all of the main so-called "unofficial" blogs and websites about SGI, using that same method.
Wendy said very clearly several time the SGI people are NOT ALLOWED IN HER HOME.
And Alan Simmons, and SGI division "leader" says he entered her home, did he break the law? Entering her home certainly violated her written wishes, and her rights.
And to post such vile disgusting lies violates not only human rights, but human decency.
If Wendy "Byrd" Ehlmann had not passed away, SGI-USA would have gone at her just like Lisa Jones, the difference here is Wendy said she was not going to back down due to the SGI-USA threats against her.
Did Alan Simmons enter her home, against her written instructions, and possibly illegally?
Or did he just fabricate the entire story for SGI-USA propaganda and revenge against an "enemy" of SGI?
Which is it?
QUOTES from Wendy "Byrd" Ehlmann:
"I also prefer not to submit my writing to the supervision of anyone who is employed as a criminal prosecutor. I'm just uncomfortable with anyone who puts people in jail (or to death) for a living "cracking down" on dissident speech in his or her spare time."
..."I will not, however, open my home to people who are coming there to restrict what I believe to be my rights..."
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[
www.fraughtwithperil.com]
July 14, 2008
It's a Blog, Guys!
I was really looking forward to an SGI-USA women's division pot luck this past Sunday. I was going to get my usual stuffed grape leaves from the local Armenian deli, hitch a ride with a dear friend, and enjoy chanting and interacting with the women's division members of my SGI-USA Chapter. The potluck, entitled " Myoho and Munchies" was to be held at the home of a woman I've known for over 20 years, and whom I knew professionally for several years before either one of us joined the SGI. The hostess and I have never been on anything but good terms, and I was looking forward to this activity all week.
I was startled, therefore, to receive a telephone call on Saturday night at about 8:00 from a woman's division leader who was "assigned" to my district about a year and a half ago. She informed me that she and a men's division leader wanted to come by to my home immediately in order to chant with me and "have a talk."
I declined their request to drop by, and asked what it was that they wanted to talk about. Although I took some notes, the content of the "message" was rather jumbled. I asked if we could discuss the matter the next day at the activity, but was told in no uncertain terms that I was being made persona non grata at my friend's home the next day, as a reaction to the contents of this blog.
"No!" I was told me sternly in response to my request to discuss the issues the next day at the potluck. "You are not welcome!"
"Was a vote taken on this?" I asked
"Well...uh...yeah!" she replied. There was a hesitant gap between the "uh" and the "yeah", so I'm not actually sure who the jury was on this vote. I was too startled to press the issue of whether or not the hostess had been consulted on the issue of who was and who was not "welcome" in her home. Of course, if I had been invited to my own trial, I would have made the following,obvious point:
Fer cryin' out loud, guys! Chill out! It's a freakin' blog! Do you know how many blogs there are out there? Like, about fifty gazillion. I'm not promoting this page on Larry King, I'm not taking out ads in the LA Times, I'm not doing anything but but writing out my thoughts, guys. Take a chill pill. Get a grip.
As far as I was able to make out, the grounds for my being banned from activities with my church of 24 years are as follows:
1. I have written of Soka Gakkai International President Daisaku Ikeda in an irreverent fashion, sometimes referring to him by the common online moniker "PI" (for "President Ikeda"), and I have failed to embrace the SGI's current focus on the Mentor/Disciple relationship, specifically as it requires the adoption of Daisaku Ikeda as a Mentor in Life.
I admit that both of these points are true. However, as I pointed out to my caller, I have never been anything but polite and well-mannered at SGI meetings. I asked my caller whether she could name a single instance where I had comported myself at an SGI activity with anything but good manners. Had I contradicted any speakers? "Promoted" any other denominations to any member in our district or chapter, to her knowledge? Denigrated PI to the membership of the district, or to any guest? This provoked the outraged second charge:
2. My completely faultless, cheerful good manners at SGI activities has been "incredibly deceitful"
Apparently, if I were honest about my true identity as an enemy of the SGI, I would be barging about the Community Center Gohonzon room, bellowing obscenities, flecking the guests with sputum, and singeing the eyebrows of an amazed leadership with the match-lit blasts of my streaming garlic-farts. Instead, I have behaved graciously toward the guests and affectionately toward the members, even going so far as to engage in such "deceitful" conduct as:
Coming early to Buddhist memorial services in order to help set up and greet the guests;
Bringing up to 75 pieces of fried chicken at a time to pot-luck gatherings;
Attending daimoku tosos to chant for the health of cancer-stricken members, adults and children alike;
And other, similar examples of "deceitful", secretly harbored ill-will towards the SGI and its members too numerous to list.
There were a few other offenses hurled at me (including the always-problematic issue of my tone), but one of the most important appeared to be:
3. I have failed to "talk to my leaders" about the issues discussed on this page before posting my opinions. In other words, I have failed to submit my speech to an implied censorship process (at least that is as clear as I can be about the charge - if the leaders who want to be "talked to" before I post can clarify this complaint, I would be most grateful).
Actually, I acknowledged this potential issue in my very first post on this site.
"Have you ever talked to your leaders about these things?" The caller sharply demanded.
"Well, yeah. I just talked to (some leaders) a month or so ago," I pointed out.
"Yes, but they had to call you!" came the retort.
Huh. Apparently, chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo to the Gohonzon is supposed to result in some sort of naturally occurring Buddha insight that I'm not competent to express my own thoughts and observations about my religious community without submitting my ideas to an intellectual supervisor first. Actually, I did enjoy that earlier meeting quite a lot, much more than I enjoyed last Saturday's phone call. Interestingly, that other leader also characterized my good manners at SGI activities as "duplicitous," a problem which I attempted to address in another entry.
I will try to answer this "why don' t I talk to my leaders before writing" question in brief by saying that I don't have any real reason to talk to my "leaders" and not talk to the general membership. Since I have essentially vowed not to "disturb the unity and faith" of the general membership, I don't raise unauthorized issues with them, and there is really no logical reason (other than a purely arbitrary administrative hierarchy) why I should be discussing with people "up the line" and not "down the line". I don't have any reason to believe that the people up the line are better informed, more intelligent, stronger Buddhist practitioners, or anything else. They're certainly not my elected or chosen representatives. So, since I am effectively restrained from initiating discussions of non-SGI books, denominations, and interpretations of Buddhism with the general membership, I am identically restrained from initiating such conversations with the leadership. Unless someone can prove to me that SGI leaders, (athough generally wonderful, hard-working volunteers), are any better-read, better-informed, more articulate, or more intelligent than the general membership, I have no reason to prefer their opinion over that of the "little guys".
I will talk about this issue more at a later date.
But for now, here is my current dilemma: I am trying to hit an August 8 deadline for a screenplay writing contest. This whole issue of whether or not my writing has rendered me persona non grata in my church is tending to be a bit of a distraction for me, and I'm sure the SGI wouldn't want to sabotage their memberships' pursuit of their dreams. Even deceitful, evil people like me. Therefore, I am going to continue on behaving as though Saturday evening's bizarre telephone conversation did not occur. I will attend the same activities I have always attended (such as district discussion meetings, etc.) and will comport myself courteously. I look forward (as always) to seeing my friends and chanting with them.
I also hope that the SGI-USA leadership will seriously consider that since the SGI's Mentor Daisaku Ikeda is the founder of a university here in the United States, a documented campaign by the SGI-USA to enforce reverence for him by prosecuting blogsites might not make him look too good, particularly since we spend so much time promoting his work as an international advocate of human rights. Remember, guys....that's all it this is...a blog.
If anyone wishes to contact me to discuss any matter, they can certainly give me a call. I will not, however, open my home to people who are coming there to restrict what I believe to be my rights, however "heartfelt" and "sincere" their tone may be in doing so. I also prefer not to submit my writing to the supervision of anyone who is employed as a criminal prosecutor. I'm just uncomfortable with anyone who puts people in jail (or to death) for a living "cracking down" on dissident speech in his or her spare time. It's a power thing, and I hope you can all work with me on that. Otherwise, I am always available for a coffee at McDonald's, where we can discuss these bizarre matters under the happy eye of a real clown.
Stay happy, stay enlightened, stay cool - Byrd in LA
P.S. If you really feel angry with me, and don't know what else to do except crack down on my blog, the Buddha did leave a remedy for the painful emotion of anger: lovingkindness. It's really a great antidote.
Posted by wahzoh at July 14, 2008 02:05 PM
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2010 02:41AM by The Anticult.