A few things. First off, I'm not Big Mike. If you think I have the same writing style as he does... well let's just say increased study of writing style will show just how wrong that opinion is. Do I use complete sentences? Yes. That's about the extent of the commonality.
I don't have anything personal against Big Mike, but he's not handling this issue properly IMHO. Forget the political intrigue/conspiracy thing. It's just too tinfoil hat regardless of whether or not it's true. Especially if it's true, it's not the right card to play. If I were him and working a public relations nightmare like this, I'd be focusing on the angle of the mom who was apparently hitting Gino up for cash constantly and then suddenly these accusations start flying after he says no to a "request" that he buy her an expensive car rather than the cheaper company car he offered.
Honestly, it's actually a bit offensive to me to suggest I wrote the letter AN published. I'm not that manic with two pots of coffee down the hatch.
Next up, the "fact of life" defense is pure mob mentality. You're saying that you believe it's wrong to consider someone guilty until proven innocent, but it's a "fact of life" that this is what happens in this case so you're going to do it anyway. "But mooooooom, everyone else is doing it!"
Seriously? You see me and a some other people here reserving judgement. If we can do it, why can't you? Yes, most people aren't willing (or perhaps even able) to look at a volatile situation like this rationally, and say to themselves "we're only hearing a fraction of the story and NONE of the evidence, so we cannot intelligently claim to know any truth about this situation. For that reason, I will not judge anyone until the facts are in." But simply because some people won't behave civilly doesn't mean the rest of us are free of the burden of acting like rational adults.
Don't kick a man simply because the rest of the mob is doing it. Think for yourself. If you choose, on your own, to kick a man for no good reason then own that and don't blame the mob.
Gino is innocent until proven guilty. He may be wrongly tried in the court of public opinion and found guilty in the complete absence of any presented evidence, but that wouldn't make it right of me to jump on that bandwagon. It would make me just as guilty of rushing to judgment as everyone else who's doing it. Having a lot of company in wrongdoing doesn't make it less wrong.
If he's guilty then he deserves everything the law can throw at him. Perhaps more, I don't know much about what Bulgaria does in these cases.
I did get a chuckle out of the "he should have been doing charity somewhere I think is important, like the USA, rather than Bulgaria which I think is crap and like to call names" point that was just made. That was brilliantly ethno-centric. Kudos for illustrating everything the rest of the world hates about the USA. In case you didn't know, Gino is Bulgarian, Big Mike is American, and I think the other guy is Canadian. AN has facilities all three of those places plus some other countries I think, but they should be limiting their charity to the US because that's what you think is most important? Nice. Nicely done. Let's all have a slow clap for that.
Finally, for the record, I haven't ever been accused of this sort of thing or any related offense. I had a friend in high school that was, years ago. It was all very "he said, she said" involving a girl at our school and everyone in town decided he was guilty and I'm sorry to say I didn't stand up for him because the peer pressure was just incredibly intense. I was afraid people would think I was a bad person like they believed him to be if I stood up for him. So I screwed my friend over and cut ties with him. There isn't a day I don't regret that and wish I'd had the strength to stick up for him, because maybe then he'd have had the strength to face the charges. Maybe he'd have killed himself anyway, but I'll never know.
So yeah, I've seen the kind of damage this crap can do first-hand. I'll never be one of the ones carrying pitchforks and torches again.
