CAQ response to
Terry Allen's charges
Bill Blum
Mon, 21 Sep 1998 20:07:59 EDT
It's remarkable how otherwise intelligent and sophisticated people have been
jumping to conclusions about these postings without knowing any more than what
one side is telling them. The fact that the letter speaks of one of the
publishers championing "a proposal to expose Hitler's current hideout in
Antarctica" should have given readers at least a little pause, and made them
wonder about the rest of the letter. The fact is that the letter is composed
largely of three factors: a) half-truths, b) whole untruths, c)irrelevancies.
The firings had nothing -- repeat, nothing -- whatever to do with matters
political, ideological, journalistic or editorial, no matter how many times
the former editor Terry Allen may and will repeat this story . The firings
had to do solely with interpersonal relations. The proof of this -- not
disputed by the fired employees -- is that the publishers at first moved to
fire only the office administrator, Barbara, not the editor or assistant
editor, Sanho. Clearly, this wasn't an editorial matter. It was only then
that Terry and Sanho signed an ultimatum to the publishers saying that the
three of them were a team and that if one were fired, all three would have to
be fired. This is what happened.
It is also a fact that Barbara and Terry continually -- for years -- displayed
only the utmost contempt for the people who founded the magazine. Countless
examples could be given. Their behavior could be called "mean", except that
"cruel" comes even closer. Things finally reached the breaking point when
Barbara took her hostility out on the 13 year-old-child of one of the founders
at a moment of emergency for the girl.
Though it was not a factor in their firing, I myself was on the receiving end
of their despicable behavior on numerous occasions, during the three years I
worked at the CAQ office. They had lost all sense of proportion, balance and
simple human kindness.
The method chosen to fire them came only after repeated efforts to modify
their behavior. I spoke to each of the women about the abuse they showered on
myself and others on several occasions, but to no avail. Barbara was given
sufficient warning by phone and letter of her firing by one of the publishers,
and she chose not to respond at all. There really was no other way than that
employed to effect their dismissal, short of sending in some goons to
physically eject them.
As her parting shot, Terry Allen deleted from the main computer all the
articles of CAQ for the past 8 years or so, as well as the entire rolodex of
authors and the many other people a magazine needs to function. She also
removed the desktop publishing software. She left hardly anything except
Windows. These losses have added greatly to the chore of reviving the
magazine. She has since been sending out countless poison pen letters to
anyone who might conceivably be in a position to do the magazine some harm.