The Merchant of Venice Gets his Pound of Flesh

January 27, 2015.

Passing Thoughts

Today is the annual day to remember the holocaust and it also happens to be the 70'th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp in Auschwitz.  Imagine -  a million people slaughtered.  When 3,000 people were slaughtered September 11in New York, there was an immediate response.  Not three weeks ago people were slaughtered in Paris, and the conversation in three short weeks has changed from freedom and human rights and free speech, to freedom of religion.  I do not understand  Washington leaders.  I have real issue with religion trumping human rights.  The holocaust eliminated 6,000,000 people and since the second world war some linguists coined the term 'ethnic cleansing' to soften the vocabulary - but lets face it we are still stuck in defending religion based attacks.  What has happened to just defending human rights and equality.  What happened to the ideals of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King raising awarenes of race equality?  We know that there is a serious issue with gender equality, but female human rights are eclipsed by double talking politicians who give religion a free pass.  I am very disappointed with President Obama's remarks in India.  No religion should eclipse civil rights or human rights and ignore the real essence of the words of the Constitution.

The French magazine attracted outrage because of cartoons.  I am wondering, is it OK to criticize fashion, and just keep to superficial matters?  Is it insulting to say that a black sheet is not fashion, and so you look silly wearing a black sheet and a Chanel bag?  I don't get it.  I put a cover on my BBQ and patio furniture, not over my head and body.  But I digress.

The Tale

Jonny thought that he could get everything resolved by Canadian Thanksgiving and we were so anxious to have this put behind us.  Ten months had gone by, not one call from the brother.   Greg had celebrated his 65 birthday in Alabama, Natalie and Karina had their birthdays, Karina had her surgery, Natalie had survived a plane crash, and escaped ovarian cancer.  By that point, I had run out of words.  Nothing could describe my utter disappointment in the brother.
The friends who had stood by however, were in a different category.  They were as anxious as we were, and ten months into the unimaginable, most of our supporters were at a point of just holding their breath,
"Anything?"
"Nope".

Back in Hamilton, more people were being hired as a new grimmet had been designed and was now in demand.   Orders were rolling in.  It would be bad if the news got back to the regular people of Alabama.  The grimmet business was booming,  and just like the rest of the economy, both in Canada and the United States, jobs were coming back in the manufacturing sector.  It was a full six years since the economic collapse of 2008, and Greg was being held captive with that electronic monitor having been accused of a securities fraud in criminal court.  Greg's bridge loan had been arranged for him by the state and a NY lawyer to expedite construction while Greg was waiting for the federal GO ZONE money.  Construction had to commence before December 31 2007 remember.  The bridge loan lender asked to be a share holder. i.e. have a stake in the company, months after Greg had advised him of cost over runs.  The bridge loan lender pressured Greg to use suppliers known to cost more.  The bridge loan lender was given all of the financial information monthly since October 2007 and yet wanted to be a partner well after the reported 2008 banking crisis that cripled the global economy.  The bridge loan lender, unlike regular banks that had to take the hit as a result of housing market collapse and the morgage crisis, this particular lender,  had enough power in the State of Alabama to get a State Securities fraud indictment against Greg.  Who actually commited a white collar crime here?

Weeks went by.   Jonny was still tweeking that statement to satisfy the prosecution.  The prosecution needed to look like they got a victory.  Jonny knew that and Greg and I both understood that.  Jonny truly believed that some of the opponents really were convinced that they were in the right.  I don't really care to find out what they thought.  I just know that by sealing the 'secret Grand Jury documents'  for ever by court order, means that there is a reason to hide information.  But somehow, the truth, like cream that floats to the top, will come out.

Jonny finally got the wording right, and then it was a matter of paying the 'fine' and do the money transfer.  I was nervous that they would pull a fast one and possibly take the money and come up with another devious plot to torture Greg.  I was so nervous that Jonny, who had lost many a night's sleep worrying about this case, also started to believe my crazy ideas.  We had now lost 11 months of laughter, joy and happiness.  We had spent 11 months having to think about the peculiar sort of people who want to get their pound of flesh.  I just didn't understand that kind of evil.  Greg never wanted to be a loser.  Part of the accusation in the indictment was that Greg was a deviant who always knew that the construction of the grimmet factory would be a lost cause.  Why is the grimmet business booming in Hamilton in an inferior factory today?  It is very frustrating to know that a state of the art building, that cost $150 million less that the repairs to buildings now 100 years old - is under used.  It is frustrating as well to have listened to urban legend in Muscle Shoals about the building.  "That place is so big they had to take into account the curvature of the earth".  Well, if you are into engineering, and you are building heavy equipment that will be travelling at high speed through towns, you better make sure that the bobbits that the grimmet travel on, are perfect inside the factory.  It's about the safety of the equipment you are building. Duh! ACS had done an amazing job to discredit Greg, part of the character assasination plot.  It is a wonderful thing to have been raised with literature, and culture.  The great themes of conflict, money jealously and liars are told and retold.  Our experience was nothing new, we were just wearing different costumes: we were in a modern day setting of 'The Merchant of Venice'.

November 14, 2015 Jonny, Mark and Greg, finally went into court, they got the releases and the judge said
"I hope that the people of North Alabama treated you well."
The monitor came off shortly after, Greg was going to keep it as a souvenir of his ordeal, but they wanted $3,000.00, so he said, 'nail that' so to speak, and that evening Greg left Florence.  Jonny and his wife went out to the airport to make sure the jet had Greg on board,  they hugged, Greg climbed up the stairs, the door closed and the plane took off.  That is when Greg started to look at this ugly chapter through the rear view mirror.
"I had always known that ACS wasn't a grimmet man, but I didn't know that he wasn't much of a business man either".

As the plane was crossing Lake Erie, our good pilots turned around and announced,
"We have just entered Canadian air space."  Relief at last.

Abe never called Greg to say bye, or to wish him good luck and I haven't asked Jonny if he got a call.  Jonny and Mark came to visit a liberated Greg in his home back in Canada.  We are slowly getting our lives back, ever so grateful to be here on God's beautiful planet, with a lot of good people.  Ever so grateful to those who carried the banner into the flames, and brought Greg home to his family.

And that is how I learned that I could tell my story to the Universe and fufill my New Year's Resolution.