It’s a bit ironic and hypocritical for people to NOW rewrite history and act like they voiced concerns all along or have some holy martyr cross to bear, especially as some of those NOW voicing concerns were some of the ones who were bashing those few souls who DID speak up long ago. IMA has always had issues and a few brave people DID speak up against them loudly and repeatedly before this latest implosion started.

Maybe if those speaking up now spoke up earlier or had removed their lips from Steve’s koolaid fountain, this would not have happened and things could’ve been different. Oh wait, people usually don’t speak up until the “and then they came for YOU” part of the poem occurs.

I truly have no beef with you at all. I just don’t really care for the strong minded, power hungry members who aren’t owning up to their part in all of this mess. It has left a bad taste for many people. And it’s not all of Steve’s doing, while he was the leader of the pack.

So,,I am just expressing my views, as it is time to allow people who feel they have been crucified in some way for no reason, to speak up without being beat up.

No, I don’t want to beat you up because you are speaking up. I applaud it. There are one, possibly two people who I know I treated wrong. And I have apologized to them.

You have not identified yourself, so I don’t know who you are, but if you wish to identify yourself, either publicly or privately, I will be happy to discuss specifics with you. I do not believe that I have participated in a “gang fight” in an awfully long time. But I totally know that I’m no angel, and I’ve done some people wrong. I can be very emotional, the same as many other people, and sometimes say something that I wish I hadn’t of said. For that I humbly apologize.

I don’t think I was ever Steve’s assistant, but as I said before, there were times I agreed with his message, I just disagreed with the way he delivered it. Sometimes I let him know, sometimes I didn’t. Again, I had the organization’s best interest in mind, and had to make decisions as to when to protest, when to try and divert his attention, and when to do nothing. I did the best I can.

Oh, I have checked you all out. You’re no angel and neither are many of the screamers right now. You can BLAME steve for everything, like all of these disgruntled members. But some of you were no better.

And if you read my post, no where do I “assume” anything. I know all about the ins and outs of IMA first hand. So don’t YOU assume anything.

I’ve seen your posts on the ps board as well. And you have not acted in a professional respectful manner until now. Go search some of the old IMA posts. You’ll see who participated in the gang fight on the powerseller board. And if you’re going to state that none of the IMA members saw the posts and how members were publicly treated people, that’s another drink of kool-aid.

If you want to beat me up because I’m speaking up. Feel free. I can’t imagine how you must feel being taken on a joy ride by an ego maniac who only cares about his own agenda. But you were perhaps an assistant who went along.

As a Board member, and an IMA member, I had to pick and choose my battles. Trust me, I was on Steve’s “nuisance” list because I did frequently challenge him. But my mission was always to do the best thing for the organization, and that sometimes directed my actions, possibly in a way that you saw as accepting of his demeanor. That wasn’t the case.

So before you go and assume that the rest of us were complacent, or didn’t care, you should check us out. You may find the story is not what you think.

Where was everybody else? Why was everybody waiting for someone else to stand up to it?

I hope we all learn from this… the next time you see yourself or someone else being crapped on, especially by a power-hungry weirdo, STAND UP. Don’t enable that person. Don’t assume he’ll go away because he doesn’t. He may change venues, but he doesn’t go away. We have to stand up to him and let him know he can’t get away with it.

The difference is when some of us gave us the IMA Kool-aid we realized what dolts we had been and were trying to right the wrongs. At that point we were shut down and shut out.

If you sat around and just watched, you closed your eyes and sold your soul just to belong to this group/cult!