“Why are you wrong and I am right?”

“Why are you wrong and I am right?”

 

This is the most common question that is unasked and unanswered in all our communications.      The question is disguised and ultimate results in angry e-mails and the outside world writing us all off as a bunch of ‘nuts!’     The givens are:

1)      It is wrong for anyone to violate the law

2)      It is a violation of the law for any government entity including the judiciary to take away the rights, privileges and immunity of citizenship without affording due process.  (guardianship in particular)

3)      Elder cleansing is wrong.   (see the Helen Stone, Mary Sykes, Alice Gore et al cases)

4)      Invasion of privacy is wrong 

5)      Restriction of free speech is wrong  (see:  Lawyer censorship matters)

6)      Lying is wrong 

7)      Taking something that does not belong to you is wrong

8)      We have to right the wrongs

 

How do we right the wrongs?       Just about every one of us has the solution.    The problem is that the rest of you are too stupid to recognize my intelligence and see that my solution is the only one possible.   If only you were not soooo bull headed!

This scenario is repeated just about every day in every group and lends comfort to the enemy.    It also is a sure fire way to seize defeat from the jaws of victory.   

There is no easy solution or magic formula to address the mutual problems that we all have.      As long as each of us believes that we have an easy solution or a magic formula we are doomed to failure.     The problem we face is extremely complex and has dozens of side trails that are dead ends.     I have a lifetime of experience trying to remediate a simple enemy:  “corruption”

Back before the ‘turn of the century’ one of my clients purchased a boatload of human hair.    He opened a factory and turned the hair into upscale wigs.     The most prolific market for these wigs was in the African American community.    Since 1968 and the riots that followed the death of Dr. King the community has been a devoid of businesses offering basic services even though this is a prime consumer market.    Stores the housed small businesses were vacant and could be lease for pennies on the dollar.

My client leased a store on East 63^rd Street in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago.  (Among others)   Women to do not frequent ‘holes in the wall’ but will patronize a store that is airy and clean.      Thus, plate glass windows ($1000 apiece) had to be installed as well as cosmetic repairs were a necessity.   After the plate glass windows were installed the first victor was a young man dressed is dirty jeans that clung to his body by a prayer, and all the symbols of being a member of the dominant ‘gang’ that policed the police and the neighborhood.  

  

The young man accosted the manager with a proposition!    For $150 a week I will WATCH your windows.    A bargain was struck!

To keep the rain out of the store the roof had to be repaired and a roofing company showed up with hot tar to spread over the surface what appeared to be ‘roof!’    The spreading of the tar requires that substance be liquefied and literally poured over every surface.    Of course our window watcher climbed onto the roof and received some severe burns.     At the hospital he meet a lawyer.     A few days later I received notice that a Workman’s Compensation proceeding had been filed against the business.    Upon receipt of the notice I called the lawyer and explained to him that the window watcher was not an employee.    I might have been better serviced talking to the wall in my office.   I got nowhere.    After a drawn out period of time, the case came up for hearing and I presented my defense to the arbitrator.    It took a while but the arbitrator ruled the window watcher was not an employee and thus Workman’s compensation had no jurisdiction.

The victory was short lived, as the Attorney General of the States of Illinois sent me a notice that the window watcher had now filed a claim for wages.    It appeared that Illinois has a minimum wage and $150 a week was less than the minimum wage.     Believe it or not, an attorney employed by the State of Illinois had determined that extortion was protected by Wage and Hour laws.    The AG filed a lawsuit and I filed a motion to dismiss.    The Judge granted the motion.

Fortuitously, by that time all the wigs were sold and the store was returned to its natural state!

The waste of time and money on lawyers is corruption.     Who was the corrupt party?    At least two lawyers believed that it was unfair to not compensate the window watcher for his injury and that he in his criminal enterprise also had a right to a fair wage.    You cannot raise a family on $150 a week.

The problems of society are not divorced from the elder cleansing problems.    Mr. Larkin’s (IARDC) racial discrimination against Mr. Amu are not unique nor are they appropriate.   They however are factors that have to be addressed in the solution of the problem.    The wig case and my personal bias are revealed in my telling about the window watching problem.   They are more vivid in relation to the operation of wig stores.   

 

The operation of a store is not quite as simple as one would think.     One of the big problems is employee theft.     This problem is dealt with by careful hiring practices and good management.    My client was a Korean American.     His manager at the store in question was also a Korean American.    The customers were 100% African American females.

In one store, a theft problem was almost an epidemic.     The manager terminated every single employee and replaced them with basically the children of friends and neighbors.    Not one of the replacements was even remotely African American.      The store became an immediate success and quickly sold out its merchandise quota and closed.      The terminated employees filed a racial discrimination proceeding.     (I was not involved in the racial discrimination proceeding until after an adverse decision had been rendered).

At the hearing Mr. K (the manager) testified in answer to the question:  “Why did you terminate all the African American employees?”     His answer was derogatory and ended with the words: “**** and I replaced them with honest Koreans”)       The Commission found that the company had engaged in racial discrimination in that it had wrongfully terminated all its American Employees and replaced them with Koreans.    Appropriate penalties were then assessed.

At that point in time the problem was brought to me.     I called the other attorney and the AG handling the case to see if we could work out some settlement.   The answer of Mr. K (the manager) to the question recited supra was about as devastating as could be scripted.     Of course I was told to pound sand.    However, after I read the decision, I decided that we were not lone voices in the wilderness and an appeal to the Circuit Court had merit.    I filed an Appeal, and we were assigned to Judge (Censored).    The judge set the matter for status, and all the wolves appeared to watch the slaughter.     This judge actually read documents, pleadings, and arguments.  

  

My argument was that the commission had demonstrate racial bias and was guilty of the very same infraction – thus, I argued that racial discrimination proceeding was a nullity.     The Commission had referred to my clients, our manager, and our replacement employees as “Koreans.”     The plaintiffs were Americans.    The miscreants were “Koreans.”     My client was a citizen as were each and every employee engaged.    Why were we second class citizens and our American Nationality not recognized!

The Attorney General‘s office asked time to respond to my averment.   I had no objection and the matter adjourned.     It is a decade later and not only has the case never been scheduled again, but, attempts to find a record of the case have been unsuccessful.         The case has disappeared as if it never existed.     

 

Ken Ditkowsky

www.ditkowskylawoffice.com