Hello again! May I jump back into the fray and stir things up again?
West you said: " Legal certainly did NOT pick this fight. IMO, having a Bethelite going in front of a NY State WCL Judge was probably their "worst nightmare".
That is very true: This is not something the Society wanted, and they certainly didn't pick this battle. But they could've stopped it. If they were really scared and thought that this situation had far-reaching implications, all they had to do was settle. And if settling meant paying the $400 a week, I think they would've done it rather than take a chance on paying millions for claims going back 30 or 40 years. But they don't appear to be very worried. A worst case scenario for them, it appears to me, is that they eventually go to court, lose their appeals and have to pay the Uptons and start making WC payments. It's not that big of a deal.
Thank you for your comments, Observador: " David, this is a discussion board, where people express a host of different sentiments." I appreciate your thoughts. Your posts are always very intelligent and I always appreciate what you have to say. I thought, however, that I have been discussing this. From what I can tell, I'm the only poster who has really done an about-face and changed my views on the subject, and I've done it through reading and discussing. I started out with a euphoric high, thinking the Society is doomed, and I've wound up being disappointed and realizing that the Society is really just carrying on business as usual.
I hear what you're saying, though: HOPE is a very good thing. But Hope doesn't get you very far in a courtroom. After all, what do we really have to base all this Hope on? We have an article from a tabloid rag that is not especially known for it's credibility. We have desperate statements made by a Watchtower lawyer that, when you examine them, don't sound like statements that any lawyer in his right mind would ever make. Especially a Watchtower lawyer. And it's odd that no one appears to have heard of this lawyer and that he doesn't appear to turn up on any searches. The whole thing is beginning to not pass the ol' sniff test.
I confess that I know very little about the Law. I think that the vast majority of posters on this board don't know much more than I do. We all think that the Law is fair and logical and is a search for justice. In reality, the Law is cold and impersonal and sometimes doesn't make a lot of sense. And this is what I have come to appreciate about Eduardo over the past few months: he tells like it is. He will take the available facts and put them under the bright light and start poking holes and questioning everything. And that's what I want. I don't want someone to sugarcoat it and blow smoke up my ass and tell me what I want to hear. I want to know the the truth, whatever it is. Granted, Eduardo can get a little snide--------------------(Eduardo, are you listening? Lose the snide. We're all on the same side here and no one is on the witness stand being cross-examined.) But that being said, Eduardo is doing exactly what a lawyer is trained to do with any witness on the stand: He'll let you make your statement, and then sharpen his machete and rip you a new one. So I don't believe that offense is intended. (In any case, Eduardo, you could lose the snide and most of us wouldn't miss it a bit.)
Personally, I hope that the Watchtower goes out with a bang. I hope that ex-Bethel workers who caught their hand in a press back in 1970, or even got a bad sunburn working on the farm----------------------I hope they all can sue and get millions. But I just don't thnk it's going to happen. At the worst, the Society will have to start paying WC premiums, and it won't kill them. I hate to have to say this, but I think we've made a mountain out of a mole hill, and we're going to be disappointed when this thing eventually plays itself out.
David