Hi William, In your support I offer the cut/paste of the last message that I had made in John's forum. Hi John, I enjoy a good honest debate. Not one that includes a personal attack but one that challenges another persons opinion. I am sure that we disagree on many issues but I expect we also agree on many others. I am surprised that you have replied to William in the manner you did. It certainly is not what I expected from a Goodwill Ambassador. Nor, from a fellow Christian. If you had not purged all the posts then perhaps your readers would not question your own motive. I am somewhat confused but since it is your forum, you can delete this post as well. Jack In John's defence I expect he too was overwhelmed by the exchange of the different point of views. In my opinion you both displayed excessive involvement on the issue around your President and I suspect that my opinion didn't help the situation. In any case, it is water under the bridge. My best advise is to be careful so you do not aim for an unrealistic expectation. My apology to you William and to you John if I have contributed in a negative way. Life goes on. Jack

Hello Marilyn I respect your opinion here and I appreciate your interest in this matter. Basically, everything that I would say to you I have already said in my reply to Mary except for this. Regardless of what John's intentions were at the time he made this statement I am certain of this. First, neither he nor his friend that informed him of my history of depression, are qualified to make any diagnosis about anyones mental state. Also, he had no right to pass judgement on my right to an opinion based on his assesment of my sense of reasoning. Had you been involved in this issue from the beginning, I believe that your feelings would be more in line with the others who actually were involved in this from the beginning. I am not here to try to convince you of anything. I am merely pointing out an example of the stigma and discrimination that so hinders our present system of mental health and hurts so many of our citizes who suffer with a mental illness. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt

Hello Jack Thank you for stopping by and voicing your views on this issue. As you and I are both very aware of the fact that John has deleted any post that may have shed light on this matter, I made the decision several days ago to not continue with the negative side of our debate. It is now my intention to simply turn something negative into something positive. I am hoping that this serves as a learning experience for us all. I have certainly learned that if someone is so determined to impose their beliefs on others that he is willing to delete everones post that opposed his views, there is no point in continuing a discussion with that person. I could have made much better use of my time by just dropping the issue with John and going back to what I do best. Advocating for the mentally ill, disabled veterans and and the victims and the families of those with autistic spectrum disorders. The positive side of this is that I now have a perfect example of how the lack of understanding about mental illness leads to continued stigma and discrimination against those with a mental illness. Thank you again Jack, for your support and understanding of this matter. Sincerly, Bill

HI Bill, First of all Bill, I do not think that the person that John referred to is a friend of his, but rather someone that knows YOU and was defending you to him and asked him not to keep the debate going! No matter who the person was is not the issue here, but out of respect John did as he was aksed it seems to me! My main concern with all this is the fact that it is being brought out into the community for all to see and hear which is unnecessary and unprofessional! As I said in my last post, I feel that you should have contacted John personally if you have an issue with him, or anyone else for that matter. Let the person know what you are upset about and try to get it resolved between the 2 of you, not within the community.When you write a forum and let the whole community know about an issue you have with someone it does make it appear as if you are trying to get people on your side, and trying to turn people against the other person! I really feel that you should be able to see it in that light! I have had a couple of people that said things to me before that I did not like very much, but I never aired it in the community. I contacted the person and let them know how I felt, and why I felt that way. I had no problem resolving the situation, and it didn't affect the comunity. Is this the type of behavior we want our new members to be seeing and hearing about? We are trying to promote our community to be the best on the Internet, which I feel it is, but when things like this go on it doesn't do any good for the community and the morale here! I am asking you once again my friend to please try to work things out with John, and if you have any other issues in the future would you please not air them in the community? Adults should be able to handle things between the two of them like 2 rational and civilized human beings. I pray that this issue gets resolved! God Bless You Bill, Your Friend, Marilyn

Hello Marilyn First of all I am not interested in trying to defend myself in this matter. I know the whole story, from both sides. It was not me who became offensive. It was not me who began making durogatory remarks and I did respond to his comments right in the forom where he bagan his personal assault on me. I would have been perfectly content with just letting this whole thing drop untill two things happened. 1, he insulted me not only on the public forum but also in a PM. 2. Before I ever brought any of this to the attention of the community he had already gone behind my back and had written pm's to other people trying to drum up support for his actions. He did not get that support so he resorted to actually calling some I know very well, a two faced back stabber because this person actually sided with me on this issue. You have a right to your opinion but please keep in mind one thing. You did not see this whole thing develope from the beginning. You do not have all of the facts. Actually, just based on his comments about the invalidity of my opinion do to my inability to reason because of having had depression in my life, should be enough for anyone to at least stop defending his every action. He was wrong in thinking that he had the qualifications to make a diagnosis of my mental state and even more wrong for his willingness to pass judgement on me and everyone else that has a mental illness. One last thing. Keep in mind too that he deleted every post in that forum where he was being questioned about his right to impose his beliefs on others. Every post that opposed his views was deleted and if his intentions were only in my best interest then he would have deleted his own as well. He very purposfully hand picked which post remained and which were deleted. Everyone that was a part of that forum has said the same thing. He had no right to do what he did and certainly no right to deem me mentally incompetent. I don't know what more I can say about this. I just hope that we have all learned something from this and that nothing like this ever happens again. It is very simple. Just treat others with the same respect that you would want to be treated with and don't make assumptions about other peoples character. Especially when you could not possibly have all of the facts. Thank you Marilyn for your interest in this matter and please stop by my forums now and then and help us spread a message of hope to those who suffer with a mental illness, their families and their loved ones. May a smile follow you to sleep each night ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and be ther waiting, when you awaken. Sincerly, Bill Vanderbilt Mental Health Forums http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8212 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow.aspx?ForumID=8259 http://community.adlandpro.com/forumShow