The recent troubling issues pertaining to Rossi brought to light by Jed Rothwell, and subsequently responded to by Vort participants (including me) remind me of a hauntingly similar predicament that I allowed myself to get ensnared in way back in the mid 1990s. At that time, due to my own ignorance and naivety, I allowed myself to become ensnared in a very ugly public relations tsunami, one that at the time was seemingly in the process of destroying the professional reputation of a well known Roswell UFO investigator, an individual named Don Schmitt. The events of that time deeply affected me. My memories of those continue to reverberate through me, even to this day.
And now, I see some striking similarities in what happened to Mr. Schmitt, and some of the behavior we seem to be perceiving from Rossi. There are many complicated events that have been set into action. Many we are not yet to be privy to. Please bear with me while I try to explain what I hope might turn out to be something insightful pertaining to subtle psychological perceptions that are currently transpiring - and as such causing considerable agitation among the natives in the peanut gallery. First, a little background history to set up the scenario. Back in the 1990s, some on this list may still vaguely recall the fact that a UFO investigator, Don Schmitt, was got caught lying to his investigative partner (his partner-in-crime), Kevin Randall, in regards to Don's current employment status. As best as I could surmise, after conducting countless face-to-face conversations with Mr. Schmitt, the bottom line appeared to be the fact that Don didn't want his partner, Kevin, nor the public for that matter, to know that he was at that time in his life employed at the Post office as a letter carrier. I will spare readers the many, many, MANY convoluted reasons and justifications Mr. Schmmitt privately revealed to acquaintances and friends as to why he didn't want Mr. Randle or the public to know such a harmless, innocuous fact-of-life. (As if anyone really gave a damn where Mr. Schmitt worked to pay the mortgage.) Unfortunately, what can't be spared was the unforgivable damage that Mr. Schmitt did to himself and to his partner, Mr. Randle, when at a key moment in their professional partnership Mr. Randle asked Don point blank a very simple question: Are you a mailman? ...because, Kevin added, I'm hearing rumors. People telling me you are employed at the Post Office, but you're telling me that you're not... so tell me, Don, what's the deal? At that crucial point, Don made a catastrophic judgment error. Don told Kevin that no, he wasn't employed at the Post Office. At that crucial point in their on-going partnership, Kevin trusting Don's word, then went to bat for Don. Kevin told everyone the fact that, no, Mr. Schmitt wasn't a mailman, because Don, his trusted UFO investigative partner, had told him so. Meanwhile, it came to my attention that another prominent UFO investigator, Stanton Friedman, decided to investigate the matter in more detail. UFO investigators, as a whole are, friendly and cooperative amongst each other. They try to support each other work - as long as it doesn't jeopardize their own personal investigations. While that was generally true, there has also always been competition among one's peers, and this curious little rumor about Don's employment status caught Stan's attention. Disguising his voice, Stan called the Post Office where it was rumored that Don was allegedly employed at. Stan requested to speak to Donald Schmitt. The person on the other end of the line said, wait a minute, I'll get him. When Don eventually answered the phone, Mr. Friedman, immediately recognized the voice of Mr. Schmitt. Stan attempted to disguise his voice trying to maintain a trumped up and unbelievable cover story, but Mr. Schmitt immediately recognized Stanton's dialect. Again, UFO investigators know each other pretty well through constant contact. The gig was up. To be honest, I don't exactly know who finally let the cat out of the bag, but needless to say when Kevin discovered the fact that his trusted investigative partner had to-his-face lied about his current employment status, the famous Randle/Schmitt dynamic-duo partnership was irrevocably terminated. Understandably, Kevin was in complete and utter shock. He was absolutely enraged at such betrayal, and over such an insignificant non-issue as to Don's employment status. Kevin could have cared less where Don worked. What Kevin deeply cared about was the fact that his trusted partner had deliberately lied to him - to his face over a phone call. Jeez, almighty! Was Kevin pissed! Rumors were flying within the UFO community that Mr. Shmitt was nothing more than a big fat liar. People were insinuating, (particularly UFO skeptics and debunkers), that if Mr. Schmitt lied about his employment status, why should we believe anything he has to say in regards to UFO investigative matters. Mr. Randle immediately went on the offensive in an attempt to clear his own professional reputation. Obviously, he dumped Mr. Schmitt as an investigative partner. I gathered Kevin justifiably feared the possibility that his own professional reputation as a UFO investigator might have been mortally wounded. Mr. Randle distanced himself as fast as he could from his former UFO partner, an action I certainly could certainly understand. In all honesty I also feared that Mr. Schmitt's catastrophic misjudgment had cooked his own goose as a UFO investigator. I was initially distressed since because I had personally known Don for years. I counted him as a good acquaintance and friend of mine. I hurt to see someone I cared about seemingly going down the toilet. Be that as it may, it quickly became clear to me that the totally justifiable anger and betrayal Kevin must have felt ran much MUCH deeper than the sin of Don lying to him about his employment status. My recollections of those events were that for several years afterwards Mr. Randle proceeded to spend a great deal of effort continuously attempting to discredit Mr. Schmitt in various Internet news groups insofar as Don being a legitimate UFO investigator. During that same time period I remember countless private eMails I had with Mr. Randle, where I kept asking him why was it so important for him to continue to publicly discredit his former partner. Certainly, I understood his sense of anger and betrayal. I always made that clear that I understood how angry he must have felt. Nevertheless, professionally speaking, wouldn't it simply make more sense to simply say, I have no further comment on the matter - in the public arena... Simply say: We are no longer working together as a team. My former partner lied to me. What else do I need to say on the subject. Case closed. Everyone would have understood perfectly. Unfortunately, that was apparently now how Kevin saw things. At one point during a rather long and protracted series of emails, I asked Kevin how much longer did Ahab intend to pursue his whale? Until it's dead was Mr. Randle's reply. By "dead", Kevin implied when Don's UFO reputation was completely destroyed. >From what I saw it seemed to take many years for Mr. Randle to get over the sense of betrayal he must have felt. While I completely sympathized with Mr. Randle's genuine anger, his subsequent obsession of actively going on the offensive against Mr. Schmitt, particularly within UFO news groups to discredit his former UFO partner as an incompetent investigator made no sense to me. I also believed that to continue pursuing such an objective was damaging netiquette behavior, not only to Mr. Schimtt, but also to Kevin Randle himself. This kind of destructive behavior went on for years. Unfortunately, it drew many others into the fray as well. To this day, I continue to occasionally run across the curious fact that there are individuals within the UFO community who continue to vilify Mr. Schimtt. They proclaim to anyone who will listen the solemn belief that Mr. Schmitt to this day remains nothing more t han a worthless UFO investigator - and all presumably all due to the fact that Don lied to his former partner, Kevin Randle. Without a doubt, Mr. Schmitt has an Ego. But so has Mr. Randle. ... and Mr. Friedman. EVERY UFO investigator I've ever met has a BIG FAT EGO, one that needs lots of care and feeding! But what most don't realize is the fact that Mr. Schmitt is also extremely loyal to those he trusts. He is also a perceptive individual. He continues to be tenacious in all of his investigative work. So, Mr. Schmitt has certain flaws that unfortunately got the best of him. I wish people would simply get over it. Who isn't flawed in one way or other. All I can say is that if some want to continue wallowing in the emotionally delicious aphrodisiac of passing judgment on the behavior of someone else's individual's flaws, that's certainly their business to pursue. I am however reminded of something a wise individual once uttered: Let he who is free from guilt cast the first stone. I learned a major lesson from that fiasco. Ironically, the lesson I learned was NOT the fact that since Don had also lied to me in regards to his employment status, and that perhaps I shouldn't trust anything he might tell me - ever again. No, that wasn't the lesson I learned. The lesson I learned, the lesson that actually took quite a while for me to comprehend was the realization that after the ka-ka hit the fan and Mr. Schmitt's face, I watched Mr. Schmitt handle himself as gracefully as anyone could under the circumstances. All he could do was pick himself up, wipe the do-do of his rattled ego, and get back to work. Many of us, many of Don's trusted friends had many interesting and protracted talks with Mr. Schimtt during those times. Some of those conversations focused on Don's behavior towards Mr. Randle, the sheer stupidity of some of the unfortunate decisions he had made. What I personally learned was the fact that despite Don's flaws not once did it stop him from pursuing the main love of his life, UFO investigative work. I think Don's personal flaws didn't stop him because what he really believed in was far more important to himself, as well as his faults. Mr. Schmitt never stopped investigating. That's what he is good at. That's what he is still good at today. In the end, Kevin, acting on behalf of Captain Ahab, failed in the pursuit of that particular goal. The fact of the matter is that both of these UFO investigators are still alive and working within the UFO investigation field. Both continue to perform legitimate, professional UFO work - albeit independently of each other. Curiously, I've heard rumors that the two of them are at least back on speaking terms with each other. I wish some of Mr. Schmitt's critics would at least consider the wisdom of that revelation. * * * * But let's get back to the latest raging Rossi saga. What does Mr. Schmitt's unfortunate lying incident have to do with Rossi's situation? Well... I guess on the surface, probably very little. OTOH, if it wasn't obvious before, it ought to be blatantly obvious to many by now that Rossi isn't perfect either. Let's wait and see what happens. Under the circumstances, it seems to me that perhaps the wisest action that none of should never lose sight of is whether Rossi's controversial device, flawed it might be, is still capable of delivering "the juice" as advertised. In the end, isn't that the only thing that really matters? Everything else... And I mean EVERYTHING ELSE is just "overhead" ... the cost of doing business. In the meantime it might help everyone's disposition if efforts could be made to contact as many of the professors and other witnesses to the December and January demonstrations as possible. Get their personal take on what they witnessed. I suspect their personal impressions would be highly revealing. My two cents. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
