Call to “Jim Taylor”

Early on the morning of June 9, I tried to reach Jim Taylor by telephone and email to tell him of our precarious situation. We had one more day to come up with the money to satisfy the next months lease agreement. Failing to come up with this money and we would find ourselves in the street and without money. Jim finally called me at 11:15 a.m. and was angry that I should want to talk to him because he was presently judging an important debate contest. He asked me what I wanted and I told him that I needed $10,000 to cover the next two months living costs now that I was without a job (I felt it was The Taylor Machine’s obligation to pay this because it was them who destroyed my employment and business opportunity. I believed that it would take 2-months to come to the bottom of our situation and to make things right with The Taylor Machine). Jim said that he would immediately call ‘Happy’ Hopper with my request.

At 11:25 a.m. Jim called me back. This was not the same Jim I had only minutes before had talked to. He was very angry. He warned me to quite harassing his secretaries (I had only asked them to put me in touch with Jim). He said that I shouldn't have called him because he was judging a very important debate — as if our family was not important. He didn't care about us. When I mentioned that I now have cancer he told me to be quiet because it was his turn to talk. I couldn't believe how cold he was. He had always been so warm to me and my family before.

He was now showing us that he was our enemy. If anyone had the right to be mad surely it was me. He said that The Taylor Machine had given us over $100,000 when we lived in Yugoslavia and now we are asking for more? (Ok, Jim. What is it? Before you said that the money was sent for attorneys only and here you said that it was sent for us.)

And now, he goes on, the recipients want to charge The Taylor Machine with criminal charges? Jim went on to tell me that if I filed a law suit, The Taylor Machine would see to it that the court proceedings would be dragged go on for many years and in the end, the Smiths will not get anything. He said that if we sued "this would be despicable!" He forbid me to step foot onto Taylor and Willet Creek property and that I should leave his secretaries alone. He said that it was wrong of me to email The Taylor Machine officials that I was going to take over Homeschooling Today magazine. He said that The Taylor Machine was not to blame for the Smith family demise. He offered $10,000 to satisfy all claims, which I politely refused.

It must be understood that it was not The Taylor Machine who h

ad given us money out of their own pocket to support our work in Yugoslavia. It was money from honest families who donated to The Taylor Machine specifically for Yugoslavia. Before we began our full time work for the Slavic Company, The Taylor Machine had offered to raise money to support our work. Jim was not right to claim that The Taylor Machine had given us over $100,000. It was The Taylor Machine donors who gave. It was not from out of their own pocket.

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