Some parallels
I've started to wonder if there's something to the fact that this whole business with Jamie came down close to the 10-year anniversary of my breaking free from Waymaker Christian Fellowship.
It's hard not to see the parallels. In both cases, I got in with people whom I thought cared about me, but really didn't. The one comparison that really jumps out at me, though, is between the Wrong-Waymaker girls' attempt to frame me for sexual harassment and Jamie's decision to just stand there and watch me get beaten up by my soon-to-be ex-niece.
In the Waymakers' case, I knew it was getting under their skin that I was blasting them at every turn for their deceptive tactics and controlling behavior. After all, at the time of my junior year at Carolina, they'd been on campus (in their current form, anyway) since 1992. I'd given them more headaches in my sophomore year than they'd ever had in their first five years on campus put together. But never in a million years did I believe that Margarette Works, Jessica Coleman, Jaime Luton and Mandy Hartig would stoop so low as to try to get me framed up for sexual harassment when they knew I could never do such a thing. And all because I tore them a new one in emails in which I basically told them that unless they cut their phony-baloney crap, I didn't want anything to do with them. I knew that living in a Christian cocoon can make one thin-skinned. But even now, almost nine years later, whenever I think about how that associate dean told me about these accusations, it still feels like getting hit from somewhere around thread level on the carpeted floor of the dean's office. More than anything, what bugs me more than anything is that NONE of them have even bothered to apologize to me. Granted, there's a whole lot of stuff for which those "Christian" gangsters owe me an apology. But for them to not apologize for nearly ruining my life--it tells you how much decency they have, or in this case, lack thereof. Even now, I wonder how in the world Margarette, Jessica, Jaime and Mandy can live with themselves knowing that they cooked up a scheme that could have gotten me thrown out of school, and possibly arrested. I'm still burning mad at them almost eight years later. But more than anything, I pity them, because they have to live with the knowledge that they framed an innocent man.
As for Jamie ... I'll be the first to admit, I'm not totally innocent. There were some things I could have done better. For starters, I probably shouldn't have banked on rolling over permanent at where I work now--I ended up costing us our house. And I probably should have tried to get on days much sooner so I could spend more time with her. But how in the world can anyone expect to take being threatened with getting beaten up every time you turn around? And when I tried to bring up my concerns to Jamie, she flat-out refused to listen. For instance, when I told her that her son's attitude was going to get him fired (what boss is going to take an employee constantly threatening others?), she pitched a fit that I was ruining his self-esteem. What really got me, though, was how she let her frustration at the murder trial being delayed get to her. It got her so deluded that she blamed ME for having her daughter taken away supposedly because she abandoned her. Never mind that she frequently told me that she didn't consider California home anymore, and was even willing to marry a guy in Nigeria and move with him! And then for her to just stand there and let me get beaten up, knowing that there was almost no way I could defend myself ... and then to run my bank account negative ... you get the idea. And yet, she has the nerve to ask about me at our church's Thanksgiving dinner and not bother to tell someone to tell me she's sorry??????? What nerve!
As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between Jaime Luton and Jamie Galey is where they put the "i" in their first names. Both of them have no morals whatsoever. And with both of them, I have to wonder where in the world they got guts big enough to do what they've done.
It's hard not to see the parallels. In both cases, I got in with people whom I thought cared about me, but really didn't. The one comparison that really jumps out at me, though, is between the Wrong-Waymaker girls' attempt to frame me for sexual harassment and Jamie's decision to just stand there and watch me get beaten up by my soon-to-be ex-niece.
In the Waymakers' case, I knew it was getting under their skin that I was blasting them at every turn for their deceptive tactics and controlling behavior. After all, at the time of my junior year at Carolina, they'd been on campus (in their current form, anyway) since 1992. I'd given them more headaches in my sophomore year than they'd ever had in their first five years on campus put together. But never in a million years did I believe that Margarette Works, Jessica Coleman, Jaime Luton and Mandy Hartig would stoop so low as to try to get me framed up for sexual harassment when they knew I could never do such a thing. And all because I tore them a new one in emails in which I basically told them that unless they cut their phony-baloney crap, I didn't want anything to do with them. I knew that living in a Christian cocoon can make one thin-skinned. But even now, almost nine years later, whenever I think about how that associate dean told me about these accusations, it still feels like getting hit from somewhere around thread level on the carpeted floor of the dean's office. More than anything, what bugs me more than anything is that NONE of them have even bothered to apologize to me. Granted, there's a whole lot of stuff for which those "Christian" gangsters owe me an apology. But for them to not apologize for nearly ruining my life--it tells you how much decency they have, or in this case, lack thereof. Even now, I wonder how in the world Margarette, Jessica, Jaime and Mandy can live with themselves knowing that they cooked up a scheme that could have gotten me thrown out of school, and possibly arrested. I'm still burning mad at them almost eight years later. But more than anything, I pity them, because they have to live with the knowledge that they framed an innocent man.
As for Jamie ... I'll be the first to admit, I'm not totally innocent. There were some things I could have done better. For starters, I probably shouldn't have banked on rolling over permanent at where I work now--I ended up costing us our house. And I probably should have tried to get on days much sooner so I could spend more time with her. But how in the world can anyone expect to take being threatened with getting beaten up every time you turn around? And when I tried to bring up my concerns to Jamie, she flat-out refused to listen. For instance, when I told her that her son's attitude was going to get him fired (what boss is going to take an employee constantly threatening others?), she pitched a fit that I was ruining his self-esteem. What really got me, though, was how she let her frustration at the murder trial being delayed get to her. It got her so deluded that she blamed ME for having her daughter taken away supposedly because she abandoned her. Never mind that she frequently told me that she didn't consider California home anymore, and was even willing to marry a guy in Nigeria and move with him! And then for her to just stand there and let me get beaten up, knowing that there was almost no way I could defend myself ... and then to run my bank account negative ... you get the idea. And yet, she has the nerve to ask about me at our church's Thanksgiving dinner and not bother to tell someone to tell me she's sorry??????? What nerve!
As far as I'm concerned, the only difference between Jaime Luton and Jamie Galey is where they put the "i" in their first names. Both of them have no morals whatsoever. And with both of them, I have to wonder where in the world they got guts big enough to do what they've done.