K1MAN Editorial - ED030121 Does Glenn Baxter Need Medical Treatment? Bob Sherin, W4ASX, is a generally well meaning, intelligent, and kind man. He has been on Prozac for several years now and recently a mood regulator as well, according to what he tells us when he gets on 20 meters. While apparently making him happier, I now find Bob to be a different functioning human being with regard to his great intellectual abilities. The last time I talked with Bob on the phone he assumed that I, like him, had just gone through a nasty divorce. Not so, of course, since I have been happily married to my angel wife Bonnie (my first and only marriage) for 23 years now. We have no children. Bob keeps bringing up Hurricane Andrew and the now world famous $25. IARN was indeed activated for Hurricane Andrew, and we had operators in parts of South Florida where the communications was out. No, I did not personally run down to Miami and hold Bob's hand.I ran the net from Maine, as I always do during a large scale communications emergency. No, I have never asked Bob about his troubles since he resigned as an IARN Director. I am a busy man. Regarding the $25, Bob said he made some phone calls and photo copies with regard to my appeal to the five FCC Commissioners and the bogus $3,600 in fines they mailed to me in the early 1990's The appeal was never addressed by the FCC, by the way, Real rebellious of me, right? Anyway, I sent Bob the $25 and he said he never got it. It did not come back, so, being paranoid, I figured Bob was stiffing me. I then sent him $50 and that made him happy for a while. Now, years later, he talks about it almost daily. Bob needs to let go. And it's "paltry" Bob, not "paultry." When Riley Hollingsworth, FCC Special Counsel, sent me long letter in December 2001 (see www.arrl.org and search under K1MAN), saying, essentially, that K1MAN (and W1AW!) were now somehow illegal, I responded that he, Riley, should request a refund from wherever it is that he claims to have attended law school. How else is one to respond to a guy who was sick on the day they taught law at law school? IARN has had hundreds of volunteers since 1985, and there have been many who have dropped out over the years and even started splinter groups, some quite important such as Dave Larsen's (KK4WW) FAIRS, and Hap Holly's (KC9RP) RAIN (An acronym that I coined with Hap one day on 20 meters). Great! IARN continues to evolve and is now the IARN Amateur Radio Peace Corps Foundation, Inc. complete with 501(c)(3) status from the IRS. AARA is a registered trade mark with the U.S. Trade Mark and Patent Office, and www.K1MAN.com had 64,582 hits during the month of December, 2002. We are just starting to get warmed up! Bob's diagnosis of me doing
what I do for my own "self aggrandizement" is another way saying that I do what I do to "self actualize" in a healthy and natural way instead of feeling good about myself in a totally artificial manner by using drugs such as Prozac. My wife Bonnie says I am a narcissist. My Webster Collegiate Dictionary defines this as: "Erotic feelings aroused by one's own body and personality." Isn't this exactly what Prozac is supposed to do for you, Bob???? I deny the erotic part Bonnie AND Bob!! You want to hear about erotic? My wife Bommie arouses my erotic nature, big time! The radios just don't do that for me in quite the same way! Bob goes on saying I am: "Inauthentic, grandiose, voluable (I had to look that one up), paranoid, rebellious of authority and generally a threat to the well being of ham radio and homeland security." I hope Bob doesn't charge me another $25 for the paranoid diagnosis and his recommendation that: ".with treatment, he could clean up his act and make a genuine contribution without the overriding negative." Here is how Webster defines paranoid: "A chronic mental disorder characterized by systematized delusions of persecution and of one's own greatness, sometimes with hallucinations." I can see it all now! "Doctor, Riley is trying to shut down K1MAN! The ARRL ignores AARA and IARN. ND8V is a meanie to me on 14.275. Bob Sherin says that I am '.generally a threat to the well being of ham radio and homeland security.' K1TP's 14.313 Web Site (go to www.qrz.com search under K1TP) is comparing me to Hiram Percy Maxim who started ARRL and also invented the machine gun. etc., etc." By the time I got done talking ham radio politics for a solid hour, the Doctor would either have me forcefully sedated, confined in a straight jacket, or else commit HIMSELF to our local mental hospital. I might be well known by many hams. People at my banquet table at Dayton always ask for my autograph.that's a hoot, of course. And we have done some wild things around the world over the years. But in violation of the Logan Act? Come on Bob, who is deluded now? Can AARA, the American Amateur Radio Association, inherit the role of representing our precious hobby and service if ARRL goes down like the Titanic or suffers the same fate as the Dinosaurs who once ruled the earth? Sure.this is America.look at Microsoft over
shadowing IBM and look at CNN who had to sue to be allowed to cover the White House. Ted Turner and Bill Gates sure as hell are not modest, and they don't need to be "souped up" daily with Prozac! As I said, Bob Sherin is a well meaning, kind, and intelligent man. I have my own dysfunctions, to be sure. We all do. What the hell is "normal" anyway? Let the free market forces of ideas determine how my career continues to play itself out and what the fate of AARA and IARN will be. This national and, indeed, international arena of free ideas is a rough and tumble playing field and sometimes gets a little nasty. I do what I have to do to get the job done. So does Bill Gates and Ted Turner. This is America.hellllllllllllooooo!!!!! de K1MAN