I received this after a lovely vacation. Imagine my surprise--why would they contact me after a silence of eight years?

From: "Matt Bratschi"
To: scikillsval@yahoo.com
Subject: A possible meeting
Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:51:11 -0800

Dear Mrs. Emanuel:

My name is Matt Bratschi. I'm the public affairs director for Hollander
Consultants. I'm going to be in Florida in a few weeks and I wanted to see
if I could meet with you. I'll be available for a meeting on either March
17, 18 or 19. Please let me know one way or another. I'd be happy to meet
somewhere in your area at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Matthew Bratschi
Director of Public Affairs
Hollander Consultants
621 SW Alder, Suite 200
Portland, OR 97205
503-227-5404 ext. 1705
http://www.hollanderconsultants.com

I wrote another critic and asked about Mr. Bratschi. Here's the response.

> Just got this, haven't responded yet. Know anything about this guy?

Yes, he worked for OSA Washington, now he does PR spamming for Hollander.

(Just search google news for him, he posts tons and tons of meaningless press releases).

Obviously, he wants to handle you :-)

An idea: tell him that since you're an extremist

{www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/extremists/emanuelv1.html}

it would bring bad PR for him if you meet him.

I wrote Mr. Bratschi back and asked simply, "Why do you want to meet with me?"

His reply;

From: "Matt Bratschi"
To: "Valerie"
Subject: RE: A possible meeting
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 12:56:54 -0800

Dear Mrs. Emanuel:

Thanks for responding.

I was hoping to get in communication with you to see if there is a way we could resolve your animosity towards Hollander Consultants.

It's been almost 8 years since your trip to Portland.  That's a long time.  I thought now might be a good time to start peace talks. I figured since the Palestinians and the Israelis can occasionally sit down to discuss peace, we could too.  There's certainly less at stake here than a homeland for a displaced nation.

Sincerely,

<snipped>

(Do Scientologists feel like an oppressed minority? Is that why they feel the need to drag in a Jewish reference at every opportunity--even when it's downright silly? Or is he saying if we don't meet missiles will be lobbed at me?)

Anyway, my first response;

Hollanders had a chance to resolve this at the start by refunding our money--they refused. And (I don't know if you are aware of this) after discussing the matter with Mr. Silver, I asked that my 'letter to Hollanders', then posted on Arnie Lerma's site, be removed. It is only in the past few years that I have had anything specifically about Hollanders on my own site.

In short, I don't see that we have anything to discuss, Mr. Bratschi. Hollanders will not be refunding any portion of my money, and I will not be taking down any portion of my website.

Valerie Emanuel

Real high & mighty, because I was really irritated. Then I thought about it a little more. Why shouldn't I at least try to get my money back?

So I wrote again, on 2/22/05.

I take it from your lack of response that

1) you were off, due to the Federal holiday

or 2) we are in agreement that my husband and I will never receive any refund from Hollanders. Pity.

If you were to send me at least half the sum we paid, $8,000, in a certified check via registered mail, I would certainly meet with you as requested.

Valerie Emanuel

It took him four days to answer.

Dear Mrs. Emanuel: I'm very sorry to have taken so long to get back to you, but I've been out with this flu that is going around. I just finally got back to work today after being out all week.  I'm still a little woozy, but wanted to get back to you in any case.  It is important to me that, due to my slow response, you do not draw the conclusions you mentioned in your email to me.  As mentioned, I was not off for the Federal holiday. And, as covered below, the conclusion you made regarding a possible refund is not necessarily accurate. Let me clarify.

I am familiar with what occurred all those years ago.  It is part of my job to create friendly relationships with those we deal with, and, in cases where there are less than friendly relationships, to do what I can to rectify any problem. That is why I decided to approach you after becoming aware of your situation.

I want to impart to you that times are different now. Things can and do change. Viewpoints can and do shift over time. Animosities can change and resolve where there is a willingness to resolve them. Willingness can shift and increase as viewpoints shift.  I'm not trying to be over philosophical, but am just attempting to communicate that I believe there is much more willingness to resolve your situation than existed before.

Due to this, I  think I could obtain a refund from Hollander for you (although Hollander is certainly in no way legally obligated to do so), if you would be willing to make some things happen that you are not equally obligated to do. It could and would need to be a win-win situation for both sides.  That is why I want to meet with you and talk person to person.  That's the first step. I would very much like to arrange this as it is not at all out of the question that a refund could be arranged. But we'd need to meet to discuss the various aspects of this and hash out any specifics for a mutally agreeable compromise. I feel that live communication is the only way this will truly resolve - and please believe that I really do think we can make it resolve. I wouldn't be spending my time on this if I didn't think that could get accomplished.

As I said previously, I'll be available to meet with you on either March 17, 18, or 19th.  I can come to Orlando and meet you where ever would be most convenient for you.  Let's make this happen. I look forward to hearing back from you. 

I won't try to slide around this--I entertained the thought of getting my family's money back. We spent about $25,000, when you add in finance charges on the loan we had to take out, etc, on 'business consulting' that didn't do crap for the business we owned in1997.

Then I talked to my husband and thought some more. I knew, of course, what Hollanders wanted--they wanted the webpages that I had on them to disappear. More than that. If they gave me any money they would undoubtedly want me to sign some kind of 'gag order', where I'd be forced to say I would never put up another webpage or possibly even speak about Hollanders on the Internet at all. And the thought of any minion of Scientology having that kind of power over me was sickening. I realized I couldn't do it.

So...this was my next e-mail, which I thought would be the last.

Mr. Bratschi,

I have discussed the matter with my husband and we have decided not to accept any money from Hollanders, as we are certain it will come with requirements we will be morally and ethically unable to fulfill. Therefore I see no reason to meet.

Thank you for your time.

Valerie Emanuel

But he wasn't ready to give up. Rec'd this the very next day!

Dear Mrs. Emanuel:

Whether or not you choose to accept a refund from Hollander does not dismiss the intrinsic reason I would like to meet with you.  As I had mentioned before, my interest is in resolving the animosity you have toward Hollander Consultants.  At first, it appeared that a refund was your key interest so I was able to bring that to the table as a gesture of sincerity in an attempt to address this long-standing  animosity .

If you no longer choose to obtain a refund, well, that is certainly your choice, however, I would still like to meet with you to get to the heart of the matter.

I have not asked you to make any moral or ethical decisions other than a meeting.  Most meetings take very brief spans of time to conclude and I am not asking to burden you with an excessive period of time. 

Over the years, I have had the opportunity to be involved in numerous mediations and I have found that an unwillingness to even sit down for an initial meeting is typically borne out of a fear of the unknown.

Mrs. Emanuel, I do not know  if that is what is going on with you or not. But I would be surprised if you had fear of just words and honest talk, as that is  all I wish to have with you.  After eight years of bad feelings , I ask merely to discuss  this with you and hopefully get to the bottom of it so that the emotional trauma that has been experienced can be assuaged and we can all move forward with clean hearts. 

There are many reasons why I would like to meet with you.  You have pointed out there are none to meet with me.  I can think of one:

To ameliorate your life. 

Please reconsider a meeting.  I would really like to see you.

There were many things I could have said in response--like 'the heart of the matter is that Hollanders lied about their connection to Scientology and ripped me off'--and that would have been only after I got off the floor from laughing. I mean, really....an OSA agent (Bratschi is former OSA out of Washington DC) claiming he wants to have an 'honest talk' with an SP? Someone the cult has on their Bigots page?

I could have said, 'My life is made better every time I get an e-mail thanking me for steering someone clear of Hollanders and the other WISE companies, Mr. Bratschi.'

But I just sent him an e-mail that said, 'No.'

Now I'm waiting for the next act in the cult's play. I'm sure since Act One--the nice-guy try--didn't work, Act Two will be even more interesting.

I'll keep you posted.