oyuki

Monday, April 09, 2007

A Peace House Divided

The wise among us should take lessons from these events in Crawford, Texas at the Crawford Peace House.

First lesson would be: when you incorporate hire a competent adminsitrator. Cindy Sheehan's famous Crawford Peace House lacks a state recognized charter due to them failing to file the necessary tax documents. They have been in arrears for a year, so Texas has revoked the charter. Ignorance of the law is no excuse and trotting out 'because the house's volunteer director was overwhelmed with other tasks and was confused about whether the paperwork had to be filed if no taxes were owed' is an excuse Mr. Wolf. A lame one at that. And without said charter, the Peace House's officers are directly liable.

Second lesson would be: hire a respected accounting firm to manage donations. Wolf claims 'Peace House has an accountant and has kept diligent records, which soon will be posted in its Web site.' Trouble being that a former member, Sara Oliver and others are claiming that thousands of dollars in donations are missing and want an investigation. And some of these donations and expenditures date back to 2005.

Third lesson would be: never make the first two mistakes or you will end up in the same spot John Wolf and Cindy Sheehan are in. Running an organization without a charter, questions about the finances, and now lacking even legal right to the name of Crawford Peace House since Sara Oliver has registered the name and is threatening to sue Wolf et al if they do not cease and desist their illegal use of the name.

A civil war among the peacemakers means a house divided.

"There are people who have said, 'Don't say anything because you'll hurt the peace movement,"' Oliver said. "But if the peace movement isn't pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it's just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards."


Some peacemakers.

2 comments:

Mike's America said...

I love it. It couldn't happen to stupider people.

Anna said...

Yeah, they are such a loving bunch. Pulling out the long knives on each other because they could not be bothered to do sensible things. So they find themselves at this impasse. And they want to tell President Bush how to manage things? Oh the irony.