"Save Sparkling Clearwater, Stamp out Scientology" --- My part in this.
It was 1979 and my family had moved to Florida to start new Careers. We moved to the town next to Clearwater, called Largo, Florida. One of the Executives of Scientology, Milte Wolfe told me he needed to see me.
At the time there was really only a handful of public Scientologists Who lived in Clearwater, Fl. Milte explained to me that he needed my Help. I asked what was up, and he told me this story was top secret, But I needed to hear it to understand what's up.
He told me that Hubbard had been planning to come on land. However, when the ship got to I think it was Georgia (somewhere in the South) they got word that the FBI were going to be there, plant drugs on the ship, and take LRH into custody. As a result, Hubbard and the Sea Org rapidly zoomed over to Clearwater, Florida, and purchased the Ft. Harrison Hotel.
He explained because they were scared and had to find a place, they lied about who they were. They said they were some other church. However, now the City Commissioner, Richard Tenny, was trying to run for Mayor, and his entire platform was "Save Sparkling Clearwater, Stamp Out Scientology". Basically, he was promoting Scientologists were liars, not to be trusted, and to vote for him and he'd get them out.
Milte said to me, "Tory, because we DID lie, I need YOU to handle this. We cannot". I understood, and agreed to help. The first plan was to find a few others who could go with me. I did. We were then to go to each city meeting, and distract Richard Tinny off of his promotion of Scientologists being liars, onto what Milte called, "real problems". Some examples were:
'"What about the fact that you only have one fire Dept here in Clearwater?"
"What about the drug scene here?"
At the time the entire town was against Scientology. I had come from LA, where there are tons of Scientologists. I'd never seen people so upset. They had "Honk out Scientology" where people would drive by the Ft. Harrison and honk their horns. Being a true believer, I went out daily to speak with these people.
The city had a picket across the street from the Ft. Harrison. Milte called me and said, "We're going to have a counter picket". They had a few people dress up in Nazi Uniforms and goose step down the street. We also dressed up in costumes and marched around the Ft. Harrison, laughing and pretending we were having SO much fun. Later I was told this was considered to be a huge "Flap" (or problem not well thought of by the Executives) as it make us look totally unreligious and like "idiots".
We continued to go to meetings. By now I had created a small group with a phone tree where I could call everyone and get him or her to any event as needed.
We also formed "The Minutemen" which was a group of men who had agreed literally to go anywhere at any time to do anything. We had meetings at Darby Simpson's mission, until she was later declared an SP.
One day Milte told me it was time to "Go join 'Save Sparkling Clearwater'. I got about 5 people to come, and we walked in. Some elder ladies were at reception and seemed thrilled to have a group join. Of course they had no idea we were Scientologists! I said, 'we're residents from Clearwater and surrounding areas, and we'd like to join". As we walked in, this one Scientologist who had blown the Buffalo Org came over to two of the men who were from there. He tried to buddy up, but we knew he was the person spreading "entheta" or what we considered lies, to the City Commissioner.
Ok, so suddenly Richard Tenny arrives. He asks me to read some information. I read a few lines, and realize this might be filled with lies in itself. So I tell him, "Until you have Hubbard himself here to tell his side, I refuse to read this". At this point the reporter from the Clearwater Sun arrives, Richard Leiby.
Now to us he was considered utter slime at the time, as we felt he was constantly lying. Now that I'm out, I cannot believe what a true believer I was. I never even read what he wrote, to give you an idea. I was just told by Executives of the Church <gack> of Scientology that he always told lies.
He (Leiby) was writing madly away as I talked. I said to Richard Tenny, "You 're my City Commissioner". He said, "I'm NOT your City Commissioner". I then said, "You're going to say in front of the press that because of my religion you are not my City Commissioner? He said, "That's right".
Richard Leiby was writing away. I finally took his pad of paper, and tore out the pages he had written and told him, "If you EVER write ANYTHING about ME in your stupid paper, I'll personally come to your house". That was the last time I ever spoke with Richard Leiby or Richard Tenny.
We ended up having huge parties and inviting the top people in Clearwater. We just spoke about our lives, not about Scientology. We wanted to show them we didn't have fangs.
Soon after was the election, and Tenny was voted out in a landslide. This was considered a HUGE win for the Church, and it was the beginning of a 20-year career as a volunteer for me, with OSA (The Office of Special Affairs, which they say is their Legal/PR end of things. I now call it their top-secret mafia).
Happily now I am free from this totalitarian group. I woke up 3 years ago, with the help of my friend, Andreas Heldal-Lund in Norway. His web site is http://www.xenu.net and I highly recommend people "in" don't do what I did, refusing to read. Instead, read up, find out the truth, and decide for yourself.
All the best,
Tory Christman Aka: Magoo! Burbank, California Magoo44@att.net http://www.torymagoo.org
-- Tory/Magoo~dancing in the moonlight~ In Scientology for 30 years Out for 3 years, happily For thinking and speaking my mind, I am: Declared SP (SP 6 ^with Cumulative Cluster) Expelled from C of S (Woooo hoooo!) :) Free at last!!!
For more information, please see: http://www.xenu.net http://www.xenutv.com http://www.torymagoo.org http://www.lermanet.com/cos/toryonosa.htm http://www.altreligionscientology.org http://www.lermanet.com/leiby.htm magoo44@att.net (818) 841-3632 Burbank, CA
I'd prefer to die speaking my mind than live fearing to speak. The only thing that always works in scientology are its lawyers The internet is the liberty tree of the new millennium Secrets are the mortar binding lies as bricks together into prisons for the mind Support http://www.lermanet.com - mentioned 4 January 2000 in The Washington Post's - 'Reliable Source' column re "Scientologist with no HEAD"