I was reading Graham's recent posts and marveled at his tenacity. Here he was a wealthy man with a great career. For some reason he chose to fight what he sees as a dangerous organization, even though not that long ago he had never even heard of them. Since then, because of his fight, he has lost his career, his wealth, and even his car, and Co$ still is pressuring him. He could have stopped at any time and preserved those things, yet even today he is continuing the fight.

I think of Dennis Erlich, who was in the fight because of his personal history with Co$. He continued exposing Co$ despite being hounded and almost homeless in the end, then settled with Co$ after his many years either in or fighting Co$. Some people called him a traitor for that, but I think it's great that Dennis gets to see what life without Co$ in it is like before he gets too much older.

I think of others who have left, apparently just because they decided to do something else. That's fine with me. It's a big world and there are lots of problems that need to be worked on.

I think of Bob and Stacy, who said essentially that the pressure was getting to them so much that they turned to Mike Rinder for relief. Whether they are getting that relief I don't really know. But by their own admission they have also left the struggle.

Yet Graham is still plugging away. You're somebody I admire Graham. You have shown remarkable integrity and tenacity and I hope that many of us will follow your lead in this struggle, to stay on until this danger to the world is no longer a danger. If people choose to leave that's fine, though. It's not easy. There are few activists of any kind in the world. We all have our limits in how much pressure we can take (except maybe Graham!). And there's certainly no clear end in sight. The cost-benefit analysis of this for any of us does not chart out well.

I stay in, despite the crazy behavior I see on both sides, because I think of my own cult experience and how in a way I feel I've lost 6 years of my life chasing someone else's distorted vision of life. I think of people like Roxanne Friend, Lisa McPherson, the many other people harmed by Co$, and also the activists whose lives have been pummeled, and it reminds my why this is an important struggle. I think that I can help stop some such abuse in the future to other unsuspecting people.