The following is the text from post #302425 posted by Ann on Jan 22, 2012: -----------------
OK, this subject of seminars and physical violence seems to be a very important one for some of you. I am going to include a quote I received today from my newly-connected friend/FFL lurker/former Robin follower who has given me permission to use part of her email to me. She has been following my posts and obviously saw that I was going to address this subject tonight. She is an avid FFL follower as I told you before. We shall call her GL. You should also know that she is no apologist for Robin but was a Canadian involved very early on with Robin's Victoria days. I want to start with this incident she outlines in her email because chronologically it is the first real seminar setting which took place in FF back in 1982. It is the session when Lavern was allegedly struck by Robin. It is fortunate GL emailed me what she did otherwise I could tell you nothing of the incident as I was not there, I had not yet attended any Robin gathering. It is the seminar I told you my friend had attended and had piqued my interest in Robin initially. But I digress. Here is the excerpt from GL's email to me regarding the event: Dear Ann, Here's what I remember about 'hitting' or not. I think R's account Jan.17 was about right, message# 302057 (his last post). Were you in Fairfield in summer of 1982? Somewhere in the bottom of my storage boxes is a videotape of the Fairfield incident. (I was there, on the video crew.) I don't remember who else was on stage, who hit Lavern on the shoulder/back. One of R's devoted assistants, I have a couple of ideas, but don't want to name here. He said it was an accident, he turned and accidentally made contact with her, or was trying to keep her from falling off the edge of the platform. oops! It was a shock for all of us. R was furious, and found a way to somehow incorporate the incident into the bigger unfolding story of Fairfield. Now I am not sure, because I don't have the will or the stamina to go through the long list of posts dealing with the hitting issues, why this is such a hot topic or by who(m?) it has been brought up (but I am guessing perhaps Vaj) or even what the exact questions regarding hitting are. So bear with me and may I assume it is a simple question like," Did Robin ever make physical contact with a confrontee that could be described as assault ?" Hopefully that is close enough. The simple answer is, "Yes, I saw Robin make/imply physical contact with a confrontee that could be described as assault." There is something you first need to know about Robin in the old days. He abhorred being touched or touching people (at least the people I know). He used a silk cloth to sit on, especially in public places, he would often have a wet cloth handed to him after making contact with his hand with someone on stage. It was so rare to get a touch from Robin that it was considered a great honour to have him lay a gentle hand on your shoulder. I have witnessed so many confrontations they must number in the hundreds. They could arise during a meal, a walk or in the far more formal setting of a taped seminar. I missed virtually nothing as I was a permanent fixture as one of two camera operators. Hours and hours standing behind a big tripod my eye to the viewfinder watching every second with our switcher in the back punching between cameras for optimal camera angles. Assault figurative attack or bombard (someone or the senses) with something undesirable or unpleasant. My dictionary gave me this definition so let's run with it. Confrontation was not that fun. Trust me on this. It could be an assault on the senses, yelling or just having to hear what you did not want to hear. And in one case I remember there was what I believe to be an assault on the body, by Robin. I only remember it as an assault because the result was that the confrontee's eyeglasses were broken. The glasses fell off of the confrontee's face and hit the ground and were broken. I do not know if they were broken while still on this man's face or broke when they hit the ground. I remember feeling very shocked and very sad because this was Robin's best, oldest male friend and the vulnerability of this man standing there with his eyeglasses shattered at his feet was deep enough to stick in my memory. I can not say if there was real force involved and there certainly wasn't blood and I can not even say if there was contact or just implied contact and the confrontee moved his head quickly and the glasses spun off. But to me this was an assault because in that moment a man appeared shattered along with his glasses. And at the time I did not understand why it had to be. So I am sorry to have to disappoint anyone hoping for a real knock down drag 'em out expose. Robin simply did not punch or kick or throw people around. He was not a physically violent man. No one ended up with stitches or bruises or bloody noses. This writing has been hard on me. I think I want to stop now. -----------------------
