August 24, 07

Hi From Yazz Allen!
Contact me directly at YazzAllen@Yahoo.Com

Martin Fried didn't like what I wrote, and wrote an email message of protest and insults aimed at me.

I replied, and Mr. Fried complained to Mr. Rick Daily, Vice-President of the Antioch Alumni Assn., also a lawyer, head of the Legal Committee of the Assn.

THEN, Mr. Daily sent me an email explaining why legal action is too dangerous due to the chances the Antioch Alumni Assn. would get sued by the Antioch University Board Of Trustees....and that would be expensive (the Antioch Alumni Assn. has raised $7 million plus to "revive" Antioch College....how about "reviving it using legal action and using the $7 million smackarinos to pay for top level laywers to save Antioch? Huh?)

I replied to both Fried and Daily and supply my writing to them below, FYI

Here, first, is my reply to Mr. Fried, followed by a message I got from Mr. Rick Daily 67 (Fried complained to Daily about me and Daily contacted me directly to defend Fried's so-called honor), big shot lawyer from Colorado and presently Vice President of the Antioch Alumni Assn., also head of the LEGAL COMMITTEE the association has, which presently (Aug. 2007) does NOTHING regarding the current Antioch College closedown crisis.

Best,
Yazz

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Here are email messages I sent to TWO "Legal Committee Members part of the current (2007) Antioch College, Ohio, Alumni Assn., Mr. Martin Fried '55, and Mr. Rick Daily '67 (includes a lawyerly explanation email message from lawyer Rick Daily '67 about why the Legal Committee are currently going the deadbeat route and NOT challenging the AU BOT re: the closedown)....first contact with Mr. Fried of Syracuse, NY USA and after that, communication from and then to Mr. Daily of the greater Denver CO USA area):

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(Sent to Mr. Martin Fried in reply to an angry email message Yazz Allen got from Mr. Fried protesting the "Do-Nothing Legal Action" acticle Yazz wrote which included reference to Mr. Fried....Mr. Fried's angry message to Yazz Allen NOT included here, but Yazz's reply is, and follows!):

August 23, 07

Dear Mr. Fried,

Thank you for your email message.

l respect you and am VERY impressed by your credentials and life history, which I made a big point of posting as part of the writing I did which included you.

My first duty in the present situation is to Antioch College, and to keeping Antioch College open without interuption. The decision to close down Antioch is disasterous, and the damage already done simply by the announcement and steps taken by the AU BOT is enormous......as it was intended to be.

The people who executed the closedown attack indeed thought out a Pearl Harbor "no notice, maximum destruction as soon as possible" strategy.

My opinion is that the forces, clearly led by Mr. Arthur Zucker '55, who intend to close down Antioch College in July 2008 will win.

They face no serious or well organized opposition, and voices like mine protesting the failure of alumni to get serious about fighting and defeating those who would destroy Antioch College by closing it down in July 2008 are few and ignored. Initial reaction to my most recent post is quite typical.

Those who dominate the various website, chatlines devoted to Antioch have clearly accepted the "fate" (which I do not believe needs to be accepted and which I believe is NOT inevitable) of Antioch as a "done deal."

I have tried to bring talents I have (as your talents are legal) into this fight. I have talents a gifted publicist (I spent 10 years doing major public relations for major organizations) and as a person well experienced in dramatics (I am a pro movie actor......first movie acted at Antioch 1963 on a co-op job in Chicago...played "Jesus In Chicago" in an Antioch student film screened later in Kelly Hall in YSO).

My goal is to keep Antioch College open without interuption past July 2008, to dispute and overturn the AU BOT decision to do that.

My way of at least keeping this goal alive and not ignored (increasingly the case in public, cyberspace communications by Antiochians) is act dramatically and in a manner which attracts attention...this is the goal of publicity.

Mr. Zucker '55, who really is a villain in my opinion, was made for that role. He looks like it, acts like, talks like it...... I've cast him as the main villain here.

In the recent post I did which included you and your name, I did something I accept and realize is rather desperate....I took a tax attorney (the dullest possible catagory of lawyer) and suggested conspsiracy.

Maybe it's true and maybe it isn't, but it IS dramatic, and it DID get people's attention. This what I wanted, what I believe is needed to REVIVE talk of disputing the AU BOT closedown decision, rather than accepting it meekly (which is the present trend, sadly).

People are at least talking, communicating, about the subject, and the fact that major player in the present drama may include bad guys.

I don't think you've incurred serious (or any) damage.

You are not helping Antioch College stay alive, but most people part of the cyberspace outlets who read what I wrote are ALSO not helping to keep Antioch alive....that accounts for the fact many have come to your defense, and objected to the fact your honor was "stained" (which it wasn't).

You are being praised now in far-flung places like Michigan City, Indiana (J. David Coldren '65) as a "Lawyer who clearly knows his business."

Mr. Coldren doesn't know that tax lawyers know little about the law outside of the tax law specialty, that the field of law itself is vast, and most lawyers know little outside their specialty.

It is unlikely the present Legal Committee has a single heavy weight lawyer capable of reviewing Case Law on the subject of non-profit organization Trustees guilty of malfeasance and removed by law and courts for that.

Not hard to do, ironically. A quick database search of Lexus and Nexus by a skilled, computer saavey lawyer with some energy and brains could do that.

The sleepy "Legal Committee" Antioch Alumni Assn. operation you run probably lacks the sort of legal talent needed to put some fire into the effort to keep Antioch College open, and also has NO ambition to seek out lawyers better (for this task) than they are.

Sir, I have no doubt you are a big star in the estate and trust and tax areas of law and legal scholarship, service, and courtroom accomplishment. But that's not what Antioch College needs right now.

It needs legal do-ers. That is not you or your minions part of the present (August 2007) Antioch College Alumni Association.

Feel free to use any of this communication in any way you see fit. I am, as I've stated, a bit believer in the power of publicity, and Antioch College (which school I love and am trying desperately, if inadequately, to defend and keep alive, open without interuption) needs publicity showing that not every alumnus has abandoned the conclusion that legal action is the best way to keep Antioch College alive and open.

I don't think you are doing the right thing, but I don't hate you for that. Honest mistake. I'm willing to accept that, but I'm not willing to accept where your honest mistakes are taking Antioch College....to it's grave.

Sincerely,
Yazz Allen

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From Yazz Allen:

After Mr. Fried received my message, he contacted Mr. Rick Daily of Colorado, Vice President of the Antioch Alumni Assn. and also head of the Legal Committee of the Antioch Alumni Assn. (I was wrong to state Mr. Fried is the head of the committee.....he's the membership chairman of the Legal Committee, but Rick Daily is the head guy).

Mr. Rick Daily '67, hotshot lawyer from Colorado sent me the following message explaining why NO legal action is presently (August 2007) initiated or prepared for by his Legal Committee.

I replied.

His message to me and my reply follow FYI:

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Rick Daily wrote:

August 23, 07

For Yazz Allen:

I have been litigating the very kind of cases you have referred to for over 30 years, representing plaintiffs as well as defendants. What I'm saying here is written in blood.

Any case which might be brought against the Antioch Board of Trustees needs to take into account some basic principles of law:

1. A bad outcome is not itself evidence of bad motives; it is simply the starting point at which one begins sifting through evidence.

2. Nonprofit and for-profit organizations are complex operations, requiring that many people make many judgments every day to keep the operation in existence as a going concern. Courts apply the "business judgment" rule to test the propriety of conduct by people in charge of these operations.

3. Simply stated, the business judgment rule says:
a. If the actions taken are (i) within the range of actions (ii) which a reasonably careful person might take (iii) based on the information reasonably available at the time and (iv) based on the skills and training actually possessed by the people taking those actions, then (v) those actions cannot form the basis for a legal claim.
b. The law does not punish mistakes which fall within this rule.

4. The person bringing the claim must have both a reasonable basis in fact for the claim and a good faith argument that the claim is either warranted under existing law or a good argument that the law should be extended to encompass the claim.

5. People who bring these claims without such a basis can be required to pay the costs incurred by the defendant, including having to pay the defendant's legal fees.
.
Lawyers are expensive. People who bring cases without a proper basis have to pay twice - once for their own lawyer and a second time for the other side's lawyers. The other side's lawyers seem always to be way more expensive than your own.

None of us are rich. None of us can afford to bring a case we are not convinced will win.

If you can afford to bring such a case, I can't join you, because I would be equally liable and I can't afford it.

The Board of Trustees of the University has taken steps with which I and many other alumni profoundly disagree. I am urging them to work with us to reverse some of those steps, and join us in reviving the College.

We are not fools. As we revive the College and set it on a new course, we will be looking at everything that goes in to making the College run, and learning from the past. We will give a hard look to every piece of evidence that we find.

We will pursue serious issues. We will not go on wild goose chases. We're spending other people's money in this endeavor, and we can't afford to waste it.

If you have evidence of serious misconduct, show it to us. If you don't, then you are on your own. If you make claims that don't have any evidence to support them, we cannot and will not help you, and we can't afford to have you at our table.

If you can help revive the College and set it on a new course, you're welcome. Good ideas come from all sources, and good ideas are at a premium these days.

I urge you not to marginalize yourself.

'Nuff said, I hope.

Rick Daily
Richard W. Daily LLC
215 Union Boulevard, Suite 300
Lakewood, CO 80228
(720) 963-1121 (o)
(720) 963-1171 (f)
(720) 318-5880 (c)

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Yazz Allen replied to Mr. Daily stating Daily is afraid to initiate legal action, his lawyerly reasons stated in his message to Yazz notwithstanding:
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August 23, 07

Hi Mr. Daily!

Thank you for your kind email message I was glad to receive just now (Thurs., Aug. 23, 07, 3:17 EDT) and read carefully.

You have implicitly chracterized my urgings to take the AU BOT to court as a "wild goose chase."

Well, it isn't.

It's chancy, but so is life. To the victors go the spoils, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and on and on and on.

Antioch College is going down for the third time as I write this and NOBODY is standing up to the crooks who caused the mess we're all in presently.

What, you ask, evidence do I (Yazz Allen) have regarding the AU BOT perfidy?

They closed down Antioch College without good reason, THAT'S the evidence! Didn't you notice?

I notice you live in Colorado, the same state which harbors Mr. John Feinburg '70, and Ms. Nancy Crow '70, past and present Antioch Alumni Assn. presidents. And Ms. Crow is a lawyer, isn't she?

Cozy. Three top big shots all within commute distance of each other. Doesn't make for independence, I'd say, intellectually or socially.

I don't think you (or your minions on the Legal Committee and on the Antioch Alumni Assn. Board) have the balls to go after the assassins who are leveling Antioch College.

That's what I think.

When all is said and done, sir, action is a matter of courage.

Take it of leave it.

Shakespeare said it well in JULIUS CAESAR in his "Taken at the flood" speech (Brutus' speech).

You are in the driver's seat, sir. Where are you driving?

No place impressive, I'd say.

Best,
Yazz Allen

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Please note that the detailed biographies of ALL present (August 2007) Antioch U. Board Of Trustee member is NOW available by visiting WWW.TheAntiochPapers.Org Antioch College interest/ website (est. 2007 by Tim Noble '02 and Friends). Check it out. Photos of the bad guys and details about their lives. EVERYBODY is a millionaire, almost.

Best,
Yazz