Mr. Sufferer,
I would like to thank you from the bottom of my blackest of hearts. In all seriousness, your understanding means a lot to me. That you took the time to give me your well wishes and to let me know that I always have brothers here is so awesome and makes me feel great. Equally as much, I want to thank you for standing up for me and having my back.
aliasp, Cargath, Jono, timmyc, DarrellDeth: I would like to extend you guys the same gratitude.
I was diagnosed and operated on in early 2006-well after I joined the board-and again in mid 2007. I didn't find it necessary to post about it until our dear friend, 6er, had to joke about how listening to the voice of my favorite singer can exacerbate my symptoms. I, as I'm sure all of you, take my metal very seriously. Especially when it comes to our beloved band.
Mr. or Ms. 6er,
I cannot accept your "apology" because I do not view it as such-you kept making jokes about it. On top of that, you accused me of lying. To address your comment about my hypersensitivity: after being hospitalized 11 times in a two year period, you are up to your eyeballs in medical debt and forced to move back home. YOUR band is finally opening for Mastodon, but they find a replacement drummer for the show because you're in the hospital (Mastodon canceled the day of, so it's cool). You end up quitting after 4 years anyhow. Then your medication gives you osteoporosis (Brittle Bone Bushbaby Syndrome) so you can't be "Caught In A Mosh" next time Anthrax comes to town, or you risk breaking a hip in your mid twenties. Hypersensitivity.
Now, there's no way I could expect you to know any of that. Nor do I expect you to care. Like I said, you just kept insulting and making jokes. I've learned to deal with it and am now healthy, so I'm open to jokes about it...from my friends, which you are not. I took it the way I did because of how much irritation from you has been building up. Dealing with Crohn's and listening to Anthrax are a part of my daily routine. When you wrote what you did on top of incessantly rubbing in the fact that John Bush is no longer in the band, I couldn't ignore it.
Look, forget that you wrote whatever you did to me. My brothers on the board stood up for me, and I will stand up for them: I really wonder where the moderators are these days. If you had been posting the things you have been during the first reunion, you would have been canned a long time ago. We've been posting as friends and having peaceful Joey vs John debates for years, and it hasn't been peaceful since you've signed on to antagonize us. You've made this a very uncomfortable place to visit. Again, forget what you wrote to me, you have taken your posting way too far. No one appreciates it.
I don't hate you: your grammar is proper and I will admit that some of the things you write are creative, in a 5th grade sort of way. However, I just wish you would put your writing creativity to more positive use.
-Robert Hastings
