Again this begs the question why would she give up and walk away worse off than before, without their being a pay off it doesn't make much sense.
Well it would appear that what YOU think would be a pay off isn't necessarily what Cook would see as a pay off. I think both Lulu and Tikk make the points very well. Tikk gives a pretty sound (IMHO) description of the legal side and Lulu brings up some very smart observations about the mindset.
Cook is not very smart. I think that she thought that her e-mail, sent out as it was to believers would generate buzz, would make her look like she was really "on source" and would, no doubt get her into some hot water but hey - she thinks she is 'tough'.
I think she got the crap scared out of her.
And I think her husband got the crap scared out of him - you have to remember that these are Scientologists - they don't have courage or bravery, they have selfish self interest, period.
There is one thing that I think would have got her to sign - that her husband would be able to be in touch with and talk to his family.
and for those who think that DM et al would never agree to that - a similar offer was extended to me 8 years ago if I would agree to shut up and agree to be officially "working on" my a-e. I refused.
However, I think you might be painting a rosier picture of her life before Jan. 1 than was the reality. She blew the SO, there is no way she was treated "well" by the cult after she demanded to leave with Wayne. They may have let her maintain a facade of being in good standing, but knowing the cult there were whispers, gossip, generally shitty treatment. The thin facade was probably only done to keep them in line or in fear of it being worse.
Bunny are you an ex? (I'm not trying to be funny - I just don't remember) but what you describe is exactly how an exSO would expect to be treated - remember that is how she has spent the last 30 years of her life.
Her business was not flourishing, she may have had some Scio clients but it seems once the $50,000 x2 money they got when they left the SO ran out things got rough financially. In fact it seems the letter came at a point when all the money would have been gone, the business not providing adequately made them start feeling very insecure in the wog world. Had to chap Debbies ass that after decades of grueling work in the SO she couldn't make an adequate living, ESP after being told how superior her training was.
do you have anything at all to back that up? I have no idea if she was making money or not - I tend to agree with you that she would be surprised at how much it all failed to work - but that would not necessarily prevent the idiots from hiring her. But - once again all that does is give her motivation to send the email to the "insiders" - not to foment a revolution but as part of getting her own ethics in. If she was not making it on the outside she would assume it was because she was tolerating out-ethics and "not taking responsibility"
And here is the strange part - she would expect the cofs to respect her for it - and if she was wrong, to correct her. She would never have expected to have ended up in court.
Besides as people who left the SO weren't they automatically classified as DBs and full of overts/withholds?
It is never that simple - the answer is yes, and, no.
As for Waynes kids I have to believe once Wayne blew he got the "good roads fair weather" BS from his SO son, don't know if that would apply to the other son. I would think the relationship with the son was used as a way to keep them in line. But I have to ask some of you Ex-SO how big of a deal would Waynes relationship with his son be? Wayne has been in the SO since they were small so I can't imagine he got to see them much or form a close relationship. I know we all like to assume family/kids relationships would be paramount to people, that it would come before all else, but this doesn't seem to be all that true among hardcore Scientologist and ESP SO members. I think Mike Rinder is a pretty good example of the Ex-SO /indie mindset regarding family and children. Also the whole GE, just a body for a thetan crap, encourages that bio family is not important.
Well as someone who's step son is in and disconnected I am probably in a good position to answer . It all depends - some families have very strong ties and bonds and some don't. There are XSO who got booted out for refusing to compromise their family ties.
So its not a one size fits all proposition.
I just don't think Debbie was doing all that well prior to 2012 and didn't have all that much to lose. So why not take a gamble by writing that email? At least from an true believer perspective she may trigger some positive effect. When it evolved into a lawsuit (which she had to know was a good possibility) then there was the chance of improving her finances.
Scientologists don't gamble like that. She would write an email like that if she were trying to handle her own ethics and she would risk getting her head smacked by the cofs for it. I do not believe for a second she was trying to be a champion of the indies.
As for getting the money - we she would have had to be a lot further out to even contemplate trying to get money from the cofs - I know a LOT of XSO and the vast majority of them have never even contemplated that. One day maybe - but not now.
This is the main reason I have a hard time believing she would walk away without a payoff. She probably needed the money, so why walk away even worse off? alienating both churchies and indies, leaving her with few options for income via her business now and in the future, for basically nothing? The fact Debbie is in her 50's, her health is poor and her wog work history non-existence makes me think she couldn't walk away from this whole thing w/o compensation. Even if she wanted to settle and go away it doesn't seem like a viable option. Even just keeping the indie donation and support flowing would have been better than just settling for nothing and earning their wrath.
Sigh, like I said the only hints we will probably get as to what went down will be watching the course Debbies life takes over the next year or two from afar.
You keep retreating to the unproven assertion that there was a pay off to be had.
First things first - if this had gone to an honest to goodness litigation it would have taken years and Debbie knows that - ever XSO does. If she was, as you asset, already not making money how would she have lived while having to support herself and pay legal bills? For litigation that would drag on for YEARS?