Flowers for Jack Thompson

Wrapup and sendoff

2006-03-25T01:04:12Z

While it's good to see this was successful and I had a blast working on it, it's also good to finally be able to move on ;)

Personally, I'm pushing forward with PixelanteNation, and we now have Tom Buscaglia's support in legitimizing it into a functional, non-profit lobbyist organization. Look for EGCA, electronic gaming consumer's alliance, to show up formally in coming weeks.

In the meantime, the PixelanteNation fundraising store is proud to offer a one-of-a-kind parting item; the I Sent Jack Thompson Pretty, Pretty Flowers T-shirt. All proceeds go to EGCA hosting and projects.

Stay tuned for the upcoming "Flowers For Jack World Tour 2006" t-shirt ;)

-AR

Finally...

2006-03-17T16:07:11Z

Okay! I FINALLY got the 500 donated.. (it was more like 450.00 after taxes *.*...stupid paypal) I'll post a reciept soon... I have my last drill weekend until activation! Well, take care and thank you for participating in FFJ! We've changed one man's life and several sick kid's at the same time!
Well, see you all later!

BTW, if you have FaceBook, drop me a line! I'm Alyson Burch at Michigan Flint... well, byeee!

-Aly

Save FFJ's Wiki entry!

2006-02-25T03:21:35Z

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_for_Jack

The FFJ wiki entry was nominated for deletion! Its being voted on in the deletion talk page; all FFJ readers, see if you can help us turn the tide and keep FFJ's entry or at least merge it back with the JT entry!

-AR
http://www.pixelantenation.com

Anon poster

2006-02-23T03:12:07Z

I whois'd that last anon post, it wasn't a Florida IP and, by the timestamp compared to his last GP comments, it just couldn't have been Jack.

Better luck next time, I guess :(

-AR

Patricia H Thompson

2006-02-21T05:23:51Z

OMG... Jack Thompson's wife is *NORMAL*

Check this out!

She's part of one of the oldest and most prestegious law firms in Florida. She's even a 'stand in' on the Florida bar committee, AND she's supposedly known for her politeness towards her clients...

HOW DOES SHE PUT UP WITH HIM?!?!?

-Alyson

BTW, I'll be able to withdraw the next 500 next week!

something completely different...

2006-02-16T04:44:15Z

For all our supporters, to tide you over until the PA donations go through... I made, uh... this.

Jack Thompson's credibility had ONE weakness...

Can't be serious all the time, you know ;)

For incoming GamePolitics Readers...

2006-02-14T06:38:49Z

All of our updates over the progress of this project are in this LJ.

To read the FULL Flowers for Jack Letter go to:
http://www.pixelantenation.com

Thanks for visiting!

-AR
http://www.pixelantenation.com

MOOOORE FLOOOOOWERS!!!

2006-02-14T05:08:41Z

Okay, now tthat it's officially Valentine's Day, I would like to remind everyone that Jack is receiving three bouquets later today!

The letter says...

"Jack Thompson, Thought you could use some more Pixelante flowers on this beautiful day of love!

-Flowers for Jack and supporters"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... this'll be great!

-Alyson

Wow Jack, just wow...

2006-02-13T03:26:06Z

Mr. Thompson,

First off, my name is Alyson Burch and I'm the cofounder of
'Flowers for Jack'. I would also like to state that my partner
(George) and I have no affiliation what-so-ever with Take Two or
Joystiq. George and I take full responsibility. Also, I emailed this
to you a few days ago and never received a response. My partner,
George, gave me your email so I could do my half of the explaining.

Now that all the formal stuff is taken care of, let me explain how
and why this is, because, you deserve to know! Our original intent was
to apologize for all the heinous acts or fellow gamers have done and
to show you that gamers can be anybody and everybody. Hate mail only
causes more hate! So instead of taking the easy way and sending some
boring letter, we decided to put a little 'zest' in our creation. We
added beautiful flowers of all colors to prove an act of non-violence,
and just because your views are unpopular, doesn't mean we should be
belligerent and cruel. I, personally, would like to talk to you some
time just to hear how your ideas work (just a fascination of mine as a
curious mind) and converse on my views. But, our point is not to make
you mad, but to get your attention. I mean this in all sincerity. I
admire how you stick to your beliefs, however, being stubborn and
sometimes arrogant is a serious downfall in winning people over. Yes,
I agree that minors shouldn't have access to rated R movies, M rated
games and graphic novels, but to damn the whole industry? Thats going
a bit to the extreme, no? Understand where we are coming from. I might
not be very old, but I know my fair share of strife (in the form of
rods holding my left leg together, thank the Army^^) and I've seen a
lot, too. I'm going to keep this brief so I don't take too much more
of your time. Please, don't just disregard us!

-SPC Alyson L Burch

In response, he wrote....

----- Response Message -----
To: "alyson burch" <intergral810@mac.com>
From:
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 9:55 PM
Subject: Re: Flowers for Jack Thompson- Why didn't I get a response?...

not interested. email me again and you'll regret it

----- Original Message -----
To: "alyson burch" <intergral810@mac.com>
From:
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 9:55 PM
Subject: Re: Flowers for Jack Thompson- Why didn't I get a response?...

FFJ in the Edmonton Sun!

2006-02-12T23:10:58Z

http://www.edmontonsun.com/Entertainment/Spotlight/2006/02/12/1438440-sun.html

A fascinating blurb about FFJ popped up. The Sun is known to do suprisingly pertinent spots on people and subjects in the industry that the mainstream can overlook, but its still an ink-and-print newspaper. Awesome.

-AR
http://www.pixelantenation.com

Jack Thompson: "I ignored the letter."

2006-02-12T22:17:45Z

Why wouldn't I ignore it? It is silly, it is self-important, and it has absolutely nothing to say about anything I care about. You all should send flowers to bereaved families whose loved ones are dead because of the folks at Rockstar. You're focused on harassing the solution--me--not on the problem--them.

This was his email response to my asking "why are you ignoring the letter?"

This, honestly, is a foolish free handout. Jack is acknowledging that

1) He knew of the letter
2) He received it
3) He didn't read it because it was from gamers

This letter that people all across the web have read has been ignored by him because he hates us.

... technically, he's answered all of our questions there.

More importantly, his response to this project is proving to be more newsworthy to the media than the project itself was.

More on that to come...

-AR
http://www.pixelantenation.com

Maybe his secretery forgot to hand it to him?

2006-02-09T02:34:24Z

Status: DELIVERED
Last Scan: 2/7/2006 10:00:00 AM DELIVERED CORAL GABLES, FL US
CORAL GABLES, FL US
Delivered To: CORAL GABLES, FL US
Delivery Date: Tuesday, February 7, 2006
Delivery Time: 10:00:00 AM
Delivery Location: FRONT DESK
Signed By: MICIL
Carrier: UPS
Service: 2ND DAY AIR AM

Jack.

You're a bad person.

-AR

MASSIVE thanks to Forrest Norman and the Miami New Times

2006-02-09T00:36:47Z

Alyson's article was printed and is available online!

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/Issues/2006-02-09/news/metro2.html

Gamers Give Flowers
To the most moral man in town

For two decades Jack Thompson has staked out the moral high ground, heaping derision on foes like Luther Campbell and Janet Reno in the late Eighties and Ice-T and Howard Stern more recently. His campaigns have led to the arrest of 2 Live Crew in Broward County and to Warner Bros. Records' dropping Ice-T and "Cop Killer" from its roster. Back in 1988, after losing a race for state attorney to Janet Reno, he even accused her in various media of being a closeted lesbian deranged by medication for Parkinson's disease.

But the white-maned 55-year-old Coral Gables attorney/activist has special scorn for his current culture-war combatants: almost everyone associated with adult-oriented videogames — manufacturers, retailers, and even players, whom he has dubbed "pixelantes."

Since 1999 Thompson has sued purveyors of adult-oriented videogames in Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee, and Florida, claiming their product incites violence in minors. Three of the lawsuits reference actual killings. The Florida claim delayed the release of the videogame Bully by Take 2 Interactive, makers of Grand Theft Auto. His suit in Alabama, filed on behalf of the survivors of two police officers and a dispatcher killed by an eighteen-year-old gamer, is close to reaching the state's supreme court. (It will do so without Thompson because a judge, citing the Gables lawyer's outlandish media blitz — comparing Grand Theft Auto III to Pearl Harbor — revoked his Alabama law license.)

Many of Thompson's critics dismiss him as a right-wing loon, but some pixelantes think Thompson is worth taking seriously. "We were actually just out having dinner and talking about this guy and how offensive he was," says nineteen-year-old University of Michigan student and army reservist Alyson Burch. "A lot of people threaten him and prank him, and we thought, Wouldn't it be cool to send him flowers? There's no way he could get angry at that."

On January 21 Burch and fellow student and gamer George Ettinger created a Website (flowersforjack.livejournal.com) that included an explanation of their intent to send Thompson a pretty bouquet along with a letter, in hopes of opening "a rational dialogue."

"We hoped to raise 50 or 60 dollars, but within days we had hundreds of dollars from people all over the world," Burch says. By February 1 the duo had collected $1050 in donations and requests from 250 people in 40 states and 10 countries to include their names on the letter.

They say they are donating $750 to a charity for sick children. The rest will be used for an impressive arrangement to be delivered to Thompson soon.

The Gables anti-gamer, as ever, glowers down from the high ground: "They can send me all the flowers they want. I'll send them along to the families of the slain policemen."

Digg it, part 2

2006-02-08T01:03:19Z

Digg link for the JT letter (fixed)

Pixelante Nation and the posted letter just got dugg. There are at least 20 guests viewing the letter thread at any given moment.

Thanks, everybody.

EDIT: The Wikipedia entry on Jack has the wrong URL for the letter. The Pixelante Nation URL it links to, for some reason, specifically does NOT have obvious access to the letter. It links to the news page, where the letter is already sliding down. Could a registered Wikipedia user (which we are not) correct this to simply www.pixelantenation.com ?

Also, I briefly attempted putting the letter here on LJ, but apparently seventeen pages is too long for an entry ;)

-AR

Jack Thompson Receives Flowers, Responds

2006-02-07T21:46:30Z

http://gamepolitics.livejournal.com/201054.html?thread=13081438#t13081438

This is just one of a few comments Jack Thompson has made about receiving the flowers. He has made no mention of the attached letter, which was in fact moved up and scheduled to arrive just BEFORE the Flowers.

He has stated that Flowers For Jack is run by Joystiq, and that Take Two Interactive instigated our project to harass him with flowers. There was nothing said about any messages alongside the flowers. He has not officially denied it yet, but I assume he will.

To those of you just joining us, this is the simple case;

Alyson L. Burch and George T. Ettinger (myself), two college students from mid-Michigan, started a small donation project to thinktank a letter of civil intent to send with flowers, harmless, inoffensive FLOWERS to Jack Thompson. In three days we had over one thousand dollars from hundreds of people in a dozen countries and almost every state. When the letter was finished, over 280 people personally requested to sign it, from 40 states and ten countries.

The letter was civil, apologized for crude behavior and actions taken towards him by ignorant gamers, and asked for his statements on serious issues, centrally involving respect and communication. Weighing in at seven pages, it was followed by ten pages of signatures.

When you open a mailbox that should be hard to miss...

Jack has ignored this letter. Personally... I'm surprised. I know many of you are not, but I am. I really thought he'd make an honest statement, even if it was a small or non-public one. This is... disappointing.

Nonetheless, I'll mourn it later. Action is needed. The link to the original thread for the COMPLETE FLOWERS FOR JACK LETTER AND ALL SIGNATURES is at the top of http://www.pixelantenation.com . We need to get that link out everywhere we can, copy that letter to every blog and site we can.

We can't let him hide our real message, much less distort it.

Pixelantes come together now. Flowers For Jack needs you now more than ever.

-AR
pixelantenation.com

Letter

2006-02-07T02:41:17Z

Its all there. Go to Pixelante Nation.

Its all coming down to the main event.

To everyone reading this;

Get this letter out anywhere you can.

Your own blogs. Your own sites. Send it to sites. Host it. Display it.

We need it out there, all over, so he can't pretend we didn't say it.

Approaching the deadline, where to find new information.

2006-02-06T23:23:22Z

This has been in the works for the last week and its finally together.

The big update at the end of tonight, where the full letter will be posted and details of delivery will be made public (hopefully just too late for JT to ruin the surprise) will be made at www.PixelanteNation.com.

Pixelante Nation has formed as a collaboration between us at FFJ and the staff of GamerAndy as a home for the FFJ community and its supporters.

We want to use this crazy flowers bit as the beginning of stronger awareness for gamers, better organization for gamer activism, and a place to find reason within the unreasonable aspects of this industry and its politics.

This is a bit of a leap, but with the success we've seen on this project I think there might really be a place for this kind of forum among gamers today. We need to discuss more than just news, we need to start discussing what we can do about it.

Major updates from here will be made on Pixelante Nation, but for those who don't wish to attend we will still keep readers of this LJ informed.

We at FFJ have heard a lot of thoughtful things from a LOT of thoughtful people over these last weeks. We know there are hundreds of intelligent gamers out there who want to see a strong community rise and make a strong voice heard. I hope Pixelante Nation will help put that voice together.

Again, the final letter and the full signatures will be up on PN late tonight. Stay tuned.

Pixelante Pride, everybody.

-AR

Everything is in motion.

2006-02-03T20:39:45Z

Its sent, they're ordered, every main leg of this is a go.

To answer some questions, on Monday we will release the final letter and delivery information in the hopes that it will spread well around the web in time for its delivery.

Just in case of possible antics on his part we're going to keep this information on the down-low until the day before.

So, again, Monday we will let it all out. The letter, when its happening, what's happening, the details, and we will ask that you forward and host the letter everywhere you can. We'll need all the backup we can get.

I'm looking to set up a proper website for the letter and community. More info on that when available.

Everything's coming up Thompsons for us, people. No matter what we do from this point on, the message will reach him.

Or, well, arrive at him. I doubt anything will ever 'reach' him.

We've both had a lot of fun but we're also starting to look forward to resuming our own lives again, too ;) Visit me at semperar and Alyson at so_sorry810 and drop us a line or two outside of our crazy project, we'd love to hear from new people.

-AR

Under the radar info...

2006-02-03T19:28:15Z

Alyson has indeed got all the flowers lined up, and off I go now to set up the letter delivery.

Seventeen f'ing pages, people. Only seven are the actual letter, the rest are the signatures.

FFJ wins at life.

-AR

pixelante nationalism

2006-02-03T08:35:02Z

"It's... beautiful. Hell, I think there's more nationalism in the gaming community than there is behind the US government. When you think about it, Jack Thompson is just the villain the gaming community needs to unite it. He can only make us stronger." - anonymous comment

Amen to that.

I hope you all agree.

-AR

Paypal is still a prick, but is showing signs of recovery....

2006-02-02T04:30:35Z

Alright!

The Paypal transaction is going faster than originally thought, so I should have the money transfered to a bank account by tomorrow. Unfortuantely, I can only take out 500 at a time and might need to wait until next month to donate the other 550 to Child's Play, but at least it's getting there! (Paypal is retarded on SO many levels :^/ )

I'm ordering the flowers tomorrow and am chipping in most of my Army paycheck for the cause, so it'll make up the 150 difference. AR is paying for the letter to be sent on the date the flowers arrive, which will probably be next Tuesday (fingers crossed). Count on the press being there to witness Wacky-Jacky-boys priceless expression....lol!

Well, I'll update tomorrow with the flower URL's and provide a reciept. (hopefully! ^_^)

-Alyson

ERRRAAAAGHHHHH... paypal... :^/

2006-01-30T05:21:49Z

Ack!

It's going to take 3-4 business days to transfer the funds over to a competent account so I can purchase the flowers. I'm now looking at this next Wednesday (Feb. 8th) to have the flowers sent. Sorry about the delay ^_^*, I've been so busy this last week, I overlooked the transfer time.

Also, I REALLY don't like paypal... NOT my favorite to work with.

Also, our grand total was 1049.99! WoW!!!!!!

Thank you again, everyone who's participated and donated! I also have a surprise for everyone listed under our friends that I'll reveal tomorrow if all goes well. ^_~

Well, I'm DREADFULLY tired and am in serious need of R and R, so I'll catch up to everyone tomorrow aIfter everything is said and done.

-Alyson

what you say?

2006-01-28T19:08:35Z

Things are coming together and this is getting crazy-busy. More updates when we can.

a comment on gamepolitics:
"You poor unfortunates live in a dream world, and it is going to come crashing down, as is Mr. Eibeler's, voted the "Worst American CEO in 2005." He got that by assuming the rest of us were as bizarrely confused as Pixelante (Fascist) Nation." - Jack Thompson

... o rly?

Miami

2006-01-27T20:58:58Z

Alyson's going to get the chance to speak to the Miami New Times tonight. This is our first mainstream coverage of any kind. That means normal people are going to hear what we have to say about Jack Thompson. This may be big.

She'll update on it as soon as she can.

She's speaking for all of us here. Make us proud, Al.

-AR
LJ semperar
AIM semperAR

PS: Reminder: Paypal donations for Child's Play end tonight at 11:30. I am still taking names for the letter and will until tomorrow night (I may extend to Sunday if they keep coming in). Send name+city+state to flowersforjack@gmail.com to be added.

The preliminary outline.

2006-01-27T03:44:02Z

Hey,

I went to FedEx today and they can ship the letter for $13.00 and have it by 16:00 the day that we send this stuff. I personally want him to receive it next Thursday, so I can send the letter out on Tuesday. I've priced out everything and I think we're getting ten bouquets of 2 dozen light and dark pink roses.

There will be 'mini' letters attached to each one leading up to the main letter. As for the press, I'm contacting them this coming Tuesday and alerting them of the final date, faxing them a copy of the final draft (hopefully done by then) and a short letter on how we came to be and all the sources our cause can be found at (i.e. Joystiq, Digg, Orange Lounge ect.).

Then, after all is said and done, I will be donating the rest to Child's Play (hopefully next weekend). This is the theoretical format (amen, if it turns out this way) and is still up for conversation.

Any more thoughts?

BTW, FedEx lady thought we were neat and I got her name and a $10.00 donation! Her and I talked for a good twenty minutes on what a crazy man he is! She said, and I quote,

'"When I was a child, everyone said, "Don't let your kids watch horror movies, they'll be violent and horrible". I'm fine! I don't kill people and neither does my sister! She's a LIBRARIAN! I think the same rule applies here, it's the parent's responsibility to monitor what goes in their children's minds and what comes out in action."'

Gold, just Golden!

-Alyson