Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Kim Baker writes us about Bob Penny's death. From: "roger gonnet" Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2003 13:49:32 +0200 -------- I was contacted yesterday about Bob Penny's death. I know who the people are, and I am so grateful to them that they were there for him at the end, and that his passing was so peaceful. Bob Penny was the one who recruited me into FACTNet. He was the still quiet voice of reason, and the one I related to in FACTNet. His gentle personality got stomped on by other more volatile personalities. I visited him and said other critics in Colorado in July 1996. It was so cruel that such a gentle, sane, rational man could be attacked by such a debilitating disease. But he did things like take out a years' subscription to the Sceptical Enquirer for me, gave me a lot of info, and went out of his way to show me the incredible, awesome sights of Colorado. He was one of those, who when I was most under pressure, got through to me with his sheer gentleness. I had OSA and Wollersheim alternately screaming at me to write more declarations, retract declarations, and so on. Bob asked in e-mail if it was OK to phone me while in the middle of all this, I said OK, I badly needed to hear his voice of reason, and when he phoned, he said to me that Scientology were trying to use a portion of my original declaration to take his disability pensions away from him. Thank God for him. I couldn't do it, I couldn't do what they wanted, because of Joe Harrington, and Bob Penny. In the end, my declarations were useless to them. I lost touch with him over the years, as I did with everyone else. I am not starting up again as a critic or poster or activist - I am totally into getting on with my life. But the deaths of two such close friends in such a short space of time warrents a post. Bob Penny's gentleness, and his quiet voice of reason were the shreds of sanity that helped us through. He was the quiet force in the background, until his illness overtook him. His work "Social control in Scientology" is a fantastic look at the mechanisms used. Webbed here: http://www.demon.co.uk/castle/xenu/scs.html They don't only apply to Scientology, but are easily recognised behavioral mechanisms in politics, the military, schools, advertising, and so on. Bob always encouraged me to keep writing, writing, writing. He was the one who urged me to write about Scientology, and post to the Net. I have lost my appetite for writing about Scientology completely, but I am writing in other areas - more scholarly works. I think he would have been OK with that. I said, with Vaughn's passing - "the end of an era". But with Bob's passing, in only 4 days from Vaughn's, an era really has ended. The greats have gone. Their contributions, however, will be remembered, and perhaps better understood, in years to come. Hambe Kahle, Bob Penny. Kim Baker