Considered Readers

Advertisement.

Considered Readers, I would love to down play the time I have been a reporter for one paper or another – and by way of it appear less ancient. During the time I have been a part of The Haven Tribune I considered myself fortunate. I have played the canny reporter going for the hard line and the cheap shot, alike. Even my detractors concede, by archival precedent, that I have never painted my articles to vilify the blameless. However, despite my past glories, I too suffer from a great deadly sin, the sin of Pride. I have boasted to many that – “We (the members of the Fourth Estate) were all part of the digital 21st century revitalization of the Industry. The Ethics of the Press entered a Golden Digital Age of the Modern era. Our assertions have been verified by archive and precedent. Our duty is to accurately report our vision of the social landscape as our highest achievement in ethics and our integrity to it was our reward.” It would appear that Journalistic Ethics and Integrity is still a remedial class amongst the Fourth Estate. I recently found an article in a local rag – excuse me! – a local “paper”, which due to the polite legalities of our political environment must remain nameless. IF this article by that “paper” had attempted to merely probe the facts surrounding the death of textile magnate Gregor Petrovich, and they had done this investigative article and no more - it would have been satisfactory, however quite inappropriate. This article made additional unfounded commentary about a recent photograph of his widow, Illyana Petrovich and Jonah Odessa - a concerned family friend. The blatant use of implication and snide commentary is the very depth of sensationalist journalism and my reason for this unmeasured response. I had great personal satisfaction in reporting the existence of this defamation to my peers. Unfortunately, the legal wing of FrontPage Publishing will not allow me to run a sanctioned article in the Tribune. I, like many others, have shared dismay in the face of scandal after scandal from our community leaders. The civic left to the moral right are both on the trail of “the fat wallet”. Rather than allow an unfounded rumor to tarnish one of the last noble families of New Haven, I’ve paid to display a full-page “advertisement” to explain this travesty to the misled public. Allow me, now, to share with you, the truth behind this budding conspiracy. Early last month the town of New Haven lost our Patriarch of International Textile, Gregor Petrovich. A textile entrepreneur, conservationist, and philanthropist, Petrovich began his career in sales and became an innovator in his industry, manufacturing unusual fabrics and founding a company that became a leading manufacturer of denim. During his tenure at the helm of this company, he forged a partnership with Levi Strauss. It remains as a distinguishing marketing coup. More recently, the illustrious pair built and donated a home in the style of “Habitats for Humanity” to public auction. The proceeds of this sale were given as a substantial contribution to the Halo Medical Fund Raiser. Men with this much wealth, power, and influence have their own collective layer of protection in the form of lawyers but they also have their own weakness, that we do not. The powers of rumor are woes of social status. Predators prey on people's desperation...on not giving you time to think. Individuals who might react with suspicion under normal circumstances may be too exhausted or overwhelmed when grieving, making them an easy mark. Consider these facts: • Petrovich was a man of many political connections. • His plans included civic ideas benefiting the public not private concerns. • His wife found his corpse, but the family has released no details, nor do they appear to be forthcoming. • His wife has taken steps to ensure that she is not overly bothered by political pressures of “well meaning” men. • Photographs of Jonah Odessa “comforting” the widow Illyana are summarily released. Illyana and her two sons are bereft and we share in their grief for this staggering loss. Others, it would seem, have less compassion for the pain of families in mourning. The story the local rag would have you believe is that there was a poignant triangle of love, deceit, treachery, lust, betrayal, and murder. It is a broadly conceived plot which every good soap opera must contain. Implication is the brush with which the author of this deception and betrayal paints. Many of the facts stretch only so far as to be un-provable and yet remain socially damning in the eyes of the gullible. This plot stars Odessa as a manic monster who is capable of seducing the weak for his own lurid and nefarious enjoyment. Jonah Odessa is, without doubt, wealthy, educated, and determined. However, it is unlikely that given the sad performance within his own career, he is capable of arranging a successful press release much less arranging the mythically diabolic and preternaturally meticulous plan accorded to him. The conspiracy to successfully arrange the murder of a notable New Haven Citizen with out a hint or clue of blame to himself would require exacting precision, methodical preparedness, unbending discipline, and oracular vision. These attributes are well beyond this feckless, graceless, effete bungler. His position as Director of the Hazardous Waste Division is of particular irony - considering that he has had to grease many more palms than dazzle them with actual ability to acquire the role. Odessa, himself, has sufficient wealth and personal influence to not be motivated by annexing Petrovich’s much smaller piece of the political pie. The Director’s delicate hands, which are unstained by even a single day’s honest labor, would have no need to be potentially caught prying control any more political influence from Petrovich’s cold dead hands. Furthermore, it is a matter of public record that the Odessa’s holding company has significant ties to Petrovich Textile. What then, besides power and wealth, would motivate a man such as this to do harm to a family he already owns? Love? That would imply that this maladroit possesses a depth of character beyond greed. Love is a quality of compassion that this man simply lacks. He is, by all accounts, the poster-boy of the proto-fascist rich. His dreams are not fraught by such low hanging sugarplums as might be within the Dowager’s graces. Odessa might have disagreed with Petrovich’s politics, but he is more likely to be a hastily assigned scapegoat of a mismanaged conspiracy to deprive Illyana Petrovich of the power and influence she helped create. Jonah Odessa did not murder Gregor Petrovich as he wholly lacked a motive of love, power, or profit. Illyana is not the shrinking violet others would have you believe but instead a lioness. She has had to display more perseverance and relentless tenacity in the face of monstrosity than any of us should have to endure. The lack of compassion shown by others in this, her time of grief, is loathsome. While she is bereft of emotive support, I cannot but lay blame on all others who would seek to gain advantage in her time of loss. Apparently, SHAME is no longer a prevalent response for committing iniquitous acts against ones fellow man.

With Regard, Jack Bedlam