IMPORTANT: SEE UPDATE ON THIS STORY FROM 5/27/15
About a week ago, I posted an off-topic entry called
"Attorney Chad" is about to have a really bad weekend.
It appears that after the tragic Amtrak derailment a couple of weeks ago, a Philadelphia-based personal injury attorney named Chad Boonswang (allegedly) decided to send out hand-written "sympathy cards" to the families of not just one, but at least two different victims. The "sympathy cards" actually contain no words of sympathy, but instead are crass ads pushing his litigation services at a discounted rate. What a bargain!!
Adding insult to injury, at least one of the victims and their families happen to be Jewish, making the embossed cross on the outside of the card doubly tacky.
Mr. Boonswang claimed that "whatever we were referring to" didn't come from him or his office, which I find awfully difficult to believe given that it was sent to at least two different families. He also claimed that he was "looking into" what happened, although he's failed to provide any sort of follow-up to his "investigation" of "the facts" so far.
I proceeded to not only push the story here and on Twitter/Facebook, but to look up the relevant portion of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Code to see if Boonswang was guilty of ethics violations (it looks like he may be, although that's subject to interpretation). I also called attention to his actions to the PA Bar.
For anyone who thinks I was overreacting, Mr. Boonswang's (alleged) crass exploitation of personal tragedy was roundly denounced by the Dean of Wayne State University Law School (and former Democratic MI Secretary of State candidate) Jocelyn Benson.
In spite of that, some have suggested that I am overreacting; that Mr. Boonswang's (alleged) stunt may be kind of sleazy, but isn't a code violation or even unethical, and that I was out of line in making such a fuss over it (even though it was close family/friends of the victims who publicized the incidents in the first place).
One of the victims, Rachel Jacobs, happens to have been the daughter of Michigan State Senator Gilda Jacobs. In fact, it was the Jacobs family who received the note from Boonswag referred to in my original post. However, I never knew Rachel Jacobs, and have only met her mother a few times at various local political functions.
I wanted to give a bit of context to explain why I'm taking this incident so personally despite having no personal connection to any of the victims.
When I was 18 years old, my father, Leonard Gaba, died of a brain tumor. Over the next few weeks, we received many sympathy cards, of course...including one from a girl I had just graduated from high school with. I was a bit surprised, since she and I hadn't really known each other very well, but was touched...until I opened the card to find a "10 Ways Jesus Can Save You!" pamphlet inside. I should note that this girl knew that we were Jewish.
A few weeks after the funeral, I left for college at Michigan State University. Freshmen were required to room blind, so I had no idea who my roommate would be. When I met him, a tall blonde guy named Brian, I was still wearing the Kriah ribbon--a small torn piece of black cloth.
We shook hands, introduced ourselves, and then Brian asked me what the torn ribbon was for. I explained that my father had recently passed away, and that Jewish custom was for mourners to tear black cloth as part of the mourning process.
His response?
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that he's burning in hell right now."
I should note that this was less than 5 minutes after we had met. I was assigned to live in the same room as this guy for the next 9 months.
Needless to say, between the death of my father and having to live with this jackass, my freshman year at MSU doesn't exactly hold fond memories for me.
A word of advice to Mr. Boonswag (or the "Mystery Person" who you claim is trying to "frame" you for sending these notes): If you're going to send tacky, tasteless business promos to the loved ones of tragedy victims, at least have the decency not to assume you know their religious beliefs.
Meanwhille, anyone who wishes to honor the memory of Rachel Jacobs should consider donating to her Detroit Nation project, which is dedicated to supporting Detroit-area projects to help revive the Detroit economy and culture.
(minor update: added "alleged" since technically speaking, it's possible that Mr. Boonswang was "set up" (hah!))
UPDATED: First, I just wanted to thank everyone for the words of support.
Second, just to clear up a couple of things:
--As I noted in a comment, I don't have a problem with those who accused me of overreacting last week. They may have been correct. I have no problem with litigation lawyers in general, and recognize the important role they can play in keeping faceless corporations/etc. in line, etc etc...but this guy's methods are way out of line IMHO.
--As I also noted in the same comment, I've had a week to think about this. It wasn't until yesterday that I realized that the embossed cross on the note--sent to a Jewish family--may have triggered my anger more than the sleazy note itself. Obviously it triggered the memory of the girl from high school, and that of course is connected in my head to the roommate incident.
--I should also note that no, I don't hate Christians in general. Obviously there's all types, and the "convert or burn!" contingent is just one of many flavors. Still, yes, I do hold a special hatred in my soul for that sub-group.
--As for the roommate, yes, of course I should've decked the guy. However, bear in mind that I was in a bit of a dazed state, he was about a foot taller than me, and to be perfectly frank, I was pretty much a wuss anyway.
--I should probably also give the rest of the story re. the roommate. He was actually a sophomore, a year ahead of me. I learned from some of the other guys on the dorm floor that the previous year, as a freshman himself, he had completely trashed his reputation by being an utter sleezebag, harassing women, just being a general all around jerk (without the born again crap).
He had apparently been "born again" over the summer...but according to the guys who had known him, they were pretty damned sure that the whole thing was just a front to try and rebuild his reputation.
So, he was still being an asshole...just with a bible this time around.
I spent much of my freshman year getting stoned with the help of the guy across the hall, a dude named Davey who looked and acted exactly like the early Zonker Harris character from Doonesbury.
The following year, of course, I had a different roommate who was a really nice guy.
