We hide nothing and have nothing to hide

Dear Kingman,

We want you all to know, all of Kingman, all our wonderful visitors, guests and customers from local and far-off lands that we see in our shop every day. And I want you to know and to hear it all from me first. Not from some uninformed, uninvolved source.

Rather than peacefully sitting down with us and resolving the two simple and easy to resolve issues of 

a) Allowing vendors on the First to Second Sts. block of our downtown Kingman during First Fridays, an event funded by your tax dollars and local donations and contributions, and 

b) The posting on the Kingman Main Street webpage or submission of the names of the board of directors, officers and paid members, these people have chosen to take intimidation, fear and confrontation over civil discussion, and peaceful resolutions of civic issues, which can and should have long before now been resolved quickly.

We were visited today by Mr. Tim Finn, an attorney, representing his wife, a local in Kingman, whose name I won’t mention because Mr. Finn may take it as a lie or defamation of his wife. So I will not mention her name. He refers to her as his ‘client’, so I will refer to her as Mr. Finn’s client. He threatened to sue me if I use her name or communicate with her, so I will refer to her simply as ‘client’. 

Mr. Finn came in with a ‘lawyer letter’ to deliver to us, which would normally & easily have been sent by regular mail, but that would have missed the opportunity of the moment, the intimidation factor of Mr. Finn walking into the shop to physically hand us the letter and cause massive and major disruption of our business within our shop over a period of well beyond an hour’s time – all witnessed by staff and customers. 

Please allow me to respond to Mr. Finn’s ludicrous, ridiculous, allegations, and accusations of defamation and falsehoods against his wife.  Please see his letter, which I am sharing with you, the public. I believe this letter is mine, and I have the right to disseminate as I see fit, and that the publication of this letter will not be construed as defamation or falsehoods against anyone because it contains Mr. Finn’s own words.

Mr. Finn informed me, our dear Shop Manager Sherry and our dear Assistant Shop Manager Nicole and others who were in the shop, that a certain member of the Kingman community (his wife) has been ‘offended’ by some of the things that I have written via email, social media, etc. Again, I won’t mention her name because Mr. Finn wants to accuse me of defaming her or lying to her, causing her harm and injury if I mention her name or email her. I really don’t want to ‘offend’ anyone, as the sign in our shop indicates. Guess you can accuse anyone of anything these days whether it’s true or not. Mr. Finn‘s letter and his demands are attached herewith for all of you to review and see for yourselves in his letter above. He has laid out a laundry list of accusations that I, allegedly, have made, none of which, in my personal opinion, are true, and never once, never ever did I intend to defame anyone or make any false or misleading statements in any of my writings. Mr. Finn is threatening a lawsuit against me and Sherry. Can you even believe that? Instead of just doing what they said they would do regarding the Kingman Main Street board names on their website and stop it with banning vendors on the First to Second Street block. They want to sue us because:

Offended

Mr. Finn stated that his client (wife) is ‘offended’ because I stated to her in an email (please see below) that she lied to us that Kingman Main Street would post the names of their board members, officers, directors, and paid members on their website, as I believe, and this is my personal opinion in reading the IRS statute, they are required to do. Well, yes, I suppose we can mince words if we want, Mr. Finn‘s client did not state in any degree of specificity when those names would be posted on their website, but as you can see (in her email to me) that the inference was that it was going to be pretty much immediate. Even Sara Peterson on Mr. Finn‘s client’s very own Facebook page, made the same representation, that they post the names of their board on their website. Well, it’s not there. It would have been a simple matter of sending the names to me in an email and be done with it. She chose not to do that, but to keep the hide-and-go-seek shenanigans going and drag it on and on and on with slanderous nasty comments from her followers on her very own Facebook page, none of the authors of which were asked not to make those statements and accusations. They continued to do it anyway.

Slanderous posts on Facebook taken down

On Mr. Finn’s client’s very own Facebook page, it was rife with slanders, derogatory comments, accusations, calling us ‘hate mongers and more all directed at me and Thunder Rode, and guess what? They have all been taken down. What is she hiding? Why were they taken down? So that you, the public could not see the ugliness, the hate, the vitriol and the slanderous, derogatory, negative comments directed at us by her followers and cohorts, simply because I asked that the Kingman Main Street group put the names of the board members, the officers, the directors and the paid members up on their website. Nothing more. Why didn’t she just do that or in lieu of waiting ‘for the website to be re-designed’ just send an email listing the Board Members, officers, directors and paid personnel and be done with it … if they have or had nothing to hide?

Secrete Society

Kingman Main Street

 As to this group being referred to as a secret society holding secret meetings, being a clandestine operation and other descriptives, I may have used, I don’t know what else to call a civic responsibility group like Kingman Main Street, which refuses to post the names of their board of directors, officers and members on their website. Especially after having been requested to do so numerous times. Why would they not do that unless they have something to hide? That has been the question all along.  

“For transparency, we’ve always shared our board members’ names on our website & listed our contact as our board email.” So why don’t you just do that, put it up there and be done with it?

Email to Laurie Barthlow 7/31/24:

“Let’s be perfectly clear, not Thunder-Rode, not Jack or any of its team members has ever stated, inferred, implied, or suggested, in any manner or way, that Sarah Ferry, Sarah Elizabeth, Kingman Main Street or any other group, entity or organization has said or done anything negative or derogatory about, for or towards Downtown Kingman – on the contrary, Jack has stated, numerous times, that it appears that Kingman Main Street may well be doing good work in and for downtown Kingman, based on their name tag associated with the various projects that they have participated in and/or are part of. All Jack and others now are seeking, are the names and responsibilities of the people who run Kingman Main Street. So let’s out with it – stop pussy-footing around, dragging feet, lying that names will be posted on a website and yet they never are, and dragging feet on getting that information out to the public, of which every member, every person, every citizen of our Kingman town is entitled to know and should want to know. “

My inquiries were not directed at any one individual or any one group. I have stated, as you all know and have seen that we are thrilled, happy and applaud all organizations that do good work and do good things, especially for downtown Kingman. We just want to know who they are, we know who our Chamber board members, officers and directors are and what their phone numbers and emails are, we know who our city council members are, who our mayor, our vice mayor and our City Manager are and we know their phone numbers and email addresses 

What is good and right for Kingman

This group, this Kingman Main Street group, in my personal opinion, not intended to be defamatory or false in any way, has the unmitigated gall to feel that they are above us, better than us and that we don’t need to know who they are and they don’t need to post their names up on their website, regardless what the law says. I’m talking about what is right and good for Kingman. Not everybody in this town is asleep at the wheel. Many, many, many of us simply want to know who these people are. 

You don’t care?

Is there a single individual in our city who would like to make a donation…donate your hard-earned money to an organization with a ghost board of directors, officers and paid personnel, a charitable donation or help fund a project, any project, or event, that is run by any of our city organizations, who would not want to know who is running the show and what their financials look like?  Who doesn’t care?! Is there anyone in this town that thinks that way? I doubt it.  If you as a member of the community of Kingman, don’t think that’s important, let me know. I’d like to know why. 

Diversity image on shirt

And as to an image of Mr. Finn’s client wearing a shirt that says ‘Diversity on Tap”

Mr. Finn showed it to me on his phone so I assume it’s ok for me to share it with anyone I see fit to share it with without fear of intimidation, with the definitions of “Diversity”, above and below the picture, because it was one of Mr. Finn’s client’s and she was ‘offended’ by a picture of herself wearing her own shirt, which she’s claiming represents defamations and falsehoods 

Those definitions and descriptives are littered all across the Internet, social media and even broadcast TV channels every day and have been adopted by numerous businesses and organizations, the most blatant and grossest of which is SAG, the Screen Actors Guild, who at last year’s Oscars, made it clear that unless the studios meet their diversity standards, a qualified Oscar candidate will not even make it to the nomination phase.   So, we may never know again, who the real Oscar winners are.

The shirt with its image is found everywhere and the above and below comments/definitions are part of the public domain, they are so much out there. No one can deny that. No one can deny that one who supports diversity, a part of the socialist left’s mantra, the DEI acronym, supports those descriptions and others who support those definitions as well – just look at and read Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’ web pages. 

This image, on the shirt that Mr. Finn’s client is wearing, is portrayed ubiquitously across the country and the world and represents not just what many, many large US corporations, European corporations and businesses and companies around the world are ditching due to the devastation it has caused their businesses. Bud Light, John Deere, Tractor Supply are just a few of these companies – and that even includes the backlash against Harley Davidson, a global icon company from Wisconsin, against the destructive edicts and precepts that ‘diversity” represents. No one can deny this. Even countries, the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, among others are voting out of office, eliminating ‘DIVERSITY’ people from their parliaments and governments and businesses. No one can deny that. Wear that shirt and you become a member of that society. No harm intended, no defamation intended, and certainly not a lie or a false hood. I say, if you’re going to wear it, own it and everything it represents and means and stands for and be proud of it.

Heck, you’ll see me in a MAGA cap, a ‘FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIST-IN-THE-AIR’, Trump tee shirt I wear and share these representations for all they mean and represent and wear and share them with honor and PRIDE!!    

And we sell the “Trump calls us Americans” posters with all the derogatories that others call us, at the shop, so come on down and get one.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. So I say to all my friends all of Sherry‘s friends all Nicole‘s friends all of the wonderful business partners and friends that we have and all of the wonderful supporting customers that come into our shop every day from all over the world and support us unequivocally and without judgment, thank you thank you to you all. This too shall pass my friends, this too shall pass.

Show me the defamations and falsehoods and I will say to all of you at this moment, right now, in this piece , that if Mr. Finn can show me any defamations or falsehoods that I may have uttered that may have caused Ms ___, his client, to be offended, caused her any pain or injury or suffering, were false, misleading, and/or defamatory, of course I will take it down and of course I will apologize, not just to her but to anyone else, because our goal is to not cause any pain or hurt to anyone. It is simply to get the truth out before the public. 

First Friday Events

My final comment is going to be regarding First Friday, an organization owned and controlled, as is my understanding and is as what I was told by a high official in the City of Kingman, by our very own Chamber of Commerce. We fought long and hard following the street closure at 2nd Street for the June First Friday event. In July, the barricades were moved up to 1st Street where they should always have been, to include not only Thunder Rode, but Mr. D’z, the Bad Gass Garage and the beautiful little fragrance and aroma shop on First Street, The Sacred Soap Shop.

Why would they eliminate those important businesses and would not allow a single vendor, food, merchandise or otherwise to set up in the First to Second St. block? Not one. They did the same thing this past First Friday for the month of August. Not a single vendor was allowed to set up on the First to Second St. block yet there were ample, a ubiquitous supply of vendors, both food merchandise, and otherwise lining Beale Street and side streets that would have permitted and enabled moving some of them up to the Second to First Street block, making that block feel like they were part of it.

Why are they doing this? We don’t know why they are doing this. Seems nobody knows. I have personally asked Laurie Barthlow, president, outgoing president, Becky Fawson, Rita Zumwalt, even Matt Wanner of Kingman Downtown Merchants Association and Joni Millin, friends of ours (at least so we thought) at The Standard newspaper. No one has been able to give us a definitive answer as to why the First to Second Street block is being eliminated and left empty of vendors.

I have this date sent a letter to Ms. Laurie Barthlow in her capacity as president of both the Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the Chamber and Kingman Main Street, which I also consider a flagrant and serious conflict of interest, my personal opinion, don’t get your tights in a wad. I await Ms. Barthlow‘s response and we will let all of you know as soon as we have it because you are entitled to know.

Documents Available

Enough said. All of my letters, writing, social media posts from any and all sources are available to the general public and I will print them out and hand them to you personally free of charge. All you have to do is call the shop, 928-377-3608 and ask. No lawyers required, no intimidations, no threats, you are welcome to every word I have said about these issues. If you disagree with me, let me know. My email is jack@thunder-rode.com. Everybody knows how to reach me. My personal cell phone number is 928-542-6059. We hide nothing and have nothing to hide.

Jack Alexander

Thunder Rode Motorcycle Shop