Cancer claims Bob Jelenic, 58

Post of the year!

 

Late in coming to the thread. I'll keep the comment short and basic -- Cancer sucks, Jelenic swallowed. I feel bad for his family, but by the vast majority of accounts he was a mean one to work for.

Cancer is horrible, I wouldn't wish it on anyone. Noone should watch a family member die from cancer.

Never worked for a JRC paper, but based on stories I've heard from friends and colleagues who have, Jelenic made Ebeneezer Scrooge look like a saint.

 

This has been tame compared to the JRC Bites website: http://jrcbites.blogspot.com/

 

First, let me say I don't know anything.

Next, I'll admit that when he was at his scheming, truth-twisting worst, Lee Atwater inspired such thoughts and words from me as "I hate that asshole."

Hate is a strong word. Did I mean that? I don't know.

More and more I think I am capable of love and hate with a person, but with people it's all abstract. I love a person. I hate people. Or I say I do. Maybe you know what I mean about the difference.

I watched the documentary on Atwater and found old feelings coming to the surface. Then I watched the section about his brain cancer and death. I don't know anything, but I know when I'm in the grip of something that seizes me at my core, and during those scenes I was spellbound -- gripped, squeezed and all but breathless.

Watched my dad die of cancer when I was 19. Saw my mother die of complications from lymphoma two years ago. Saw a wonderful LSU employee swell up like a balloon from the same steroids Atwater received for a similar brain tumor. Saw his body change to something unrecognizable. Same with my mom. Her skin was like a paper you could tear if you weren't careful.

When my mom used to watch the news about white-collar criminals and CEOs getting away with millions while their employees waited in line for unemployment, she used to console herself by saying there would be a day of reckoning. There was probably at least some small hope for vengeance inside her when she said that, anger wrapped around something more spiritually comforting.

A couple of years after my dad died, when I was still wandering the wilderness of figuring out my life, I had a cup of coffee in the seminary. One day I strolled the grounds and read from Thomas Merton on a bridge that is the entry to the campus. He told a story, familiar to many Catholics, about the Cure' of Ars receiving a visit from a woman whose husband had not been to mass or confession in years. He was a sinner, she said, and had just fallen from a bridge and drowned. She said she knew he was in hell.

The Cure' said something like, "Madam, there is a short distance between the bridge and the water, and it is that distance that forbids you to judge.' "

I thought of that every time I heard someone dismiss the so-called deathbed conversion of Atwater or anyone else.

Like I said, I don't know anything, but I'm often envious of those who have it so figured out they are immune to the vise grip of the primal human fears and uncertainties that can neutralize what I thought were my most strongly held touchstones of anger and hatred.

I've long since left behind Catholicism, and if anything I've gravitated toward a more cosmic, metaphysical type of question-and-answer spirituality that still -- perhaps tragically -- values knowledge more than faith. That's my struggle. Still, what I think is one of the fruits of that transition is this desire in the better part of myself to recognize the global consequences of the tiniest shreds of hate, and the subsequent wish that all souls who cause or live in injustice and dis-ease ultimately find peace.

 

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20081213_3_community_newspapers_close.html

In heartfelt tribute to Bob, JRC slaughters three weeklies, including one 126 years old.

The old man himself would be proud. His spirit lives on, although it's still two weeks before Christmas, so who knows how many more employees can be thrown out on the street before then. ;D

 

"Business? Mankind was my business..."

 

My happiest day on this board was the one where you finally learned how to post pictures

 

They are harsh... and JRC stock is now worth eight/tenths of a cent...

 

That JRC board is a tough room.

 

just a day ago i talked to my friend who was whacked by bob about two years ago. he worked for bob for two or three years. he didn't know dear old bob died. i broke the news to him.

his response you ask?

"that cocksucker will fuck up peoples' lives in hell."

he doesn't cuss very often, either.

 

it's.....

"BIZZY-NEZZ?!?!?!? MAAAAAANKIND WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS MY BIZZY-NEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"