On behalf of the SDJ Campaign and the 552 members of the core campaign mailing list, SG1 Team.

Dear Mr. Wright, Mr. Anderson and Mr. Greenburg,

          We awoke to an inbox full of incredulous, upset comments about a post to made to the Yahoo GateGoers list by Richard Pasco, alleging that the Stargate SG-1 Production Crew won't be attending GateCon because of recent 'hate campaigns'.  To say we're upset and outraged about this is an understatement.  The only public 'campaign' is that which is being managed by the SDJ website; the implication is clear that SDJ is the 'hate campaign' which is being referred to.

          We utterly refute both allegations.  We are not and have never been a 'hate campaign', we do not condone any hate mail which may have been sent by any individual purporting to be a supporter of the SDJ campaign, nor have we at any time exhorted fans to write, call or post with anything but consideration for the employees reading or listening to them.  We have not and would not be party to any plan to disrupt GateCon, and would inform the organizers with the utmost dispatch if we had any suspicion that any individual or group was planning such disruption.

          We've asked fans who mourn the loss of Daniel Jackson from Stargate to register their protest with MGM, and to ask for his return if that is what they want.  Are these heartfelt pleas deemed to constitute hate mail?  We've forwarded over 1,000 letters via the site, none of which are hate mail.  None.   And of course we're in the happy position of being able to prove this, as we have a database full of the original posts, a copy of each and every post saved to hard drive, plus a whole raft of US and Canadian mailing volunteers who can testify to the content.  Over two thirds of those letters are also posted on the Guestbook at SDJ and none of them constitute hate mail.  None.  The company paying for our webhosting have reviewed the content of the site at length and they too find no evidence of hate mail or a hate campaign.  The database of letters we speak of sits on their server, which means an objective third party can testify to the content of each and every letter if required to do so.

          We've asked fans at the website and on Yahoo lists to write letters expressing their admiration and thanks for the beautiful episode Abyss, the excellent writing of Brad Wright and the brilliant performances by Michael Shanks and Richard Dean Anderson.  Does that constitute hate mail?  We've also organised the Cartouche Crusade for fun; are runes and glyphs asking for the return of Daniel Jackson also considered hate mail?  Or lovingly crafted calligraphy?

          It's very easy to demonise fans with third party insinuations and innuendo.  In this case, there have been ongoing efforts to smear the SDJ campaign with accusations and allegations as indefensible as the hoary old spectre of 'death threats' for which no proof whatsoever has ever been offered.  Nor has an apology or retraction of those unwarranted remarks.

          There is no campaign to disrupt GateCon by anyone who is known in fandom as a supporter of SDJ.  Many of our core campaigners are acting as part of the volunteer staff and have also donated generously to support the convention charity efforts.  Other core campaigners have promoted GateCon at their site, helped to sell tickets and all have been happy and excited about attending.  The organiser of Sekh's party contacted us immediately when these contemptible rumours first surfaced and was reassured that no such disruptions as were alleged would occur.  We are incredulous anyone would sink so low as to spread such a vicious, hateful rumour or lend credence to it.

          All the smears against the campaign have originated with individuals and/or lists which are against the Save Daniel Jackson Campaign.  You will find NO posts on any list associated with SDJ planning or even hinting at the possibility of disrupting a con so many fans look forward to.  It cannot be coincidence that these rumours first surfaced after posts were made to the affiliated SG-1 Team list in which SDJ supporters expressed their excitement and hopes for attending GateCon.

          If you want to talk about final straws, then this is it.  The core campaigners for SDJ are known to most of the fans who are against us and to members of the production staff.  Though we all may have disagreed at times in the past there has never been any question of our integrity or our reputations in fandom.  Fellow fans have seen how we've conducted ourselves in fandom long before this campaign began, how we run lists, what we reveal of our personal beliefs and our characters in what we write and post.

          We've provided addresses and telephone numbers for MGM, SciFi and Bridge Studios.  We've asked people to write or call if they choose to support the aims of the campaign or to register their dismay at the loss of Daniel from the show, the reasons why Michael Shanks left and the change of creative direction we saw in Stargate from Season Four, and we've exhorted them to be polite, to be considerate, to be sure of their facts, to be reasoned and constructive.  We've taken flak from all quarters for deleting posts which are inflammatory, and we've deleted those when they came from campaign supporters too.

          We've accepted that we're damned if we do and we're damned if we don't, but there have been allegations made against us for which there is no proof.  Everyone is an individual, the Stargate fandom is a small part of all of our lives and to accuse educated,  mature, professional women and men from all over the world of being responsible for sending death threats, hate mail and the disruption of a convention many have been looking forward to for a year, and for which many of our fandom friends have saved hard for a year or longer to attend says far more about the accusers than it does about us.

          It speaks volumes that the only enduring response to our campaign is not one of debate, but one of demonising and accusation: lies, smears and unprovable allegations that are repeated often enough by certain fans who are against the campaign in the determination to have them believed.  The truth isn't nearly as exciting or comfortable.

          If the production staff don't want to attend Gatecon that's their choice and their responsibility, not ours.  The SDJ campaign is simply too convenient a scapegoat.  Not only would we scorn to behave so contemptibly to any individual gracious enough to share their time with fans who may have travelled around the world to see them, but it would gain us nothing whatsoever to do so.  It would damage our individual reputations and that of the campaign, and reflect poorly on the aims we have striven so long to achieve.

          If people would step back and take a long hard look at the conduct of the campaign and the 'opposition', they'd see the same difference that independent journalists have seen.

          It's a matter of perception.  Brad Wright talked in a recent chat about receiving hate mail - it's possible.  We can't take responsibility for what any individual unknown to us writes in a letter also unknown to us.  We can take responsibility for what we write and forward, though, what we ask campaign supporters to do and the advice we give to writers and callers, none of which requires any apology from us nor deserves the appellation 'hate'. 

          Yet Brad Wright was also interviewed for the article about the SDJ campaign in TV Guide and in his comments there, he made no reference to hate mail, only to the additional appearances Daniel will make.  TV Guide described the letter writing campaign as massive and they had nothing to say about hate mail.  And a juicy 'Producers Victimised!!!' massive hate mail campaign is so much more exciting and newsworthy than a boring 'please give us back this beloved character' writing campaign.  TV Guide didn't report hate mail, nor did LA Times, The Australian or The Guardian.

          Having the passion and courage of our beliefs, the temerity to speak up, to write and call from all over the world, and having the conviction to hang in to help others who share our beliefs as they too learn the news, and who feel the same sense of dismissal we do as an unwanted demographic does not constitute a hate campaign or hate mail, no matter how stressed the Executive Producer receiving the letters and commenting about them in chat.  Understandably stressed in the face of such a sustained and passionate denial of the creative direction of the show he is responsible for delivering to MGM and SciFi Channel.  No one enjoys being told they're wrong, no matter how constructively the message is delivered.

          Nor do the activities organised by the SDJ campaign constitute a hate campaign, much as the individuals at the root of these latest allegations would have you believe.  Joe Mallozzi and I have had our run ins, but they've been at GateWorld Forum, at his instigation, where everyone could see them and comment.  Like everything else the campaign and the campaigners have done, it was in full public view.  We argued without diminution of respect.

          We in the core SDJ campaign are what we are and we are who we are; we've nothing to hide and no matter what others would have the generic 'you' believe, at no point have we conducted ourselves or the campaign with anything less than integrity and the courage of our convictions.  Those who've debated us or argued openly against the campaign have nothing to reproach themselves for, they've acted as they felt to be right.

          None of us deserves to be the victim of the kind of malice at the root of this sustained whispering campaign.  None of us.  If any of these people had the courage of their convictions, they'd be out here in full public view debating us just as Joe Mallozzi has done, as members of the GateWorld forum, newsgroup and the Yahoo mailing lists have done.

          We're truly sorry for anyone in the crew who has been made uncomfortable by the malice of these rumour-mongers.  There will be nothing but the warmest of welcomes and enthusiastic interest extended to the crew who attend Gatecon, and that IS the truth.

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