Dear Club Members and Friends:

We know it was distressing for you to see the terrible posts over the past few days on this temporary Message Board, but we wanted you to see first-hand the way Hate works in the online world, and to better understand why all of us -- from regular folks to small businesses to large corporations -- are vulnerable to deluded, rage-filled fringe groups who have concocted dangerous hate agendas that obsess them.

Please keep in mind that most of the people who attacked and destroyed your community are rootless operatives, or they would not still be here, acting so foolishly. Like you, they would be contributing something meaningful and decent to "the global community of exploring and sharing minds" that describes the Internet.

Instead, these people formed a passionately deluded group of self-styled Disney-vigilantes. They firmly believe that they are enforcing Disney's corporate policies across the Internet and punishing those who disobey.They have no idea what they are about or why they exist, except to police the Internet on behalf of the Disney Company, using the weapons of threats, intimidation, and harassment.

You and your family, along with American businesses large and small will never be safe or secure on the Internet until fringe groups like these are vigorously prosecuted and held accountable. Attacking innocent people, manipulating the uninformed into panic and rage, using an organized campaign of dangerous and destructive lies and hate speech must not be tolerated. In doing so, we all lose our rights.

Why do they do it? Why does anyone commit an act of terrorism? Power. They do it to feel power over forces that they can't control in their personal lives. They do it to express their rage at the weak hand and social repression that life must have dealt them. They do it to try to find meaning and purpose in what, for them, is a mundane and unfulfilling existence.

Think about it. Fringe groups like these, steered in a different direction, could easily bring down the commercial airline industry in a single afternoon. They could bring down a cereal company, a toy manufacturer, an author, anyone they happen to hate. All they need are AOL connections, and access to an inexperienced and naive Internet audience who are easily persuaded to believe the same sort of insidious threats, lies, ugly rumors, and intimidation that were used against you and the Readers Clubhouse community.

Any small group could do this; right this very minute. Cyber-terrorism is really very easy. You have just witnessed it with your own eyes, and you can expect to see a lot more of it until we demand that people are held accountable for the terrible damage they do to others on the Internet. This group believes that they have the right to harass you and deny you your rights because they are anonymous and can get away with it. Like all terrorists, they have the insane delusion that they serve a higher god -- in this case, they see themselves as storm troopers that defend, with brutal force, the Disney Company against people like you.

Are you not appalled that these Disney vigilantes have the audacity to cite the First Amendment as their God-given authority to strip you of your personal freedom?

Ask yourself: are you afraid to post, to express yourself, to participate in your community, where you have spent many happy and peaceful years? Have you been intimidated into hiding and lurking because you are afraid that you will be singled out by this group and terrorized, publicly or privately? Do you fear retribution from them that might affect you and your family?

Have you had to forbid your children to view the Clubhouse because of what these Disney vigilantes have done to your community in the past six months? Do you accept this as something you must suffer because you are on the Internet and that's just how it is?

Are you aware that you can change this any time you want to?

Do you realize that your community is the first American tragedy of online terrorism? Did you know that hundreds of innocent people just like you have been also been financially damaged as a result of this misguided campaign of lies and hate that began six months ago?

Did you know that you have the power to decide what is and what is not acceptable in your world?

That's why it is so important that you commit, right now, to protect and guard the freedoms and rights that others have died for, in order that you may enjoy them. By turning away and hiding, you are handing your power and rights over to groups like the ones who destroyed your community and caused you so much distress. Please don't let your children bear the terrible burden of reclaiming the rights to freedom and personal safety that you were willing to give up.

All of us are vulnerable to groups like these, who are filled with hate and bizarre delusions. This group believes they are protecting the Disney Company, and they believe their "holy war" frees them of any social or moral responsibility for the damage they do to you, to your family, and to your world. They believe they have the right to police the communities you enjoy, and should you express the wrong sort of thoughts, they believe that have the right to invade your community and bombard it with hateful and intimidating posts. They sat on our website twenty-four hours a day for the past six months, policing you, organized for immediate attack. You saw it with your own eyes many times and you are afraid now, aren't you?

As strange at it may seem, the future of personal freedom on the Internet and the security of our nation is in your hands at this very moment. We will be first large-scale test case to go through both civil and criminal courts in order to prosecute and punish domestic terrorists. And that's exactly what these Disney vigilantes are.

A number of webmasters hid their eyes from the atrocities that were committed here. Some, in fact, hosted forums featuring the destructive campaign of lies and slander about the Readers Clubhouse that destroyed your community. A few actually propagated these lies through blatant public statements made on their own websites, as well as on public newsgroups.

Why would these webmasters do such a thing?

Was it the thrill of watching another website destroyed? Perhaps. Was it fear? Absolutely. Were they terrified that they might become the next target of the Disney vigilantes? Did they surrender the interests of Disney community at-large to the "enforcers" rather than to take a stand against evil? Were they forced to make libelous public statements about Rita Aero and the Readers Clubhouse? Or did they mindlessly repeat what they had heard, unconcerned as to whether or not it was true?

The webmasters who hosted forums or broadcast dangerous lies about the Readers Clubhouse to their constituents, inciting them to hate you, will forever have to live with what they have demonstrated themselves to be.

No one has every worked harder to promote these very same webmasters and to bring them forward through her books than Rita Aero. She asked nothing in return. She made a point of meeting many of them, and to each, she spoke about her passion for non-competitiveness and cooperation to benefit the larger world of all Disney vacation consumers.

She made the first moves, through her books, to pull them forward, so that they would share in any light that was shined on her. She asked only that they pass it on to others. Yet their fear of retribution from the delusional Disney "Power Rangers" that plagued us compelled many webmasters to betray the Readers Clubhouse, and to dishonor the inherent trust and unity that must exist between colleagues who respect the work they do and the audience they serve.

The rest is simple. You can forget all this and go have fun somewhere else until the "enforcers" arrive. Or you can take back your rights and peace of mind and help make certain that this will never happen again to another individual or community.

We will do our very best to show you how to add your voice to the cries of so many who were wronged by one of the most disgraceful events that anyone has ever seen on the World Wide Web. A safe and secure environment on the Internet is your right, if you wish to demand it.

We are aware that the fringe group that committed these crimes is very, very scared right now. Their only hope to escape the inevitable is to try to scare you so you will not tell anyone what happened to you or how much it hurt you. Or most pathetically, start an emergency message board where they can ooze sweetness. (Simply search on their posting name at RADP if you want to see what you are actually talking to.)

Their next great hope will be to try to convince you that the term cyber-terrorism (which has been in use for more than a decade to describe this type of crime, and will be the crime that many of them are charged with) refers to the bombings at the World Trade Center. Remember, this was, in fact, their initial libelous hate speech - a dangerous and illegal act that blinded vulnerable people with rage, and thus made your online community unsafe. It is this type of act that ellicits the anonymous death threats. This time, however, law enforcements officials are watching the crime as it happens and so can you.

Not one word that the Disney vigilantes are saying right now is even remotely true.