{"id":1846,"date":"2018-01-12T02:04:38","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T02:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/?p=1846"},"modified":"2024-09-17T10:53:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T10:53:26","slug":"a-statement-about-the-alex-wrekk-complaint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/a-statement-about-the-alex-wrekk-complaint\/","title":{"rendered":"A statement about the Alex Wrekk lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Friday, January 12th,\u200b 2018\u200b\u200b \u200bMicrocosm\u2019s lawyer filed a complaint against Alex Wrekk, Joe\u2019s ex-wife of over 20 years ago. The complaint comes after\u200b over\u200b\u200b \u200ba decade of attempts at settlement, mediation, negotiation, accountability processes, and many other earnest attempts at resolution<\/a>. It is our last resort and one we are not at all thrilled to have to take.<\/p>\n

Our sole goals with this\u200b \u200b\u200bcomplaint\u200b\u200b is to resolve an old conflict so everyone can move on with their lives and end Wrekk\u2019s persistent harassment of Joe Biel, Microcosm staff, and\u200b \u200b\u200bpeople who believe in and support Microcosm<\/a>.\u200b \u200bIn 2006, Wrekk began publicly claiming that Biel’s literal communication style and disability to notice and respond to others emotional expression and nonverbal communication neurotypically were \u201cemotional abuse.\u201d\u00a0Pathologizing of autism is common and if you\u2019re unfamiliar here\u2019s a story on Invisibilia<\/em> about an autistic doctor who had seven medical assistants quit in one year <\/a>due to, as she puts it, \u201cover and over again the world didn’t respond the way she expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrekk’s persistent campaign o\u200bf \u200b\u200b bullying and\u200b \u200bneurophobic harassment has caused untold amounts of suffering to \u200bhundreds of people in the form of stress, \u200btrauma, \u200bpoisoned\u200b relationships, canceled events, and \u200bfriends told that they ha\u200bve\u200b to choose sides. We wish her no harm; we want only to be left alone to be able to go about our lives and our work without fear\u200b, \u200bjust as we leave her alone\u200b.<\/p>\n

We did not\u200b \u200b\u200bwant to continue having this conflict publicly \u200b\u200bbecause our goal\u200b \u200b\u200bhas always been\u200b \u200bto seek an end to this drama. Howev\u200ber, as she \u200bcontinues to harass us, we want to again push for resolution so we can all move on and do the things that we want to be doing. If you \u200bhave questions, most of them should be answered here<\/a> and if you have something pressing that isn’t, feel free to drop us a line.<\/p>\n

Update – June 1, 2018 –<\/strong>
\nAs you may have heard, in response to our complaint, Joe\u2019s ex filed a motion to dismiss our case on first amendment grounds\u2014stating that she has the right to continue to harass Joe and the staff and authors of Microcosm Publishing as a matter of informing the community about an issue of public interest. We disagree strongly, and contested this motion to the best of our efforts. Unfortunately, due to the statute of limitations, her motion was successful. We were simply too late in speaking up.<\/p>\n

We are deeply disappointed by this outcome, but know that we did our best. From here on out we will continue to focus on our work, publishing books that matter to our readers and providing tools to build a healthier, more empathetic world. We ask that Alex and her cohort do the same: leave us alone as we leave you alone, so that we can all live and do better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Friday, January 12th,\u200b 2018\u200b\u200b \u200bMicrocosm\u2019s lawyer filed a complaint against Alex Wrekk, Joe\u2019s ex-wife of over 20 years ago. The complaint comes after\u200b over\u200b\u200b \u200ba decade of attempts at settlement, mediation, negotiation, accountability processes, and many other earnest attempts at resolution. It is our last resort and one we are not at all thrilled… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogifesto"],"my_excerpt":"On Friday, January 12th,\u200b 2018\u200b\u200b \u200bMicrocosm\u2019s lawyer filed a complaint against Alex Wrekk, Joe\u2019s ex-wife of over 20 years ago. The complaint comes after\u200b over\u200b\u200b \u200ba decade of attempts at settlement, mediation, negotiation, accountability processes, and many other earnest attempts at resolution<\/a>. It is our last resort and one we are not at all thrilled to have to take.\n\nOur sole goals with this\u200b \u200b\u200bcomplaint\u200b\u200b is to resolve an old conflict so everyone can move on with their lives and end Wrekk\u2019s persistent harassment of Joe Biel, Microcosm staff, and\u200b \u200b\u200bpeople who believe in and support Microcosm<\/a>.\u200b \u200bIn 2006, Wrekk began publicly claiming that Biel's literal communication style and disability to notice and respond to others emotional expression and nonverbal communication neurotypically were \u201cemotional abuse.\u201d\u00a0Pathologizing of autism is common and if you\u2019re unfamiliar here\u2019s a story on Invisibilia<\/em> about an autistic doctor who had seven medical assistants quit in one year <\/a>due to, as she puts it, \u201cover and over again the world didn't respond the way she expected.\u201d\n\nWrekk's persistent campaign o\u200bf \u200b\u200b bullying and\u200b \u200bneurophobic harassment has caused untold amounts of suffering to \u200bhundreds of people in the form of stress, \u200btrauma, \u200bpoisoned\u200b relationships, canceled events, and \u200bfriends told that they ha\u200bve\u200b to choose sides. We wish her no harm; we want only to be left alone to be able to go about our lives and our work without fear\u200b, \u200bjust as we leave her alone\u200b.\n\nWe did not\u200b \u200b\u200bwant to continue having this conflict publicly \u200b\u200bbecause our goal\u200b \u200b\u200bhas always been\u200b \u200bto seek an end to this drama. Howev\u200ber, as she \u200bcontinues to harass us, we want to again push for resolution so we can all move on and do the things that we want to be doing. If you \u200bhave questions, most of them should be answered here<\/a> and if you have something pressing that isn't, feel free to drop us a line.\n\nUpdate - June 1, 2018 -<\/strong>\nAs you may have heard, in response to our complaint, Joe\u2019s ex filed a motion to dismiss our case on first amendment grounds\u2014stating that she has the right to continue to harass Joe and the staff and authors of Microcosm Publishing as a matter of informing the community about an issue of public interest. We disagree strongly, and contested this motion to the best of our efforts. Unfortunately, due to the statute of limitations, her motion was successful. We were simply too late in speaking up.\n\nWe are deeply disappointed by this outcome, but know that we did our best. From here on out we will continue to focus on our work, publishing books that matter to our readers and providing tools to build a healthier, more empathetic world. We ask that Alex and her cohort do the same: leave us alone as we leave you alone, so that we can all live and do better.","my_excerpt_rendered":"

On Friday, January 12th,\u200b 2018\u200b\u200b \u200bMicrocosm\u2019s lawyer filed a complaint against Alex Wrekk, Joe\u2019s ex-wife of over 20 years ago. The complaint comes after\u200b over\u200b\u200b \u200ba decade of attempts at settlement, mediation, negotiation, accountability processes, and many other earnest attempts at resolution<\/a>. It is our last resort and one we are not at all thrilled to have to take.<\/p>\n

Our sole goals with this\u200b \u200b\u200bcomplaint\u200b\u200b is to resolve an old conflict so everyone can move on with their lives and end Wrekk\u2019s persistent harassment of Joe Biel, Microcosm staff, and\u200b \u200b\u200bpeople who believe in and support Microcosm<\/a>.\u200b \u200bIn 2006, Wrekk began publicly claiming that Biel’s literal communication style and disability to notice and respond to others emotional expression and nonverbal communication neurotypically were \u201cemotional abuse.\u201d\u00a0Pathologizing of autism is common and if you\u2019re unfamiliar here\u2019s a story on Invisibilia<\/em> about an autistic doctor who had seven medical assistants quit in one year <\/a>due to, as she puts it, \u201cover and over again the world didn’t respond the way she expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrekk’s persistent campaign o\u200bf \u200b\u200b bullying and\u200b \u200bneurophobic harassment has caused untold amounts of suffering to \u200bhundreds of people in the form of stress, \u200btrauma, \u200bpoisoned\u200b relationships, canceled events, and \u200bfriends told that they ha\u200bve\u200b to choose sides. We wish her no harm; we want only to be left alone to be able to go about our lives and our work without fear\u200b, \u200bjust as we leave her alone\u200b.<\/p>\n

We did not\u200b \u200b\u200bwant to continue having this conflict publicly \u200b\u200bbecause our goal\u200b \u200b\u200bhas always been\u200b \u200bto seek an end to this drama. Howev\u200ber, as she \u200bcontinues to harass us, we want to again push for resolution so we can all move on and do the things that we want to be doing. If you \u200bhave questions, most of them should be answered here<\/a> and if you have something pressing that isn’t, feel free to drop us a line.<\/p>\n

Update – June 1, 2018 –<\/strong>
\nAs you may have heard, in response to our complaint, Joe\u2019s ex filed a motion to dismiss our case on first amendment grounds\u2014stating that she has the right to continue to harass Joe and the staff and authors of Microcosm Publishing as a matter of informing the community about an issue of public interest. We disagree strongly, and contested this motion to the best of our efforts. Unfortunately, due to the statute of limitations, her motion was successful. We were simply too late in speaking up.<\/p>\n

We are deeply disappointed by this outcome, but know that we did our best. From here on out we will continue to focus on our work, publishing books that matter to our readers and providing tools to build a healthier, more empathetic world. We ask that Alex and her cohort do the same: leave us alone as we leave you alone, so that we can all live and do better.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1846"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5667,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1846\/revisions\/5667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microcosmpublishing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}