With Luke Rudkowski's Ouster, We Are Change are Left with Just That, Leftover Change

Luke Rudkowski, ousted by the group he co-founded. He is now the sole member of
WeAreChange.org after members severed ties and created WeAreChangeNYC.org

Ed. note: It doesn't help the "truth movement" when you  try and cover-up your own indiscretions. What you do is immediately apologize for the problematic issue and then ask for forgiveness - you don't go on the attack, going after the messenger reporting on the news. Just as with Nixon, it wasn't the crime that got him, it was the cover-up.

This email was sent to me at the outset by a couple of members from the WAC group discussing the problem and unfortunately a cover-up, rather than attacking the ensuing problems with this unfortunate lack of integrity. I've held off publishing this and other email exchanges hoping they would rectify the issue themselves rather than cover-up the financial issue and attack childlike with ad-hominems on this site rather than address the issue which is telling in and of itself. This story has nothing to do with Luke's great work in exposing crimes of world leaders, which I applaud and look forward to more activist journalism which we need more of, but integrity is the issue and it is hard to point out the faults of the big boys and act just like them on a small scale, making WAC stand more for "We Are Cover-Up." The email is posted as I received it and has their formatting.

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----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Danny Panzella <danny@truthsquad.tv>
To: we-are-change-nyc@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wed, February 16, 2011 6:00:13 PM
Subject: Redacted News Article

Ok folks, we have a problem.

Craig posted this redacted news article that presumably Heather must have written.

Luke of course saw it, and reacted by removing Craig from the meetup and downgrading the rest of us to co-organizers.

This article basically details everything that is happening exactly the way Heather wanted to.  The group decided NOT to put out this letter. Now while Craig argues that this is NOT Wearechange NYC making an official statement, we are still imply consent by reposting this. If Craig  or anyone else wants to post this on their wall that is their personal business.

But the group agreed we DID NOT want to come out strongly on this. And posting this article is basically the same thing as us making our own statement. At this point all this has accomplished was to aggravate Luke.

Luke came to me on Thursday night and apologized for everything. He said he was sorry, and that he loves me, and wants to make things better, and we need to all work together. Whether or not he was sincere I don’t know. He did have tears streaming down his face, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt for now. I have been keeping in touch with him, and trying to build back a rapport that will eventually (hopefully) lead to real reconciliation and transparency.

Posting this article on the WAC NYC site is counterproductive in my opinion, and violates the spirit of the group consensus NOT to put out a detailed statement about this.

Now my personal feeling? I WOULD LOVE to expose all his bullshit. I would love to go on the record saying the story in the Redacted news piece is true. But I think it will hurt our group, and the movement.

So I now propose a vote: Who votes yes to reposting this Redacted news article titled:With Luke Rudkowski's Ouster, We Are Change are Left with Just That, Leftover Change

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NEW YORK--Marla Singer for RedactedNews

After years of suspicion and accusations by former and current members of We Are Change NYC, Luke Rudkowski has been ousted stemming from months, if not years, of internal conflict regarding the groups finances. Palpable tension between Rudkowski and the body of members of We Are Change began in the weeks following their September 11th, 2010 fundraiser for First Responders.

As the weeks turned into months following 9/11 fundraising events in September, members grew concerned which turned into anger. From discussions with many from the group this apparently was nothing new. Members reported this to to become an annual trend. Questions would be raised concerning the finances following the 9/11 fundraising event with the group at that point, stonewalled. Tension rose and by mid-November Rudkowski was refusing to appear at any of the scheduled We Are Change meetings to discuss the groups finances.

By this time Rudkowski had ceased showing up to Ground Zero group actions held every Saturday for at least 5 weeks that members could recall. To those volunteers who had worked so hard, putting in months of set-up for the event or running the operations during the successful event, this was beyond acceptable for the group's members. Two months was a long enough wait.

One worried member of We Are Change met with Rudkowski at a coffee shop near his Brooklyn residence on Saturday, November 6, 2010 to go over the bank statements and Paypal records in an effort to assess the financial situation. It was apparent in the statements that thousands of dollars were not accounted for. Most notably absent from the accounting records were the Paypal statements. Paypal had been the source of all of We Are Change's online fund drives over the years. Why hadn't any money from Paypal been transfered into the bank account? It seemed no funds from Payapl had ever been transfered into this We Are Change bank account. Rudkowski could not explain, when asked directly, where the collected funds were.

In the course of the meeting, which was recorded reluctantly but with his consent, Rudkowski had no explanation as to current whereabouts of the group's funds was nor to questions regarding his lack of fiscal responsibility and accountability to the members and donors of We Are Change. Rudkowski is quoted as saying, "No one is going to stop me from doing what I want to do, I'm the only one who does anything and I'm disbaning the group." Beyond this statement, he had no explanation as to the current account balance only showing $383.