COACH SELLERS RESPONDS TO MICHAEL REGNIER OF "HETERODOX" ACADEMY
Dear Mr. Sellers:
I'm writing to inform you that your registration for the HxA Conference 2024 has been canceled and you are not welcome to participate in the event.
Mr. Sellers, your recent public messages have us concerned about your state of mind, and your references to violence and our conference in the same post especially so. Your Substack post of May 21 consists of an image of the "Joker" character and hashtags including, among many others, #HeterodoxAcademy2024 #Bipolar #Pedophile #Rape #SellersKillFascists #ShootingsDaily and #MarjoryStonemanDouglas
I know you are a longtime supporter of HxA, and this may be a case of misunderstanding, but we take the safety and experience of our event attendees extremely seriously. Unfortunately, your communications leave me no choice but to insist that you do not attend this year's conference. We will refund your registration fee shortly. If you have incurred nonrefundable expenses as part of your travel plans, HxA is willing to reimburse up to $600 upon receipt of documentation.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Sincerely,
Michael Regnier
Executive Director
Heterodox Academy
Hi Michael,
Thank you for your email. You are welcome for my cooperation in this matter.
To say that I felt disappointed when receiving your email would be a grave understatement. I am still quite confused as to your (and your team's) decision-making on my cancellation--especially as it relates to timing and a lack of curiosity about my writings on SubStack.
I would expect one who holds such a vital leadership role in HxA to enact The HxA Way. But you chose not to, didn’t you? Sad!
Michael: you made an executive decision based on limited information and made zero attempt to contact me prior or to even attempt to understand where I might be coming from with my Joker SubStack post. As you point out, I have indeed been a longtime supporter of HxA and even held a leadership role for several years in the organization for a time. If you speak with Mark Urista or Christine Richards or even Professor Jonathan Haidt about me they might confirm that my behavior can be deviant at times. I admit as much! I am a proud weird person who happens to have been born-and-raised in the Texas capital city where our tagline is Keep Austin Weird. I also admittedly come from a very strange family where most everything revolves around my severely disabled older sister who can neither walk nor talk due to her lifelong condition. She doesn’t even eat real food anymore—she has a G-Tube. Strange!
Therefore, over my 43 years I (and my nuclear family) have unfortunately grown accustomed to being judged and dismissed outright based on preliminary evaluations from others in power positions (or should I say those with more privilege?) such as yourself. But to experience cancellation from one of the leaders of HxA was quite surprising. And disheartening. I had been looking forward to--and planning for-- the 2024 HxA conference for many months. Question: why did no one at HxA reach out to me via phone or email before such a rash decision was made? Why has Christine Richards still not returned the many voicemails that I left for her over recent months? Has Christine perhaps also judged me negatively as some kind of deviant or weirdo or something? If you (and your team) are so concerned about the state of mind of an HxA member and donor then why not reach out to me directly before making the decision to cancel me? I am very easy to find. Disappointing!
You admit in your email the possibility of a misunderstanding here. You also stress the importance of safety. Yet you made no effort to check in with me about my safety despite your purported concern for my state of mind. Moreover, you mistakenly state that you have "no choice" but to ban me from the HxA 2024 conference. Yet that characterization dismisses the infinite amount of choices that were (and still are) before you. You seem to have forgotten the concept of Free Will, the supreme liberation implied through Existentialism, and an avoidance of responsibility that I find concerning in one of HxA's organizational "leaders" or “authorities.” The truth is you could have chosen to make many other choices in handling this scenario. But cancelling me was the once you consciously (or unconsciously) chose...isn't it? A choice you made likely made due to expediency, small-mindedness, judgmentalism, ignorance, etc. Does that sound like someone observing The HxA Way?
If you and I had had the opportunity to dialogue before you made your Executive Decision, I could have explained how my post was written months before it was published while I had been wrongfully incarcerated in the John E. Polk Correctional Facility. I could have explained how excited I was since I had never before been to Chicago. Or how the HxA 2024 conference was one of the events keeping me going as I contemplated suicide in jail due to my divorce, my devolving relationship with my parents, my overall upturned life, my career challenges, my mental health issues, my physical health issues, and due to the many injustices I received personally in court, in jail and directly from the "authorities" who abused their power in the city of Sanford where Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in 2014 by a man who prior had dropped out of the police academy at my former employer Seminole State College of Florida (formerly Seminole Community College) where I had been laid off then wrongfully terminated after challenging systems, hierarchies, woke-ism and other sick aspects of higher education that HxA purportedly aims to heal. I could have articulated the intention behind my use of the Joker imagery, how killing fascists runs in the Sellers family (WWII, etc.), how suicidality runs in the Sellers family, and how my jail writings (all to be published very soon at coachsellers.substack.com) were writing exercises to keep me from going insane while behind bars. You, Michael, could have chosen to take the time to listen about how my entire time in jail was spent in the mental health ward, how that area is supervised by Lt. Seiple, why I was housed in ISOLATION - MAXIMUM SECURITY - SUICIDE WATCH, seven times during my four months of incarceration, how I was there even when discharged from the jail by Lt. Seiple, how I have managed to overcome the deep depression and substance abuse that runs in my family, or how Lt. Seiple had chosen to Baker Act me mere days before the HxA conference to where I was unsure if I would be released in time to make my flight. I could have also overviewed my recent grave challenges with Type 2 Diabetes that had me hospitalized at Aspire Health Partners in Sanford, FL for longer than most (ie. 6 days instead of the standard 3). But we did not have that opportunity for dialogue before you made your choice, did we Michael? Sad!
Because there was such a short time between my release from the local Mental Hospital (or shall we call it an Insane Asylum?), due to my impending ugly divorce, and due to my switching from a Texas-based credit union to a Florida-based one I was forced to run around like a chicken with my head cut off (Oops! Is that metaphor too violent for your sensibilities, Michael?) in order to obtain a $180 money order to present to my Probation Officer so I might have proper permission to leave the state. I was scrambling to find a suitcase since my wife still has yet to return mine to me and since she chose to lie to the police on November 17, 2023, have me arrested and incarcerated, continue with her lies, prevent me from being within 1,500 feet of the house that she and I own together in Longwood, FL and keep me away from my possessions, my stepsons, my in-laws (who I agreed to allow to live in our house after helping them emigrate from Lima, Peru) and even my doggie Austin--who is named after the city in which I was born-and-raised. Imagine my surprise after the many hours of running around while managing my out-of-control Diabetes (so, so thirsty), once I finally obtain the necessary $180 money order (not from Amscot, but from my new Florida-based credit union) present it to my P.O. before 4:30pm so that I might travel to Chicago in a matter of hours and meet up with my Canadian HxA friends and explore Chicago a bit before the conference...Imagine my surprise when only a few days before the conference begins I see your HxA 2024 cancellation email come across my iPhone screen.
To say I felt disappointed would be a grave understatement, Michael.
So I had some fun with some hashtags. So I invoked The Joker's imagery and sensibilities. So I made some references to fascism in an election year where the obvious fascist and convicted felon President Donald Trump will likely be our president once again. So I overstepped some boundaries. Unlike you, for those and for all of my other actions in life I take full responsibility. As a true social justice warrior, as a true stand-up comedian, and as a true self-proclaimed provocateur I feel it is literally my job to overstep boundaries. Yet unlike you, Michael Regnier, I acknowledge that I always have a choice in my decision-making (although Dr. Robert Sapolsky from Stanford might disagree with me on the concept of Free Will and choice). I stand by my choices in life. I have zero regrets. What about you, Michael Regnier? Do you stand behind all of the choices you have made in life? What about this one in particular?
Robert: Due to your recent poor leadership, flawed decision-making and irresponsibility in this matter and due to the grave negative impact your decisions have had on my physical and mental well-being I am politely requesting the full $600 as reimbursement for my troubles. Please find attached some of the relevant documentation. Do let me know if you require more documentation or other information in order for me to obtain the full $600--every penny of which I could really use at this point in my life. I have invoices for many thousands of dollars of hospital bills which I can easily send if needed.
Unfortunately, due to this most recent example of a leader of Heterodox Academy failing to abide by the organization's own stated principles it would appear that my values and HxA's no longer align. Therefore I am also going to politely request a return of the donation that I recently made to HxA in my excitement for the 2024 HxA conference which I specified for the HxA community that I previously co-led along with Mark Urista of Linn-Benton Community College: the HxCommunityColleges Community. Moreover, if you could please pass along to Professor Jonathan Haidt that I found his behavior towards me rude when he and I played doubles tennis at the HxA 2022 conference in Denver with a rich HxA donor and a certain Canadian historian it would be much appreciated. Can you also please forward along this message to my former friend John Tomasi? Thanks.
From this moment on I commit to investing my time and energy in organizations that appreciate my leadership, my contributions, my diverse viewpoints and my uniqueness. You know, organizations that truly value viewpoint diversity. Those that actually follow The Golden Rule: to treat others the way that you would want to be treated (no matter their status, title or income). And in those organizations who actually live out the values that they promote—not in "Heterodox" Academy.
Warm Regards,
Coach Sellers, Jr. aka Jeff
P.S. My father is Coach Sellers, Sr. He coached football, I coach life. He is truly the great man in our family--I am merely Coach Sellers, Jr.
P.P.S. Speaking of fathers: I hope you had a nice Father's Day!
P.P.P.S. As always: FUCK THA POLICE!
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Jeff Sellers, M.Ed.