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Posted on 07/19/2005 4:32:20 PM PDT by Doug Loss
This was just posted to a web forum hosted by my local newspaper. Before I comment on it to the poster (who has posted before that he's a registered Republican, but who is a frothing liberal), I want to find out if anyone here knows anything about this. If Freepers really did this, I'm ashamed. But I have a hard time believing that, especially since DU is mentioned. In fact, as I re-read it I notice that there are no checkable or verifiable facts here. What can you all tell me about this? Here then is the post:
This is really off topic, and for this I apologize, but I'm nursing a bit of a rage, and I need to post this. A couple months ago, a voting rights advocate I was familiar with was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (not good). I had heard that he was ill, and people were taking up a collection for him. My wife and I don't have much, but we gave what we could. About two weeks ago, sadly, Andy passed. While he was sick, I had heard some scuttlebut about people trying to impede the fundraising (that's right, impede). The people trying to stop the fundraising were from a very popular right wing website called "freerepublic". The community at this sight are almost without exception, drooling, knuckle dragging, hang on every word followers of the President, though I'd like to think they aren't "typical". They also, almost without exception tout themselves as "Christians". Today, I found out details of their little "operation". My hands are still shaking with rage, and don't really know what to do, so I thought I would post these details here, as written by a friend of Andy's. It's long, I hope you will take the time to read it, and feel free to comment. Thanks.
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When Andy knew his ill health was serious, I offered to make calls for him. I have made calls for families unable to find resources for over a decade. The public health care system nearly killed my husband, and when we were given a reprieve, I swore I'd work to help anyone to find the care they needed.
I had little real success in finding resources for Andy, except in the sense that we widened the circle of friends who helped us look. One of them struck gold, and was able to get Andy taken on as a patient by a respected doctor at Johns Hopkins. This seemed no less than a miracle to us. There are many cancer patients in the world and no matter their net worth, they are not taken on easily by doctors at Johns Hopkins.
That left only the money. Out of state patients must be prepared to pay the full costs of their surgeries in advance. So, a group of Andy’s friends set out to try to raise the funds needed, armed with only love and hope and a very narrow window in which to come up with the cash before the hospital would turn us away.
That we did indeed raise the $50,000 fee in 11 days, in small donations and in many currencies, is a measure of how beloved Andy was. None of us had the skill to open wallets, per se. This was for Andy, for his dedication to clean elections and his boundless generosity to the movement.
And at this point, the story becomes bifurcated. One fork is the progress of love and hope and generosity that he elicited in the progressive community who shook junk drawers and upended sofa cushions and did without one trip to the mall to send in a donation. They made Andy’s surgery possible. And it is true that when I announced to an incredulous employee at Johns Hopkins that we had raised the money, I’m sure she heard me say, we found Monopoly Money and would she accept that? Paypal and Amazon accounts seem not to be used very often by the Johns Hopkins clientele.
But the other fork of this story is the profound disturbance it created in the Bush right wing. I didn’t understand this until much later. But, the watchers saw our effort, watched the community response and were inspired with what can only be called hatred. Because only such a reaction could account for the vicious attack that was set into motion.
The first weekend of our fundraiser was without incident, but our jubilation at raising $25,000 in only one hundred hours must have goaded the Bush right. Before the week was out, the rumors of fraud and malfeasance crept over the internet. I began to get anonymous email demanding to know Andy’s most personal information. During the second and last weekend of our effort, the contact information I had made available to donors resulted in my email box being spammed with hate mail. I at that point ignored it. It simply never occurred to me that our effort for our friend would become a political death struggle.
I was in no way prepared for what followed. And, although I have no proof, what followed was a concerted political attack on Andy, on our progressive community, and especially on our ability to raise funds for our projects, as well as an attack on Andy’s productive work as an elections reform activist and watchdog.
What followed was a coordinated effort to block Andy’s medical care or his benefit from the medical care we could secure for him. In specific, the opposition had its agents make small donations so they could then call Paypal with allegations of fraud that froze Andy’s account. They also called Paypal, misrepresenting themselves as the hospital, to “verify” that this effort was a scam.
And it got more vicious from there. Due to the frozen funds – exacerbating Johns Hopkins' mislaying of a deposit check -- and the confusion it caused us all, Andy’s surgery date was canceled by Johns Hopkins. It was with great difficulty that we were able to persuade the doctor to be put Andy back into the surgical rotation. That cost him two weeks while he suffered from the most aggressive, invasive form of cancer.
The smears and the rumors were seeded all over the internet. Ill, on hold waiting for his surgery, Andy and the rest of us cast about trying to answer questions that were more often simply calculated accusations meant to discredit us all, meant to make Andy’s health care as difficult as possible.
Andy called me one day, happy because he’d been given a new date. Then called again, because they’d moved the date up. He was terrified, sobbing and I was caught flatfooted. Torn between trying to mind Andy’s care and trying to stop or answer the horrible accusations being sown all over our community, I had very little to offer his terror, dealing with my own.
After Andy was admitted to the hospital, the rumors turned into threats. A bounty was offered for anyone who could sneak into his hospital room. It was said he was getting a face lift. A telegram was sent just to see if it could be successfully delivered. The harassment was nonstop. We tried to shield Andy from it, with less success than we would have liked.
A day or so after his surgery, Andy called me from his bed in ICU. I picked up the phone and he began to sing to me, “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” I started crying. And when we hung up, I offered that bit of good news to our on line progressive community at the Democratic Underground. Immediately, the opposition took that as evidence that Andy was not in fact recovering from a surgical marathon. And this was their pattern. Every specific I offered to comfort the community was taken up by Andy’s stalkers and used as evidence that we were frauds.
Andy left the hospital and spent two weeks recovering at a friend’s house, learning how to eat again, learning how to move, weaning himself from the morphine that he’d needed post surgery. During this time, one of his supporters in Baltimore had her car vandalized – a message was sent. Shortly after he left to return to Seattle, his second East Coast hostess was stalked to her home and she watched as someone tried to open her front door. His supporters everywhere were systematically intimidated and all the while, they tried to keep it from Andy.
Andy then went back home to Seattle, preparing for a medical course of chemotherapy and radiation. Once he arrived, he found that an anonymous tipster had managed to get his Medicaid shut down. It took us two weeks to get him back in the system. Andy had anaplastic pancreatic cancer and was again forced to wait weeks for follow up care.
By this time, Andy’s stalkers had set up a website. It purported to be concerned that the funds for his surgery were raised fraudulently. Thankfully by this time, Andy spent very little time on line. But it wore on his core advocates who were repeatedly attacked, defamed and baited.
We were threatened with everything from the FBI to the Washington State Attorney General. And of course, because our first concern was Andy, his attitude and his care, our response had to be measured or none. On a good day, we didn’t want Andy logging in and reading that he would soon be visited by federal agents to answer for the mythical hundreds of thousands of dollars we’d supposedly raised.
As late as a week before Andy died, we couldn’t keep this poisonous campaign from him. One of the last times he felt well enough to log into to his email, he found a multipage denunciation, supposedly being filed with his state’s attorney general. He called me, not so much in a panic. Panic was no longer a speed Andy had. He called me in despair, because he could no longer fight the barrage of hatred being leveled at him. I don’t remember what I said to him but I hope it helped for a moment.
The attack from the Bush right never paused, not even through the agony of Andy’s last days. Not at all. Even the fact of his death is being disputed. Two days after his passing, his advocates are still being harassed, still receiving anonymous hate calls, “It was a scam.” The friend planning his service was visited by two men impersonating sheriffs on the morning after Andy passed. They were there to ask about fraud, they said.
Andy’s physical death has not stopped the attack, has not slowed the hatred, has not stemmed the steady stream of intimidation.
But, we’re not afraid. And we take up Andy’s work to secure our elections in his honor and in your face.
Bio: Elizabeth Ferrari is a writer and a family mental health advocate in San Francisco, CA. She is married to comedian Doug Ferrari.
Under two different screen names, so have I. All I have ever seen here was sympathy and generosity for the plight of others, even when it's someone we geneally despise. Remember the thread about Bill Clinton's bypass surgery? The only posts which needed to be removed were from newbie trolls over from the DU. Mosts of the 400+ others were from genuinely concerned FReepers, pouring out empathy, personal experience which might be helpful, and wishes for a full recovery.
That says volumes about us iggorant, white, far-right, Christian extremist gun nuts, while the deleted posts WOULD have said equal volumes about the "progressives" who allegedly worship(ed) the man.
I have not heard a hint of this event, not even in the most oblique terms.
I've got to iterate what someone else said: if you are worked so easily into a rage before checking facts, I feel sorry for your family and your friends.
Anything is possible, but it would surprise me more than anyone else to discover that any regularly present freeper, regardless of ideology, would participate in such petty and childish petulence.
Trolls and stealth hand grenades (and we get more than our share) are a distinct possibility. Plants, here specifically to create incidents later to be cited as "proof" of Free Republic's decadence and distilled mean-spiritedness. Sure beats rational debate between Freepers and unarmed morons.
None of us tried to impede or stop the fundraising. That is an outright lie (that's right, lie).
able to get Andy taken on as a patient by a respected doctor at Johns Hopkins.
Andy could have had the treatment done sooner in his home town of Seattle rather than delaying treatment to have it done in Baltimore.
That left only the money.
Andy could have had the treatment done at low or no cost in the state of Washington but passed that up to have it done for much more at Johns Hopkins.
the profound disturbance it created in the Bush right wing.
It also created a disturbance in their own left-wing Democratic Underground site. A number of DUers themselves raised questions and complained about how the fundraiser was being conducted, i.e., with a distinct lack of accountability and verifiability.
were inspired with what can only be called hatred.
You will search in vain to find any expressions of hatred toward Andy here on FR. All of us only wished him well physically. On the other hand, you can find mountains of hatred toward FReepers over on DU, including death threats.
although I have no proof
A telling remark.
a coordinated effort to block Andy’s medical care
None of us blocked his medical care. This is a lie.
Due to the frozen funds – exacerbating Johns Hopkins' mislaying of a deposit check -- and the confusion it caused us all, Andy’s surgery date was canceled by Johns Hopkins.
This is not true, even according to Andy's own words and the posts by other insiders on his team. They themselves said at the time that the May 10 surgery was delayed because of lost checks in the JHH mailroom. And any shortfall in funds was covered by a check from another DUer, but that check was not needed. So their own posts at the time contradict what is being charged here.
Well, you get the idea. Gross distortions.
No one killed Andy. He was reported as recovering nicely after the successful surgery, but then he got an infection. That, unfortunately, happens; any time the body is cut open, there is the risk of a deadly staph infection like Andy got.
None of us rejoiced at Andy's death.
Chill out, I didn't say anyone did.
Sorry, sir--not directed at you, but I didn't know where to start.
I thought I needed to make a statement somewhere here, and your name was the one the mouse landed on.
For the record, scamdy is still waiting for Elizabeth Ferrari to prove a single one of her fantastical allegations.
Also for the record, although the DUmmies don't believe it, Free Republic and its most-popular feature, the DUmmie FUnnies (sometimes more "hits" on that feature in a single day, than in ALL of DUmmieland), are not associated in any way, manner, or means, with scamdy.
scamdy is a group of people representing all colors of the political spectrum, whose sole interest is in honest and open fund-raising.....not exactly an ideological issue.
D'OH!
In that thread there are a number of summarizing posts that put this whole thing in perspective and respond to the particular DU accusations.
Great post.
That whole write up by Beth Ferrari is rubbish. FReepers creeping around opening people's front doors, vandalizing vehicles, impersonating sheriff's deputies, shutting down Medicaid, tampering with Paypal? What a joke.
I'm surprised she left out us landing UFOs on her roof.
http://www.conservativeunderground.com//forum/showthread.php?t=11789
Posts 11, and 12:
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If Andy did indeed die of cancer, it is Beth who is more responsible for his death than anyone. It was SHE who had to get him into Johns Hopkins. It was SHE who had to handle the money. It was SHE who was trying to be a savior.
I would not be surprised if it was not SHE who talked Andy out of gettting treated in Seattle and then wait around until SHE could get him into Johns Hopkins. The SHE made him wait around until SHE got the money together through donations.
The more I see and the more I see about this whole thing the more I am convinced that Andy was probably pretty much innocent in this and had the ball taken away from him early in the game. The poor guy thought Beth was going to help him and it wound up costing him his life.
It was not about helping Andy for Beth. It was about her being seen as a savior and making a name for herself. If there is blood on anyone's hands it is on the hands of Beth Ferrari and her ilk.
Now as liberals are want to do, it is someone elses fault.
If anyone got stalked during this whole thing it was me. I got the threatening calls to back off in the middle of the night. I got the hang ups. Ironically, it was I who was among the first Freepers to stand up for Andy. Andy himself gave me the benefit of the doubt and talked to me at length about his problem.
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Posted by sfexpat2000 on 7/12/05 on DU
What followed was a coordinated effort to block Andy’s medical care or his benefit from the medical care we could secure for him. In specific, the Bush right had its agents make small donations so they could then call Paypal with allegations of fraud that froze Andy’s account. They also called Paypal, misrepresenting themselves as the hospital to “verify” that this effort was a scam.
And it got more vicious from there. Due to the frozen funds and the confusion it caused us all, Andy’s surgery date was cancelled by Johns Hopkins. It was with great difficulty that we were able to persuade the doctor to be put Andy back into the surgical rotation. That cost him two weeks while he suffered from the most aggressive, invasive form of cancer.
Posted by Ben Burch on andythanksyou.com
"... Dr. Charles J. Yeo, M.D. at Johns Hopkins scheduled surgery for May 10th.
Andy had no medical insurance, so his friends, supporters and people of good-will came together and raised the money required for his treatment in mere days. Unfortunately, on the day of scheduled surgery, the payment checks were temporarily lost in the hospital's mail room, and surgery was rescheduled.
On May 25th, Andy underwent a long and difficult surgical procedure called a "Modified Whipple"."
Hmmmm....whose lying now? Do they think people are too stupid to read and see the discrepancies?
You might refer the hurting moobat to a professional. Tactfully, of course. The moonbat is being scammed, the moonbat is scamming you or you're the moonbat doing the scamming, period.
The pseudo lawyer who defended the child molestor is still around in DU, eh? Figures.
Andy Stephenson was not an amateur activist, he was a professional activist, experienced at fundraising. He even ran for WA SOS last year. He was the self-appointed champion of accountability and verifiability.
Will Pitt, chief mouthpiece, is a professional activist, experienced at fundraising.
Beth Ferrari, fundraising manager, has long been active in California politics and raising money for various causes.
These people should have known better.
Stephenson's friends did not provide the kind of checks and balances that are associated with mainstream philanthropy. For instance, the money went directly to Stephenson—there was no board of trustees controlling a third-party account and carefully documenting expenditures and donations.
Hence, major red flags. This whole fundraiser could have been set up very easily and quickly in an accountable manner, by simply establishing an trust fund or account with a bank or hospital. Happens all the time in the real world.
Well, I think he did respond--on the newspaper web-site, suggesting that the story is much more than what Elizabeth Ferrari alleges it is.
And that's where a response was needed the most.
He doesn't respond here, where he's asking "questions" and we're giving answers. Not even a "thank you" I remain suspicious, even though my color is gold rather than aluminum foil silver.
IF 'Andy' is gone; why not give his last name.
Protecting the 'deceased' seems a bit over the top; given that the whole impetus is to get to the 'truth of the matter'.
Personally, never saw anything here resembling this story; but cannot check, in any event with only the name. . .'Andy'.
This obfuscation seems a red flag here. . .and addressing the sympathies of DUmmies; is another.
And the FR posters being mainly 'Christian' is another. . .(better 'members of taliban' I guess)
That would be 'telling'. . .surely, this little bit of info can be easily verified.
That said; stranger stories have been told. . .
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