On Fri, 24 Jan 1997 23:04:28 -0500 [log in to unmask] writes:
>To All:
>
>I read Ivan Suzman's totally inaccurate account of his alleged
>mistreatment by the National Parkinson Foundation. I hope that Mr.
>Suzman's statements are not taken seriously, particularly those about
>NPF
>not supporting the Udall Bill. That is a fairy tale. I've been working
>a
>great deal on this important legislation which is so vital to the
>Parkinson community as has NPF. Every issue of its fine newsletter
>addresses the Udall bill. As a footnote, I had lunch today with Joan
>Samuelson followed by a VERY productive meeting with Senator Paul
>Wellstone who reiterated his burning commitment to seeing the Udall
>bill
>pass soon, and also presented a very reasonable and workable
>legislative
>strategy which we agreed to implement. You'll hear more later on this
>subject.
>
>I'm very optimistic!
>
>Lawrence  S. Hoffheimer (NPF Washington Counsel)
>Hoffheimer & Downey, P.C.
>1250 24th Street, NW
>Suite 300
>Washington, DC 20037
>(202) 466-0577
>
Dear friends,

BEWARE A BARRACUDA IN OUR MIDST

NPF's high-priced Washington lawyer, MR. Larry Hoffheimer, is attacking
my character on this list.  He is trying to divide us.  He is tr ying to
persuade Listmembers to ignore me.  Mr. Hoffheimer's true colors are
coming out.  He attacks me , breaking the sanctity of our fellowship as a
community working together on this list!!

Mr. Hoffheimer, I have given countless hours of time to the listmembers,
and continue to do so.  It is probably difficult for a high-priced
Washington lobbyist like you to hear this, but you have just ATTACKED a
longtime Listmember who lives on $664.00/month of  social security, and
who is too infirm to waste his precious life on broadsides against
vicious spirits like yours.BUT YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU ARE TRYING TO
INJURE.

I pray that God and Goddess,  or the Higher Power, or the Great Spirit,
will come into your life and humble you, so that you can learn  to tell
the truth to us.  YOU ARE LYING.

The truth is that , as I already told Listmembers last April, 1996, the
rich, rich National Parkinson's Foundation in Miami trampled all over me
when I DARED to ask the NPF to PAY ME BACK the $4,000.00 of loaned money
I received to fly a CNA and me to Miami, for a medical appointment with
NPF's Dr. Sanchez-Ramos.  For reasons still unknown, he had ABANDONED my
appointment,  despite our having flown 1500 miles , all  the way from
Maine.
My many, many witnesses include my Certified Nurse's Aide, Mr. Julian
Pearson of the NPF, and the secretaries at the NPF clinic in Miami. (the
doctors' secretaries , who could not "track down" their disappeared Dr.
Sanchez-Ramos).

I am still poor, still disabled, and still owe the $4,000.00.

Senator Cohen, now Defense Secretary COhen, tried to help me.  HIs staff
arranged to have the NPF fly me and a CNA or Personal Care Attendant back
to Miami, at the NPF's expense, but MR. HOFFHEIMER wrote a letter saying
it was not the responsibility of the NPF to pay me back in any way!!

LISTMEMBERS, Mr. Hoffheimer's use of the words "fairy tale" about me is
an outrage.

Mr. Hoffheimer, I am not an elderly person, frail with dementia, and I am
not making up a "fairy tale."  I am a former Professor of Anatomy and
Anthropology, a Martin Luther King Community Service Award recipient, and
am simply too physically disabled, being in my 10th year of battle to
live as well  as possible with Young Onset Parkinson's Disease. I am only
47, but people like you cannot pull the wool over my eyes, or those of
100's of Listmembers who know me.

MR  HOFFHEIMER SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM HIS "ADVOCACY" POSITION.  He is
clearly NOT representing the needs of PWP's.  Miami
should simply FIRE HIM.

I can note, yes, on the positive side, that Mr. Hoffheimer now "appears"
to be with us.  But it was we PWP's, not Washington lobbyists, who spent
hundreds and hundreds of hours, and all of our limited resources, to
convince Senator
after Senator, and Representative after Representative, to back the UDall
bill.

Our LIstmembers know I am telling the absolute truth, so help me God.

I personally led the effort in Maine, and we won over Senator Cohen(now
the
Defense Secretary), Senator Snowe, former Representative Longley,   and
Representative Baldacci.  Jim Cordy, our award winner last year, and I
had a friendly competition, which I won, when MAINE became the first
state to have 100% of its delegation co-sponsoring the Udall Bill.

And everyone knows, that even after my house burned down on August 7,
1996,
I  continued to work on the Udall Bill without a computer, by endless
long-distance phone calls to Barbara Schirloff, Margaret Tuchman, Camilla
Flintermann, Anne Rutherford, the PAN staff in California and Washington,
and
many others, all LIstmembers.

Mr. Hoffheimer, we never heard a PEEP out of you til now.  So we know
EXACTLY what your game is.  I repeat, the NPF should get rid of MR.
Hoffheimer, and find a lawyer who really CARES about Parkinson's
sufferers,
and not only about padding his thick wallet!!

My family in Rhode Island, with whom I worked long-distance on the phone
(I am too disabled to travel), won over now-Senator Reed, and
Representative
Kennedy.  We worked hard on Senator Chaffee, who was not yet with us, and
I also worked on members of the Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and
New Hampshire, Minnesota, Mississippi, Virginia, Florida, New York, New
Jersey, California, and other delegations wi th friends from my
Parkinson's support group and more family members.

THROUGHOUT ALL THIS TIME ( March-October, 1996), MR.  HOFFHEIMER,  NPF
COUNSEL, OPPOSED THE UDALL BILL,. Meanwhile, Joan Samuelson, our
courageous Parkinson's Action Network founder and spokeswoman, and people
in the American Parkinson's DIsease Association, knew this.  I even
received a copy of Mr. Hoffheimer's TYPED statement OPPOSING our Udall
Bill.

Martin Luther KIng said, "Where do we go from here, chaos or community?"
Mr. Hoffheimer, to me, is a BARRACUDA, feeding off of the arduous,
grassroots work that we PWP's struggled through in 1996.  He is an agent
of chaos..

I still do not include MR. Hoffheimer in our caring community .   I still
know that he is COVERING UP for the NPF, and I'll call this  chapter of
our struggle, "MIAMIGATE."

The truth will set you free.  Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.
The truth WILL set you free.

Yours in compassion,

Ivan Suzman, 47/10 , Vietnam war resister, conscientious objector, and
peace
activist, and well-known  Parkinson's advocate.   Portland, Maine
Land of lighthouses