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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