Yeah, a right-wing internet victory! Andy Stephenson is dead.

Minnesota_Lib

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Tue Jul-12-05 02:38 PM
Original message

Yeah, a right-wing internet victory! Andy Stephenson is dead.

Edited on Tue Jul-12-05 03:04 PM by Minnesota_Lib

This is a screed I am going to send my right-wing brothers (they are freeper-types). Critic this...and be brutal. I am pissed beyond belief over what they (right-wing internet lamers) did.
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Yeah, a right-wing internet victory! Andy Stephenson is dead.

Who was Andy Stephenson? Andy was someone who became involved in public affairs because he loved his country. He gave up material gain as a small business owner to become an activist—not a right-wing activist, not a left-wing activist but a voting rights activist. He championed election fraud investigation and election reform. Politically, Andy was progressive but that was not what seemed to drive him. Too those whom had the pleasure of sharing his endeavors through his postings on various internet sites (most notably the Democratic Underground) it was apparent that Andy’s passion was driven by an innate sense of right and wrong. Andy defined decency and honesty. As one of those who came to know Andy from his postings, I have no doubt he would have protested louder and longer about any left-leaning fraud than he ever did about the right. He held himself—and his fellow liberals—to a higher standard…or so I believe.

But now Andy is dead.

Andy, who was rather well-known on the internet, had made the mistake of committing double-heresy to certain extremist factions of the online community. You see, Andy was not only a liberal, but Andy was gay. For no other than those reasons, Andy became a target in what has become the most disgusting example of the partisan attack-dog mentality as perfected by the neocons since they took over the once respectable Republican Party.

Andy became deathly ill. He was diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer has no history of being partisan—until now.

A chartable fundraising effort to help the then destitute Andy was started via PayPal by a DU’er named sfexpat (I will not give her real name as she has already received her share of hate-mail and harassment). The fifty-thousand needed to get Andy’s surgery was raised in a few days….and someone evidenty didn’t like that.

In retaliation, a concerted effort was organized by the internet right-wing to stop Andy’s surgery. Some contributed a few dollars to the fund just so they could contact PayPal and say they had been defrauded. PayPal received calls from people identifying themselves as representatives of Johns Hopkins who claimed this fund was a fraud. As a result, PayPal closed the account and held the money. To the right, it was just funny dirty tricks. To Andy--and to all truely moral people--it was his life.

In the meantime, those who took an active part in helping Andy were bombarded with hate-email and worse. Meanwhile, the rumor that this was a fraud fooled many supporters of Andy and all hell broke loose in the community. All the while, a deathly ill man waited...and waited.

Andy’s surgery was delayed because his PayPal account was frozen. In celebration, right-wingers actually started websites to promote their nonsensical, tinfold-hat conspiracy theories about Andy--and not coincidently taking advantage of the added audience to spew the obligatory Coulter/Hannity/Limbaugh-type no-brain, hate-mongering of anyone who doesn't agree with their narrow and simplistic view of the world--and all the while Andy continued to linger, waiting for the needed surgery.

Andy eventually got his surgery...weeks later...but it was way too late. He tried to hold on---bravely like he did everything in his life--but eventually he was overwelmed. He left us--I hope instilling in us all his unwavering passion for decency, honesty and hope--a few days later.

To seek irony is to visit the websites that defamed this brave, unassuming man. “It’s his own fault he didn’t get the surgery sooner, not ours. All we wanted was a true accounting of the funds (as if a private fund was any of their business).” “This is a conspiracy to make us look bad.’ “Andy is not really dead. He took the money and is in Aruba or somewhere.”

Andy cared about their rights as well.

Peace Out Andy…hopefully your death will wake people up to the hate the other side lives by.