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ORIGINAL: happypervert

I was wondering if my time would be better spent checking out the petition or flaming you, and then I came across this manipulative piece of crap:

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A quick thanks to LT and to TheHunger as well as anyone else who has a sympathetic compassionate bone in their body and can imagine how they would be feeling if it were them and this were their last resort..

Actually, I think all of us here do have sympathetic compassionate bones in our bodies, but we really have no real reason to give a damn about your "friend" or you for that matter. People get sick and die all the time, but in the words of that great philosopher Josef Stalin "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." So I'm gonna lump your friend in with all the other people who will die of terrible diseases and say she's nothing but a statistic to me.

If we were to spend our time filling out petitions for everyone who is sick, we'd have no time to do anything else. Furthermore, this is just a waste of time for everyone -- if her condition is as dire as you claim, by the time you actually get enough signatures to present to these mystery organizations AND they take the time to actually act on it, she'll be dead.

You wanna do something useful? Instead of trying to get us all weepy and involved in what is a hopeless situation, why don't you devote your time to actually making your friend's last days better? That's what somebody who REALLY has a "sympathetic compassionate bone in his body" would do instead of laying this desperation and guilt trip on a bunch of strangers under the guise being part of the BDSM community. And if the geography is a problem since she's in Cal and you're in Canada, then show your compassion by volunteering at a hospice or something. But don't act like such a do-gooder because of the 5 minutes you've spent behind your keyboard trying to get everyone else involved.

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ORIGINAL: siamsa24

This is an "in general" post and is not directed at anyone specific.

Perhaps it is different in different areas, but I know that around here the hospital cannot deny you treatment that you need because you don't have the money up front and your health coverage (if any) won't cover it. If you need the treament/surgery/medication/whatever, they have to give it to you and they will bill you later. As long as you are attempting to pay it back ($5 a week counts) they can't even send bill collectors after you. I went to have stitches in my forehead and spent about 2 years paying the $700 bill, it doesn't matter how long it takes as long as you are trying.
Like I said, it may not be the same everywhere, but that's how it is around here. And then, she could have what she needs to have, you could keep doing your thing with the petition and maybe after a time the company will come around, or maybe not. Either way, if the procedure would truely save her life, isn't it worth it? I mean, if someone told me "come up with $25,000 or you are going to die of cancer" that kind of sounds like a bargin and I would do it, most people don't have the luxery of such a cheap treatment.
I am not trying to downplay the perdicament, but honestly, as long as she doesn't mind getting bills from the hospital for the rest of her days then she should just go for it.

The BBQs and things are a wonderful idea. There is a woman that I work with whose young son has cancer and she recently had a benefit dinner and auction and raised over $5000 in one night.

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ORIGINAL: siamsa24

Like I said, I didn't know if everywhere does things the same way. I know that around here, if you need a procedure to live, they have to give it to you. Maybe it's because I go to a "poor people's hospital" or maybe it's just the area, I don't know.
What I am trying to say is this, if someone is dying I don't think that they can withhold treatment because the person can't pay up front. If that were the case then both my mother and my father would be dead. My mother from a Staph infection that nearly took her whole leg, and my father from a spine condition (I'm afraid I don't know the details, we aren't really that close). We have never had health coverage and both of them had major surgery and spent quite a lot of time in the hospital after. Both went through months of physical therapy and many follow up visits and tests. This cost many thousands of dollars that we did not (and still do not) have. My mother is still paying for hers 8 years later and my father is not going into his 10th year of payments.
Again, all I am saying is that it is possible to have things done without being able to pay up front. If it's not possible in that area, perhaps she should move to Ohio because I know it is possible here.

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ORIGINAL: siamsa24

Oh it wasn't covered, not even close. Maybe it was because they didn't have any health coverage (I just thought of that). They simply billed them later (and are still billing them nearly a decade later).

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Behind every screen name on here is a living, breathing human being.

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ORIGINAL: happypervert

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Behind every screen name on here is a living, breathing human being.

Sure, or maybe behind every 5 or 10 screen names there is one living breathing person trying to make it look like there is wider support for this than there really is. Just like your own ID magically appeared yesterday just so you could make this seemingly warm, heartfelt post. For all we know you are just the original poster in disguise, and you could be out to get our names and addresses as part of some Jerry Falwellesque moral crusade.

Curiously, the "proof" that this is legitimate consists of going to another website to view posts. I haven't read every post here, but apparently there are no neighbors or friends speaking up, and by friends I mean somebody who has actually done something like visit this person in the hospital.

And though the petition site may be legitimate, it doesn't mean this cause is. So you put this plea on BDSM boards and folks sign. It is obvious where folks found out about it. For all anyone here knows you are just some Jerry Falwell moral crusaders using this ploy to get the names and addresses of "deviants", and for those of us who aren't public with neighbors, friends, and employers about BDSM activities there is a real risk that you'd use this info to try and ruin our lives.

So all your talk about decency is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, and it's the sort of "trust me" talk one usually hears before the sales pitch to buy a nice bridge connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn.

Something stinks about this. This whole "sign or she dies" urgency looks phony and manipulative to me, as do posts by "people" (or ids created) who signed up yesterday.

My final suggestion -- if you really want to do the decent thing, sell your computer and send her the money. That way, you can help her directly and you won't annoy us any more.

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ORIGINAL: perverseangelic

This is what Emerald meant about getting guilted into doing something.

I think y'all missunderstand some of our possitions. Had this petition come to my door, I would have signed it, after reading it. Had someone approached me on campus or at the grocery store or the doctors office, I would have done the same.

The internet is -not- the same as being approached in real life. I'm out about my BDSM activity, so I have no worries about being outted. I also have zero information about the other individuals who are interacting with me. I've run accross sites which claim to be petition sites, but are actually e-mail trawlers, which put you on spam lists.

Yep, I'm suspicious online. Oddly, I am -not- in face to face encounters.

This isn't about the validity of the individual in question, or of this spesific instance. It's about the climate of the net as a whole. I can't find it now, but about a year ago a study about the way anonymity of the net affected people's beahviors was published. The study found that -overwhelmingly- people were far "worse" that is, they were more aggressive, ruder, more likely to lie and commit fraud, and generally more likely to screw with other people on the net because of the perceived anonymity.

NO ONE is saying that the person in -this- situation is fucking with us. Rather, it is simply safer, and good internet practice, not to participate in anything that you don't have close personal knowedge of. Maybe I'm a freak in that I'm overly concerned about personal saftey, but Iv'e seen how easily information spreads on the net, and how the act of signing up for =one= thing can put your e-mail into huge circulation.

This is the internet. Like it or not, it isn't wise to trust people here. Get arealtime pettition. Get a permision to gather permit for your local grocery store. Get people to sign it there. I almost gaurentee it will be more effective than a net petition anyway.

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ORIGINAL: happypervert

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Behind every screen name on here is a living, breathing human being.

Sure, or maybe behind every 5 or 10 screen names there is one living breathing person trying to make it look like there is wider support for this than there really is. Just like your own ID magically appeared yesterday just so you could make this seemingly warm, heartfelt post. For all we know you are just the original poster in disguise, and you could be out to get our names and addresses as part of some Jerry Falwellesque moral crusade.

Curiously, the "proof" that this is legitimate consists of going to another website to view posts. I haven't read every post here, but apparently there are no neighbors or friends speaking up, and by friends I mean somebody who has actually done something like visit this person in the hospital.

And though the petition site may be legitimate, it doesn't mean this cause is. So you put this plea on BDSM boards and folks sign. It is obvious where folks found out about it. For all anyone here knows you are just some Jerry Falwell moral crusaders using this ploy to get the names and addresses of "deviants", and for those of us who aren't public with neighbors, friends, and employers about BDSM activities there is a real risk that you'd use this info to try and ruin our lives.

So all your talk about decency is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors, and it's the sort of "trust me" talk one usually hears before the sales pitch to buy a nice bridge connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn.

Something stinks about this. This whole "sign or she dies" urgency looks phony and manipulative to me, as do posts by "people" (or ids created) who signed up yesterday.

My final suggestion -- if you really want to do the decent thing, sell your computer and send her the money. That way, you can help her directly and you won't annoy us any more.