Reply #107: I just want to hop on this thread and thank....

[Andy_Stephenson]

everyone out there who has called, DU mailed, emailed and/or posted support to this thread.

I would just like to formally state...that the first time I heard of this action by the board of directors was when a fellow activist emailed me and told me to look at the Black Box Voting Web site a few minutes ago. It is regrettable that Ms. Harris has not returned the dozens of phone calls I have placed to her in the past 5 days.

I appreciate that I have been off of the radar screen for the past couple of weeks. My beloved sister Janice passed away on Nov 30th 2004 after a long battle with sarcoidosis and I went to Texas to be with my family.

My greatest sadness at this moment comes from the fact that if Ms Harris was so dissatisfied with my work that she contemplated taking this action particularly in such a public, inaccurate, and humiliating way, that she would have done so a month ago when I asked for and was denied leave to go home for a few days to visit my sister and say goodbye. My family had learned at that time that, Jan would not live to see Christmas and that if I wished to visit her one last time while she lived it needed to be then but my contribution to Black Box Voting was deemed so critical that I was denied leave for those few days. Yet here I am now very publicly unemployed.

I will not post any further on this matter this evening and I hope you will understand. I will be exploring my options over the next few days. With gratitude and love for all your support...

Sincerely,
Andy