from Michael Pattinson, posted 2/10/09 on www.whyweprotest.net forum

I gotta tell you guys...

I was a friend of Lisa McPherson from 1991 to 1995, and saw her mostly in 1995 in Clearwater. We had long talks at the house of her boss, which I was supervising renovations in, and some fun chats when she would take a break from her office work to smoke a cigarette outside in the parking lot.

I will pass on the dark details of her death as that has been covered in many other places. You might be interested that in life Lisa was a shy and kind person with not much ego, and a big heart. She was fun and had a great sense of humor, but was a serious worker and took her responsibilities seriously. She was most interested, however, in getting back to Dallas and taking up her creative goals in the arts again rather than staying in Clearwater with AMC Publishing for which she was a key sales person.

She was so torn between her loyalty to the owners of AMC (D & B Slaughter) and her own goals that she was between a rock and a hard place. Her intuition was to go back to Dallas but the huge and daily pressure from the Slaughters held her there till she cracked in Fall 1995. Her immediate boss, Benetta Slaughter was also her company "Ethics Officer" and was applying any and all Hubbard "tech" to get her to stay.

I was telling her it would be probably best to follow her own goals, not somebody else's, which she agreed with. After she went "Clear" in summer 1995 she met with me and told me I had been a great help to her with that advice, and was really radiant. Unfortunately the next few months saw her in a decline as she was pressured to stay in Clearwater as she was a high income earner for AMC and Benetta was getting cash commissions in some high amounts from everything Lisa paid in to Flag Base for her own services.

I did not see Lisa in the last two months of her life and I did not know that things were getting worse for her. I had no more contact with AMC after the Slaughters got their new house finished but refused to pay me for the work I had done.

On seeing these birthday wishes for Lisa, and knowing her so well, I think she would be totally amazed, and maybe a little shy and quietly appreciative, of the love and caring Anonymous and OG have shown. I know it would be quite amazing to her that people she never knew expressed their love for her and cared what happened.

Maybe this is part of her legacy to the world; a world-wide feeling of care and love for an unknown, almost anonymous other person by free thinking folks who stand up for they believe in and are proud to uphold freedom from tyranny and abuse.
Her heart was certainly big enough to send you all her love in return.
I also know Lisa would be happy to know you all.