Dale....

SMACK!!!!! <---- Barb whomps the hapless Dale upside his head) Don't you EVER,
EVER apologize to anyone, anywhere for being YOU and for CARING!
(rubbing smarting fingers) <he's got a hard head> (grin)

The original message that started this was written out of ignorance but with
good intentions.  Neither of you are to blame for any great tragedy, and
CERTAINLY no apologies should be expected or given by you.

So take the damnable apology BACK, ya hear?  You're real good people, Dale!

(Barb returns to cranking out reply emails to the 300+ messages that were
dumped into her email box after MSN repaired it's downed server) <groan>

Barb Mallut
[log in to unmask]

----------
From:   PARKINSN: Parkinson's Disease - Information Exchange Network on behalf
of Dale Severance join list
Sent:   Sunday, December 15, 1996 9:21 PM
To:     Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject:        Enough is Enough by Dale Severance

                                                          Enough is Enough


About eight weeks ago I joined this list and have enjoyed all the comments,
jokes, serious discussions and the efforts by the group to embrace all who
are hurting with this disease or have a friend, relative or parent encumbered
with this affliction.

At first the members spent two weeks discussing the registration issue in
Nebraska. The topic then moved to the Pope and speculation of whether God's
Messenger had been the beneficiary of our blessing also. At that time more
than one person published a joke at the expense of the Pope without  a
complainant of irreverence.

>From there we went to Jokes and Euthanasia and during this period we poked
fun at our selves and the friendships formed and even selected a Parkie of
the year.

Several days ago at 3 am I finished reading all my mail and went to IRC Chat
Channel to talk to the old standbys but Werpuppy, motherhen and Homeboy the
sentinels at the gate were not stationed at their posts.

With no one to talk to and a Northeastern storm battering on my windows I
decided that I needed to create and activity to get through the day. We had
just had a challenge to name the title and author of the poem Invictius and I
though I could spice up the day for the group and play too. I went to the
library and took out some inspirational books.....used handicapped license
plates for the first time.....and it had too many quotations to put in a
message. I thus thought of the $100.00 challenge which was meant as a fun
task for the day. Little did I know that it would cause hard feelings, mark
me as insensitive to our illness, and stone me from the group.

So in response too all who were offended by the challenge (which was clearly
labeled in the subject box) I apologize not for what I said or did but for
the lack of perception to anticipate that I would hurt feeling by what I said
But I too have a blessing, of the kind visited on the Pope, as he declared to
the world his contraction of Parkinson's Disease. My blessing is that on
Thursday this week I finally had to give notice to my partners that I could
not continue to work and would have to retire. The blessing is that I can now
work full time on PD causes. I have a multitude of ideas but not enough time
to implementing them. Now I will have more time.

If you would like to see my latest project use your web browser and go to
http://members.aol.com/dales99846/PAN.html       And while you are there take
some
time to fill out the form.    I called for help to build a data base and
attach it to the web page so that the submit key would upload (or is  it
download) the information into the data base without the necessity of
individually typing all the information by hand. While I had a few offers of
help, and even contacted the engineer's at prodigy to help, nothing concrete
 developed, so I bought microsoft access data base and a manual and started
to read. From the directions I have been able to create the base and send the
information at the press of the submit key to the data base. As I stumbled
along the way, technical support was a big help at $ 30.00 per call. I have
just one problem unresolved, when the information comes in to the data base
it arrives in an up and down column instead of spreading across the page
inserting information in the proper boxes. Even kicking the desk is not
helping at this point. I've bribed a local college student (my daughter's boy
friend) to look at the problem tomorrow.

I'm working my way through the New Jersey support group list furnished by the
Parkinson's Disease Foundation. I have contacted eleven support group leaders
who are willing to help build the communication web. I have followed up the
telephone call with a letter and mailed questionnaires to be completed and
returned to bring into the fold those without email facilities.
One by one I am going to contact or some volunteers will contact every
support group in the USA to build the best communication web for PAN for the
benefit of the PD community. I do not mean to ignore non us residents but I
have not figured out how to deal abroad with this issue. My support group
mentor, Tony Fazio, is about to work the State of New York Support
Groups.....Hello anybody want to work their State I will send you forms to
get you started with the form letters.

So you see I take my condition and yours seriously and any thing I might say
of a frivolous or insensitive nature is a slip of the tongue or an effort to
engage in a little frivolity to lighten the day for us all.

So enough is enough the $100.00 challenge is canceled and my check to PAN for
$100.00 is on its way to them.  The answers to the contest are Mother
Theresa, John Kennedy and Henry Ford.

As I close this long winded epilogue, I leave you with a message for the day:

"One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar."  Helen
Keller

Dale Severance