Dale...

OK DAMMIT!  I did it!  Now quit nagging! <smile> Letter to Pres. follows:

Dear President Clinton...

You , our nation, and the world recently honored Muhammad Ali by recognizing
AND respecting him as a person with Parkinson's Disease, a disease which has
struck approximately 1,500,000 other Americans, as well.
I have to include myslef amongst those numbers as I've had "PD" (as we call
it) for 21 of my 54 years.

Mr. President... every year more and more persons unwittingly and unwillingly
join the Parkinson's communtiy.   And every year it seems that these
individuals grow ever more youthful... In fact, this is no longer the "old
person's disease," as generally thought... NOT when youngsters in their
teens.... much like your daughter, Chelsea, are being stricken with PD.
And there are literally thousands of "Parkies" within the same age bracket
as you and your lovely Lady.

For every Mahammad Ali, who's still mobile, there're others stricken with this
ever-progressing, degenerative neurological disorder who are in wheel chairs
or bedridden (but.. they CAN still vote as can their families and friends!)
This IS truly miserable disease to get stuck with, Sir!

For one of this nation's "Top Five" diseases, Parkinson's receives the least
amount of government research dollars... about $26 per patient, per year.  NOT
much to hang your hat .. your LIFE on... is it?!

Despite that sad lack of funding, I was able to get off of Social Security
Disability and return to a job I love on The Microsoft Netrwork (MSN) as the
Forum Manager of the "Chronic Disease & Disorders Forum, " SOLELY because of a
relatively new neurosurgery called a "Pallidotomy"  It DID restore 'bout 95%
of the lost movement to my right side!  YEA!!!  Hence my return to the
workforce.  But this wasn't a "cure."   Rather, it's a stop-gap measure in the
hopes that THAT will come along soon.

Unfortuately, there's still no cure for Parkinson's, and the limited number of
drugs currently available simply mask the symptoms of the disease.  But OH,
Mr. President, there's SO many exciitng new treatments... REALLY exciitng one,
Sir... on the horizon just awaiting additional funding to be brought to life!!

PLEASE don't continue to let those of us who so rely upon you... well, upon
our GOVERNMENT (which, after all, IS you!)  suffer for lack of needed funds.

Thank you

Sincerely,

Barbara K. Mallut



----------
From:   PARKINSN: Parkinson's Disease - Information Exchange Network on behalf
of Dale Severance join list
Sent:   Tuesday, January 07, 1997 8:43 AM
To:     Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject:        Dear President Clinton by Dale Severance

Hi folks: My life is an absolute mad house right now.

In preperation to sell our residence we arranged with a plumber to install a
new bathroom sink on the second floor.He left to get a part and my teenager
turn on water to wash dishes  and eventually she noticed water pouring thru
the ceiling.

A broker walk thru tour is do tooday and we have worked fevoriously to spruce
up house.
My Doctor canceled my apt 15 min before exam time and i lost several hours
clean up time.

At Xmas we fell in love with a condo that has a study and working fire place
in the study in Syracuse, NY. wE PUT A BID IN ON THE HOUSE AND YESTERDAY GOT
IN A BIDDING WAR WITH 3 OTHER PARTIES. i THINK WE WON PER OUR BROKER.( sorry
for cap too tired to take them out}
waiting for garbarage men to come I put out too much trash for them to take
without a gratitudy. Twenty two years of collected mementos (better know as
trash)

here is an interesting address to check out
                                                  www.whitehouse.gov


and President email address is    [log in to unmask]

I sent the President the following email today and suggest you all drop him a
line it sure can not hurt and is easy to do.