Dear Barbara: I don't have any problem with PD as a disease. In my circles,
that doesn't seem to be stigmatized. I have two friends at the University,
faculty colleagues, who have PD and we all manage and do our work and are
accepted along with our 'disease.' I think that people like us on special
categories have a kind of social responsibility to bear labels and to redefine
them by the ways that we cope with the situation. In that way, we work on the
matter of helping others tolerate deviant situations by getting acquainted with
it through us, as learning that we too are people just like them.
In sum, I'd be for leaving disease in. EAch of us can refer to PD
and ourselves as we like, some using disease, others using other designators.
I'm not for searching for a politically correct designation; for that will
have to change again as the labels change sometime later.
All the best, Bob N.
