LISTMEMBERS: Please consider responding to these thoughts from the coast of
Maine. We need to change the way we think about some BASIC issues...
I have been participating in our list since late March, 1996. Here are FOUR
ESSENTIAL OBSERVATIONS that I know that we must add to our consciousness:
1. PARKINSON's should be renamed DOPAMINE DEFICIENCY DISORDERS
Is it as obvious to any of you as it is to me that "Parkinson's" is a
confusing name??!! Why not recognize the obvious: we are affected by a
GROUP of closely-related metabolic disorders. Why not use a name that
EXPLAINS EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING TO US??
2. WORLDWIDE, MANY OF US ARE PEOPLE OF COLOR
I wonder if any anthropologist or epidemiologist has published anything
on the frequency of Parkinson's (or more properly, Dopamine Deficiency
Disorders) in various national origin, racial or language-speaker
populations. Surely it is not a Europeans-only metabolic disorder.
I wonder if Dopamine Deficiency Disorders vary by genetic type.
3. INCLUDED AMONG US ARE LESBIANS, BISEXUALS AND GAY MEN.
The regular contributors to our list who are lesbians, bisexuals and gay men
have never revealed their sexual orientiations. The emotional challenges that
these members of our community face are burdensome. All of us must learn to
be inclusive and flexible. Opposite-gender couples are only one of many
role models for our community.
Our effectiveness in Washington will be enhanced if we are more sensitive to
diversity.
4. CONGRESSPERSONS, not CONGRESSMEN!
We will all benefit from using all-embracing language. I wonder if women who
are members of Congress or Senators will NOT be as positive about our Udall
Bill if they are called "Congressmen!"
In the world of publicy policy-making, our spokesPERSONS must be very
careful to learn, and enjoy, language which HONORS DIVERSITY.
from Ivan Mfowethu Suzman, Portland, Maine
