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Arla, It must be a terrible thing to watch someone you love suffering from this terrible, debilatating disease that affects us all so profoundly. I cannot share your pain, I can only see similar pain in the eyes of my own wife and daughters as they struggle to live with my PD. But even as I cannot really know what it is like for them or for you, the fact that they are suffering, however bravely, becomes a part of my own. I suspect this is true for most PWP. Which brings me to your anger at the the lighthearted approach of many of our fellow listmembers. You wrote: >Maybe if you were nearly 80 years old like my mom and a full >time care giver to someone as seriously stricken with Parkinson's as my >dad is------ Arla, we PWP are all full time, some of us even dream about it. We are so serious about it that we have learnt to fight it with every weapon we can find. Humour is just one of those weapons. Sometimes the jokes would be in bad taste if made by outsiders. But we are not outsiders, we have all, PWP and carers alike, paid our dues, and we are still paying them. We have the need and the right to laugh at PD, and we excercise that right vigorously. You are also upset by issues such as homosexual recognition being included in the debate. Suffering from PD does not switch of the rest of our lives, and from time to time the other things we are will surface, often leading to widespread debate. I have always seen this as a sign of health. Arla if we have added to your pain forgive us, it was not intentional. I hope this letter will help in some way. Dennis. ++++++++++++++++++++ Dennis Greene 47/10 [log in to unmask] ++++++++++++++++++++