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^^^^^^GREETINGS FROM^^^^^^^^^^ Ivan Suzman 47/10 [log in to unmask] Portland, Maine land of lighthouses 59 deg. F....cold northwest wind *********************************************************** Dear Listmembers, Private e-mail from a listmember, Martha Rohrer, has provided me with the stimulus to write her, and all of you, about real racism and intolerance among some of our own listmembers, and about the horrible arson that victimized me last August 7, 1996,, and which still haunts me.. Dear Martha, Thank you very much for taking some precious time away from caring for your husband, to write to me about Billy Baird's insensitive comments about a person who is helping all of us, former world champion boxer, and human rights leader, Mr. Muhammad Ali. I write you not only as a 47 yrs / 10th year Parkinson's battler, but also as a person of Jewish origins, as a proud gay man, and as an educator and community activist in combatting hate crimes. I also can only now reveal, to all of you, l that it was hatred- fuelled arson, not accidental fire, that left my former home, all of its contents, and the dead body of my gentle pet kitty, Celie, black, stinking and destroyed, last August 7, 1996. Any exhibition of prejudiced labelling (calling Mr. Ali "lazy"), or of intolerance (ignoring Mr. Ali's real name, and calling him by a slaveowner's name, "Cacius Clay"), by any Listmember , hurts and limits ALL of us. Left unchallenged by the rest of us, racial, anti-gay, and other negative energies can smolder on our Parkinson's List, and destroy its beauty as an international forum of sharing and support. Having lived in segregated South Africa from 1973 through 1979, painful old wounds were opened by Billy's nauseating remarks. I MUST protest against a message so violently out of character with the supportive purpose of our List. I am blessed with being both Jewish and gay, but I must now reveal to the list that I lost my home due to arson, and hatred was at the CORE of the burning of my house on August 7, 1996. I have heard that Mr. Ali is now on new medicines. I hope he improves enough to be more comfortable. He is quite possibly our MOST valuable SPOKESPERSON at this point. Each one of us who fight Parkinson's should try to recognize his importance. Chief Seattle talks about our global interconnectedness. We are all the blood of one family. In that spirit, I end this post with a little poem that used to hang on my kitchen wall, simple, but very meaningful to me: "The world is like a spider's web; touch it anywhere, and it quivers everywhere." Thanks for listening. Ivan Suzman [log in to unmask] 47/10.