Dear Jim,
Let me add my name to the list of your admirers of the work you did to
win passage of Udall. As you may recall, I came late in the game --
only the start of this year -- and the little I was able to
contribute owes much to your hard- nosed (and often hard-earned)
perception of the barriers we faced. Again and ag.ain it was you and
only you who laid the cards on the table, so that when it was
important to face up to the unvarnished truth I automatcally turned to
you. A good example is your warning about NINDS attitude toward Udall
and your memorble and useful quote of Zach Hall damning earmarking of
funds for PD research. As far as I could see, nobody else bothrered to
ask him what he felt, yet it was this that presaged -- and may even
have fostered -- Senators Jeffords' and (Turn)Coats' attack on our
Bill.
While I'm at it, I thought your response the other day to
"bbanderson" was more than adequate. What did you think of mine to
gloom-and-doom "jrbruman"? In his reply to my critique, Mr. Bruman
abandoned his attack on Udall-fostered clinical research as being
useless and focused solely on NIH as
being untrustworthy! Or at least that's how I read it.
This dictation technology is intriguing. I'm a lousy typist, and
apparently with this apparatus your voice replaces your fingers.
Roughly how much does it cost? And would it work with a Parkie
like me whose voice is a whisper? If so, watch out world!
On that same subject, what do you know about voice amplifiers
for ordinary conversation? For use in telephoning? We held our first
meeting of the Rutland Regional PSG on the l3th; it attracted some 35
people and thanks to guest speaker Jim Maurer was a huge success, but
my own contributions were severely limited owing to my unvocal chords.
Before closing I want to pay special tribute to an unsung hero
of the four-year Udall battle, the indefatigueable, incomparable
Charlie Richards! As Joan
Samuelson will testify, Charlie tromped the halls of Congress and in
every other way threw himself into the fray with an infectuous
enthusiasm that galvanized everybody privileged to work with him. He has
recently taken a turn for the worse, and I assume that's why he was
abse nt from the signing ceremony. It would be a shame if he wasn't
invited; he deserved to be at the
White House as much as anybody, with the obvious exception of Joan
herself.
Your confession to crying easily as a trait of PD was music
to my ears, Jim! Of late I 've found that I can't talk about a
beautiful piece of music or a beautiful act of kindness or
generosity without tears brimming and the necessity of stifling a
sob; it's good to know I'm not alone in this!
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that you wore to the White
House that outrageous PD cap you handed out at the PAN meeting
last April in Washington. I would give my eye teeth to have seen
that!
My own cap is off to you, Mr. Cordy.
Cheers, Elliott
