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From: Jeremy Browne <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: And so this is Christmas/P>O>W>E>R
" Ivan M Suzman <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
'A CALL TO ACTIVISM from a young PWP who is sick of being..............
'My only suggestion insofar as Santa's undelivered gift is to be MORE
VISIBLE. It means pushing, even when the "PUSH" is almost gone. I guess
what I have been given is "chutzpah," the NERVE to be out there, pushing
for a cure, whenever I can muster the energy.' "
"Ivan, I agree with a lot of your message, but surely you make life
harder on yourself if you think that PD is worse than it really IS! You
DO KNOW, don't you, that it is not a terminal disease? You may die WITH
it, but it's highly unlikely that you will die OF it!
Just for a different viewpoint, let me say that I regard PD as a friend,
Jeremy Browne - [log in to unmask]
Hampshire, UK"
Jeremy, I think Ivan probably knows you don't medically die from PD. His
enthusiasm perhaps led him astray on that point. I think the point he was
making was about ENTHUSIASM ITSELF, and that it is up to those of use who
are what passes for young in these circles to get the hell out there and DO
SOMETHING to find the cure. One can think of totally adverse things as
"friends" to help cope, but really PD is an enemy, not a friend. WHO has
a greater interest in killing this enemy AND MORE ABILITY, then us young
'uns.
Personally, I have written a bunch of letters and messages, sent out a
whole lot of postcards - and that's it. Primarily because of
self-consciousness of my speech, gait and overall appearance. I am truly
getting over all that, though.
Anyway, I thought Ivan's plea should be listened to, even if giving it
that name he came up with seems contrived.
One last comment on dying from PD. I imagine it causes a whole lot of
poverty amongst our ranks, and poverty surely kills. And then there is the
issue of suicide. I don't have any statistics on our suicide rate, just
one personal anecdote. It wasn't a month after I was diagnosed that the
PWP husband of an old woman my wife gave Medicare counseling to blew his
brains all over their bedroom with a pistol. She asked if I ever decided
to do that to pick another way.
