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George, I couldn't figure out why I didn't like the term Parkie. Your analysis says it well. Charlie George Andes wrote: > > The choice of calling one’s self (and, by extension, others) a “Parkie” or > a “PWP” is a personal one. It is , however, neither an easy nor a trivial > choice. Each term has its advantages and each has a serious drawback. > “Parkie” sounds cute and flippant; “PWP” is obscure. “Parkie” > trivializes, “PWP” hides. > > Both individually, and as members of a community, we want to be taken > seriously. Our malady is not trivial. It may not be an immediate > sentence of death, but it nonetheless destroys lives, ours and our > family’s, bit by bit, bit by bit, and so on forever. We must keep our > good humor for the sake of our own sanity, and that of our caregivers. > Keeping a good humor does not trivialize our condition, but quite the > contrary, treats it with the respect is deserves. One speaks politely a > to judge in his courtroom, one does not mock him, or laugh in his face. > The name “Parkie” carries no weight. The “-ie” diminutive suffix > diminishes. Ask a black person why “darkie” is no longer permissable. > > “PWP” unfortunately sounds a little like a depression era alphabet soup > agency, the one you couldn’t remember on your final exam in US History. A > charge of obscurity seems a small price to pay for dignity. Therefore, I > choose “PWP” over “Parkie.” > > George Andes 64/16 -- CHARLES T. MEYER, M.D. Middleton, WI [log in to unmask]