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Please accept this effort as a starting point--an improved version? Feel fee to send, plagiarize, or otherwise fold spindle or mutilate to suite your fancy Have you sent yours yet? Please, send something! The Honorable Neut Gingrich, Speaker of the US House of Representatives US House of Representatives Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Gingrich: Please help us. This letter is about ending Parkinson's Disease (PD). We want immediate full funding of the Udall Bill. We see three major reasons why you should too. In the form of questions: 1. Why does nobody acknowledge the waste inherent in the status quo? Not funding the Udall Bill insures the waste of more than 13.6 million dollars daily (5 billion /365 = 13.69+m). Some point to the cost of military hardware and ask: "Why couldn't that be diverted into medical research"? However, the more legitimate question asks, "Why couldn't what we spend on chronic diseases like PD be used to buy something less expensive--like aircraft carriers and B-2s?" Please help stop this money hemorrhage. 2. Is the use of "earmarked funds" really so terrible? NIH allocated PD funds for years, undirected and without earmarked funding. However, when the original Udall Bill was introduced, NIH was spending as little as $28 per US PD patient a year. According to Dr. Lieberman's testimony, even proposals of "great scientific merit" have not been funded. The notion that "the scientific community " will lose control of funding is simply not valid. There are other scientists than those at NIH. 3. Why can't Congress move faster on this? Funding this bill will someday save a lot of money. Why put off that day? Meanwhile, over a million Americans and countless others worldwide wait and suffer. Our objective is to return to a more normal, comfortable, and productive life. To find a significant therapy (maybe even a cure) for PD will take time. We will wait for that amount of time, plus the time you take to fund it. If you want to see what this disease is, don't look at Janet Reno, visit Mo Udall. PD is greatly misunderstood. Early treatment works very well. However, starting in a few short years, treated PD grows from a minor inconvenience to a dreadful, comfort destroying, life-eating monster. It gradually produces weirdness and inactivity. Financially, PD becomes the equivalent of laziness. Please see to full funding for the Udall Bill as soon as possible. Get the elegant research started. End the expensive waiting. We await your reply. Sincerely,