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hi dennis wow you have written a powerful letter the idea of appealing to individual american citizens [via letters to the editor in us newspapers] rather than lobbying politicians is potentially the most powerful message we parkies could send not to detract from all the hard work done politically; this is just a different, and to my eyes, as yet untried, angle the ultimate democratic appeal via this miraculous medium to the citizens of the ultimate democracy? start up the presses! but just before you do that, this editor from hell noticed a couple of things; "explaination" should be "explanation" "But it's potential to" should be "But its potential to" and then, this itchy-fingered editor from hell got carried away, as demonstrated below i have been impressed with nandonet's clear 'style' i believe it has something to do with their [almost] 'one paragraph per sentence' convention i don't intend any of this as negative or presumptuous, dennis, just my clumsy way of encouraging a new voice with a great idea love janet ***************** An Open Letter to the People of the United States of America Last year, the Congress of the United States of America did a wonderful thing for millions of people all around the world. It voted into law the Morris K Udall Bill. The Morris K Udall Bill did two things. The first was that it made $100,000,000 available for research into Parkinson's Disease. The second was that it touched with hope the individual lives of the millions world-wide who suffer from this life altering, debilitating disease. It gave us hope that soon a cure would be found, hope that soon our ordeal would be over, hope that soon for future generations Parkinson's would be just a word. Less than a year later that hope is dying. It is dying because Congress, having passed the Udall Bill, is now reluctant to fund it. It is dying, we are told, because of the system. It is dying despite the heroic efforts of American people with Parkinson's and those who care about them. And we, millions of people with Parkinson's outside the United States, having no voice in your political process, are condemned to watch in silence. This is, of course, in the nature of things. The Udall Bill is America's business. It is a vote to spend American money on American research. No one else has rights in the matter. But its potential to change our lives in such a profoundly personal way, and the hope it has already engendered in so many of us, make it right that we all be represented to some degree. To which end, we need help. We need the voices of fair-minded Americans to speak for us. We need you to: 1. find out how your representatives voted on the Udall Bill; 2. pressure those who voted for it to do whatever they have to do to get it funded; 3. remind Congress that the passage of the Udall Bill raised the hopes of a particularly vulnerable sector of society right around the world and that it would be cruel to fail us; and 4. co-ordinate your efforts with your local Parkinson's organisations. My thanks, Dennis Greene (who, at 48, is an 11 year veteran of Parkinson's Disease) Perth, Western Australia e-mail: [log in to unmask] ***************** janet paterson aka calendar control supervisor 51/10 - sinemet/selegiline/prozac - [log in to unmask] quotations: http://newww.com/cgi-bin/do_cal?c:newvoice pwp event calendar: http://newww.com/cgi-bin/do_cal?c:pwpc