This is the 2nd draft of this letter. My thanks to Janet Paterson for her
suggestions, some of which I incorporated. My thank also to those who have
already sent me the addresses of newspapers. please keep them coming.
I have extensively rewritten parts of this letter and shall start
sending this version out tomorrow. Should anyone see this letter in their
newspaper I would appreciate a note mentioning the fact and naming the
paper.
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 Udall Bill did two things:
1. It made $100,000,000 available for research into Parkinson's Disease,
and
2. It touched with hope the individual lives of the millions world-wide
who suffer from this life altering, debilitating disease - hope that soon a
cure would be found - hope that soon our ordeal would be over - hope that
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 America's own people with Parkinson's and
those who care about them.
And we, the millions of people with Parkinson's who live outside the United
States, because we have no voice in your political process are condemned to
watch in silence.
This is of course the way things are and should be. The Udall Bill is
America's business. It is a vote about spending American taxpayers' money on
American medical research. No one else has rights in the matter.
But this is not about rights. It's much simpler than that. This is about
doing what is RIGHT. The hope which sprung from the passing of the Udall
Bill reached out across national boundaries, by-passed our governments and
touched each of us individually. Now it is dying - and those of us beyond
your borders need a way to reach back - a way to touch, in our turn, the men
and women who have touched us and gained such power over our lives. We need
to tell them what they are doing to us.
And we need your help to do it.
We need the People of the United States of American to act for us.
Please:
- check how your representatives voted on the Udall Bill,
- pressure those that voted for it to do whatever they have to do to get
it funded,
- 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
- co-ordinate your efforts with your local Parkinson's organisations.
My grateful thanks,
Dennis Greene
(a 48 year old, 11 year veteran of Parkinson's Disease)
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask]
http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/
