Dennis...
You can't please everyone, and in this case "everyone"
is over 250 million people (tho not all US citizens read
the newspaper!) <smile>
Since you're an outstanding writer (in my opinion), and
know your subject well - PD and funding the Udall Bill -
instead of trying to not offend anyone why not write
from your heart as in your initial letter, with all the passion
you feel for this issue, and STOP listening to so many
advice-giving List members, however well intentioned they
may be, before your message becomes a "group letter"
and loses it's impact???
Just be YOURSELF, m'friend, and don't change any part
of your message to please others on the List. You wrote
a wonderful AND compelling message, and it SHOULD be
sent to the USA press NOW!
GO FOR IT, DENNIS! And THANKS to you and other
non-US citizens who're taking the time to push for
Udall Bill funding.
Barb Mallut
[log in to unmask]
----------
From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of Dennis Greene
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 1998 9:52 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN
Subject: Devil's Avocate/ Barbara Brock's concerns
Barbara Brock raises some very valid concerns with regard to my open letter.
The possibility of offending people rather than getting them "on side" is a
very real one, and one I strove to avoid when writing the letter. Indeed my
2nd draft results from my perception that my 1st didn't quite achieve that
objective. Since reading Barbara's concern's I have done the following:
- Put my mailing activities on hold. I have only posted one letter
so far. It is to the Dayton Daily Express so if we lose Ohio I'll be looking
to Camilla to win them back :-)
- Spent another couple of hours trying alternate wording/approaches
to the OL which resulted in this small but perhaps significant re-wording:
" We need to tell them what they are doing to us.
And we need your help to do it.
____________________________________________________________
We need the citizens of the United States of America to act for us and give
their
support to the American Parkinson's community by:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------
- checking how your representatives voted on the Udall Act.
- pressure those that voted for it to do whatever they have to do to get
it funded,
etc,etc"
My position now is this:
- I can find no way to further soften version 2 that doesn't soften
it out of existance. So I intend to go with V.2.1 (reproduced in full
below) or not at all.
- I shall wait until Monday morning my time (Sunday evening for most
US listmembers) before recommencing my mailings.
- If there is a feeling among US listmembers that my wording will offend
their compatriots I shall of course not send the OL at all.
In case anyone wants to check the full final wording I have reproduced it
below (But below the horizon so to speak, so that those who have seen all
they want to of it can just press [Delete]).
Dennis.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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 our children 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 reluctant
to fund the Act. 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 and for 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
Act 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 citizens of the United States of America to act for us and give
their
support to the American Parkinson's community by:
- checking how your representatives voted on the Udall Act.
- 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 Act 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-ordinating 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
