^^^^^^ WARM GREETINGS FROM ^^^^^^^^^^^^ :-)
Ivan Suzman 49/39/36 [log in to unmask] :-)
Portland, Maine land of lighthouses 39 deg. F :-)
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I am DISGUSTED that the Tutu-PD story has been ignored
by the major media! But I am NOT surprised.
As an anthropologist, I wish to record the observation here
that, as far as I am aware, we listmembers contacted more than 1000
media worldwide. Killings in Yugoslavia get banner headlines,
but as far as I am aware, NO phone calls, ZERO, have come to
either Archbishop Tutu's offices, or to my house, to cover
the story of his powerful and wonderful response to our
pleas for his support. I believe Barb Patterson had the
only radio interview, but it brushed aside the Tutu story.
We simply are NOT on the agenda of the media,
unless we are convenient "filler" material. I wonder
if we could change that with a press conference,
BLASTING the major media. Or we send a delegation
in wheelchairs to block the doors of the NIH Director.
It was actions like this that made AIDS an "agenda
item." Is PROTEST, rather than persuasiveness, the
only way to get the attention we deserve?
I personally believe that we can, and we
should, add the element of a protest, an outcry,
at this time.
Locally, in Maine, a tiny black-owned and edited
bimonthly, The Bridge, right here in Portland, IS about
to print the Tutu-PD story. But ALL of the TV and
radio and newspapers have ignored it.
The African-American editor of the Bridge hopes to publish
by the end of this month. We served as two of Portland's
three co-chairpersons on the Martin Luther King
Holiday Committee in 1986.
There are so many obstacles for PWP's to gain
access to the media. I would have thought a Nobel
Laureate and WORLD figure like Archbishop Tutu
would be interviewed, even if little Ivan doesn't seem
to matter to them.
And where have Mr. Fox and his publicity gotten
us? When Robin Elliot relays that NOBODY from
our community is on the NIH council, what IS the
message we should derive?
For me, now starting to deteriorate, in my 14th
year of Young Onset PD, or YOPD + something
unknown, I can only say that it is my near collapse
last Friday and my continuing vulnerability that push
me to say that,
although we have come a long, long, way,
there are still HUGE obstacles in our paths, and
only the brave and spiritually strong will
help us along to reach our "mountaintop,"
that is, the CURE for this wretched disease!
Ivan Suzman
Portland, Maine
