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Barb, Janet, Hilary and Ivan, et al:  I love your idea to garner more
media attention through holding an ice cream pig-out (you'll knew I'd
sneak that reference in somehow) to call attention to the dearth of
media attention to P.  We, up here in the wilds of Parkinsaw, MI,  think
your idea is a "Three-Scooper":   So, you can count on our support in
this many-flavored adventure of yours.  We also suggest the new
Mess-B-Gone super bib, one of the many quality Parkinsaw Produced
Products for Parkinsonians, be made available to all participants.  Not
only will the Mess-B-Gone bib protect valuable clothing while the Hagen
Daaz is being slurped, but to bib could also carry a message, something
like:   "Ice cream's  gonna be eaten til PD is beaten!" or, "We'll eat
ice cream by the pound, until a PD cure is found".

John Bjork
A VIew from the Lighter Side of  PD

Barb_MSN wrote:

> Dear Hilary 'n Ivan....
>
> I've got THEE perfect world-wide-attention-grabber
> that'll make all of us sweet-treat and ice-cream guzzling
> Parkies make it to the front page of all the major
> newspapers and also will tickle the fancy of all the
> big-name TV anchors.  Parkinson's will become a
> household word if we do THIS!!   Ready?  Here's
> what we gotta do:
>
> To make Parkinson's and those of us who live
> with this %#@^& disease VISIBLE and FAMOUS
> (which theoretically would also bring in the much
> needed research bucks so a cure and/or treatment
> may be found) , errrrrr.... I digress... is to hold a
>  world-wide ICE CREAM EAT-A-THON!
>
> I can see the headlines now:  "Millions of Parkinson's
> sufferers and their families and friends vow to
> non-stop eat ice cream till a CURE to the disease
> is found." (Choice of flavors left up to the eater) <smile>
>
> Heck.... we can get Ben and Jerry to be our spokespersons!
>
> Barb Mallut (who absolutely LOVES ice cream!)
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hilary Blue <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Monday, April 19, 1999 1:07 AM
> Subject: Re: The Tutu-PD story: Are the MAJOR MEDIA indifferent?
>
> >I recently met somebody who works for one of the advocacy groups
> in Washington
> >DC, where her job is (believe it or not_) to keep things OUT OF
> the news
> >media.  Well, as publicity is her field, I asked her what we were
> doing wrong.
> >First of all, she confessed she had never heard of Archbishop
> Tutu and had no
> >idea of who he was or what he was famous for - which may be
> indicative of why
> >we elicited no response (!) but more importantly, she said we
> were not doing
> >anything wrong , we were on the right track, we just HADNT DONE
> ENOUGH!  That
> >we should have frequent press releases., for every little event
> and occurrence
> >relating to PD, so that it is constantly in the eye of the news
> media, And
> >that we should get some celebrity - she mentioned Michael J  Fox
> ( him she had
> >heard of) to speak out on our behalf. And she assumed we had a
> full time press
> >officer - does any of the PD organisations have a press officer
> on its exec?
> >Hilary Blue
> >
> >*****************************************************************
> *****
> >
> >Ivan M Suzman wrote:
> >>
> >> ^^^^^^  WARM GREETINGS  FROM  ^^^^^^^^^^^^  :-)
> >>  Ivan Suzman        49/39/36       [log in to unmask]   :-)
> >>  Portland, Maine    land of lighthouses         39  deg. F
> :-)
> >>
> ******************************************************************
> **
> >>   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
> >