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Brilliant, as usual! Obviously, regardless of what stage you are in, your mind and reasoning is still as sharp as ever. Maybe, even sharper? For me, the known has always been easier to face than the unknown. > ---------- > From: Dennis Greene[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 1999 12:06 PM > Subject: PCPD > > It is interesting to notice that almost imperceptibly certain attitudes > are > becoming politically correct in our little community. Which is a pity > because political correctness is a tool for social comfort not for truth. > Take, for example the subject of end stage Parkinson's. Recent comments > by > Joan Samuelson, as reported in the NY Times, brought this frightening > subject into discussion. And how did we respond - we denied the problem > existed. We said as to those who expressed their fear at the prospect of > Stage V PD that it would never happen. Have hope we said - look to the > future, look to the cure. And it is right that we said so - because we > must > have hope and we must look to the future. We must also raise the money > that > will > fund the research that will find the cure. But we should not, in the > process, deny that Stage IV and V PD exists. It is not some bogey man > existing only in imagination - it is real and for a great many of us it > is > not in the future - it is already the present. What's > more it has not been put on hold because "the cure" is coming. Even if > the > cure is only 5 - 10 years away a great many of us now in the earlier > stages > will experience these later stages. If today we silence those people who > are prepared to share with us the fullness of their experience, by > accusing > them of being pessimists and gloom and doom merchants merely for stating > the > way things are for them, this community will be doing itself a disservice, > and one the current crop of Stage I II and III PWP will regret if the cure > is delayed by even a few years. > > The thought of late stage PD is a frightening one - but the possibility of > having to face it someday cannot be ignored. No doubt the argument will be > made that for the newly diagnosed it is all to much to soon. This is > possibly true, but I would suggest that the decision then rests with them > to > read or not read such postings - to remain or not remain on this list . If > we, for reasons of political correctness join with PD in silencing the > worst > afflicted of our community, we betray them - and we betray ourselves. > > Dennis. > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > Dennis Greene 49/dx 37/ onset 32 > There's nothing wrong with me that a cure for PD won't fix! > [log in to unmask] > http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/ > +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > So let us tell hope >