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Janet Reno and Michael J. Fox are two examples of what we don't want: prominent people with PD who want to be left alone, which is their right. It is useless and off-putting to them - don't think for a moment that they don't get all our musings - to speculate about whether they're in denial and to say how mean spirited they are. This is actually doing the cause harm, portraying an image of whiners. Oh, for a Christopher Reeves with PD! Oh, for a Terry Fox with PD! Fox was an ordinary guy with bone cancer who made a world name for himself. For example, in the Toronto Chapter of the Parkinson Foundation of Canada, I got the ball rolling on our Superwalk. In ‘94 I raised $3,000; ‘95 $5,000; ‘96 $8,000; ‘97 $10,000; ‘98 $13,000; and this year I'm shooting for $20,000. One of our members with MSA raised $20,000 in ‘95; $35,000 in ‘96; over $50,000 in ‘97; in memoriam donations last year were over $25,000. This year, the walk is named after him: The Jerry Friedman SuperWalk for Parkinson's. Jerry and I - and I hesitate to mention my name in the same sentence as his - are just ordinary guys who don't mind exploiting ourselves and our friends for the cause. Get local heroes. Ordinary guys identify with ordinary guys. An analogy may make my point a little more clearly. Jean Beliveau, the greatest hockey player ever (my opinion - open for debate) never made more than $40,000 playing hockey when he retired in 1971, the year of the first expansion of the NHL. That amont of money was within the reach of an intelligent man with initiative and imagination. The seven figure compensation levels of professional athletes today are beyond the reach of all but a few. Fans do not identify with players today the way they used to Get local heroes!!!