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To: THE LIST My recent post on politics and the list revealed to me, a fairly new list member - since last March - how easy it is to offend without intention - I never offend with intention - by not choosing my words with the utmost care. Hilary Blue quite correctly pointed out that the number of young onset Parkinsonians is on the rise, whether through higher incidence, earlier diagnosis or a combination of both isn't known yet. She then briefly told of her situation, which I was not aware of, and I was shocked. This is precisely why I am so keen to get government-sponsored drug plans for those that don't have insured benefits. (Its also probably easier in Canada where we have government run health plans from coast-to-coast, but that's a whole other topic) Hilary took offence at my brief comparison of the financial demographics of PD and MS, pointing out that there are young onset PWPs who suffer tragically; just as the are late onset PWMS (my wife was diagnosed when she was 52, cutting short her career as a public school trustee), so my over simplified examples would have to be modified. My whole point in mentioning the financial demographics, and I should have made this explicit, was that if a candidate mentions them, you should be prepared to rebut them using calm but definite language, avoiding emotionally charged language.