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In a message dated 9/28/99 8:38:34 AM Central Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << , without Bob's expressed consent to do it, but I felt a bit defensive about being a "lurker" Lurker Sharon, for Bob PWP >> Sharon, Thank you for taking the time and having the courage to delurk and comment. Please allow me an attempt to change your mind: You don't say why (or really if) you and/or Bob object to politics on the List, So, I have to guess how you feel: You are uncomfortable discussing it. You feel the following to be true: Politics causes arguments and other unpleasantness. Selfishness and greed are involved in asking for money I suppose that I do view PWP apathy toward PD politics as unusual. To fund a PD cure, we need many more dollars than we can generate as private individuals. Is it selfish to ask for help? Besides easing our physical discomfort, if PD were cured the Government could stop an enormous, recurring expense. I am a physician who can neither cure myself nor feed my family. To do either one of those things I need help. Fortunately, I was an active duty USAF Officer when my symptoms began. I was well trained at no small expense. Medically retired, the Government has paid me a salary for almost 16 years, without receiving my services. Further, I was good at what I did. I earned my pay and worked to become a person with responsibility. Who knows what my services might have become worth? I know of others with stories similar to mine. How many dollars will be saved by keeping such people doing their jobs in the future? So what is my point? Candidates who address the List, will do some homework on life with PD. Ignorance is fixable. I think they would learn: Unless we can get a cure, not only will we remain uncomfortable and become helpless, others will follow a similar course. That's expensive. We can be cured and when it is done the Government saves a large sum of money annually. Perhaps if President Reagan or even Bush had been better informed, they might have lifted the fetal tissue research ban a decade earlier. If they had done so, there might be a cure today. Many researchers say this ban held up research in the 80s. That ban was based in ignorance. Functionally, these Presidents were PWP unfriendly. President Clinton has done two things to help PWP in our quest to be cured. First he lifted the ban on fetal tissue experimentation, and second, he gave a reporter an off the cuff remark something like "We are gonna whip Parkinson's Disease." Had he really made curing PD a priority, who knows where we might be now? Clinton is sort of PWP neutral. We want a PWP friendly President elected in 2000. After 20 years, I am tired of living like this. I want to encourage everybody to join us in our efforts to save ourselves a lifetime of grief and the US Government a lot of tax dollars. If the Government and the public are to become informed, the task will fall to us. Nobody can insure that, but I think we have the best shot at it. Best, WHH 56/38/37