Frankly Scott, I do believe the celebrities would not care a whit about PWD
if they were not affected themselves--except, of course, inasmuch as their
celebrity needs the spotlight to keep their name in front of casting
directors, etc.  That's not totally debased.  There are very few of us who
would pick up the torch for some illness or difficulty we did not encounter
ourselves.  Our world is too fast paced and each of us have enough to worry
about within our small circle of family and friends to go searching for a
"cause celebre'".

Let's face it, the human body is a wonderful but complex creation.  So many
things to go wrong--so little money to spread around for research to fix
them.  Right now, many of us are trying to get the thinnest of pie slices
for research into Aging and CP.  To be honest, I'm concerned more with how
CP and Aging affects me personally than how it affects someone with a far
different clinical history than mine.  I've got my family's financial future
to protect.  This is my line of thought most of the time.  Too bad it's
flawed.

Though many of you may think it's as real as "tilting at windmills", several
of us on the list share a faith that this world and these broken bodies are
but a blip on the screen of something perfect to come.  If more of us shared
that perspective on the outside as well as inside, we'd see that trying to
fix these bodies--only for them to last a few more years--is a rather
fruitless exercise.  If I were not so selfish, I would spend more time
worrying about feeding my earthly brother than worrying about ridding my own
body of its failures.

Kyle



-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Sands [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 10:18 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: politics - a bit of a rant


Kyle:

I agree with that last point -- It's true that athletes like Boomer Esiason
and celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Reeve have faced
debilitating illness in their family and their own lives, but one wonders
whether they would have become such great supporters of their causes without
direct intervention by the condition they fight against.

That down in print seems pretty harsh, but I often wonder myself if I hadn't
been affected (however mildly) by CP whether I'd be the same person I am
today -- I'm not, and I'm glad for it.

Scott