/1329668585172550931

PUT ON YOUR PARKY FACE 15 Arafat, a dead terrorist. We have Billy Graham. Old. We had Pope John Paul II. Old. We had Adolf Hitler. Evil. So MJF carries the celebrity load, the “Champ” does what he can, and Brian Grant is just getting into the act. We don’t have anyone from “Twilight” coming down with PD. No one from “Avatar.”

No one from “30 Rock.”

Our shaking, drooling, shuffling, slurring, pooping and peeing ourselves, choking on food and drink, falling and slowness is seen by the uninformed as just a natural part of getting older.

Now, if we had a RESPONSIBLE media that could take its eye off the bottom line for a minute, we COULD get a good public service campaign going. I mean, they’ve got a good one for the ASPCA now with the sad doggies and kitties and folks are sending money THERE to help. But the media knows that sad doggies and kitties will move people. Shuffling, drooling, slurring older folks will just make people change the channel.

Folks get SAD when doggies and kitties are mistreated and uncared for. Folks turn away when faced with images of middleaged to elderly folks who pee their pants.

So what about it? What can we do? Why is it that no matter what kind of fuss we try to raise, it seems that Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali (and now Brian Grant) are the only people in America with Parkinson’s disease—at least as far as the national media is concerned? Why is there no nationwide, concerted effort to raise awareness, to help you and the other wonderful organizations fund and find new and better treatments, and perhaps a cure for this horrible affliction? My own efforts— writing and self-publishing three books on the subject and donating 100% of author proceeds to research—have thus far netted just a bit over $200. I have widgets on my site where folks can donate directly. I volunteered for brain surgery, and now I’m trying to raise funds so that Vanderbilt can expand their Phase 1 clinical trial with 30 people to a nationwide Phase III clinical trial, multi-center, involving hundreds if not thousands of younger folks with PD. I feel like I’ve done my part, and God knows I want to do more.

But nobody knows who I am!