[BobbyB]

State can’t find cash to help
Editor:
Lebanon Daily News


On July 4, 1939, baseball legend Lou Gehrig stood on the field at Yankee Stadium and delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history, declaring that “Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” As others across the country marked the anniversary by celebrating Gehrig’s life and honoring the victims of Lou Gehrig’s disease, the state of Pennsylvania took a different approach.
Our elected officials passed a state budget and once again failed to provide even a dime of funding intended to help people dying from Lou Gehrig’s disease in our state. On the anniversary of Gehrig’s speech, they refused to help people with his disease access wheelchairs, breathing devices, nursing care or just get a ride to their doctor.

I was told that it is a “tough budget year” and that next year will be “even tougher.” Let’s consider for a minute how tough this year will be for a person whose life is being destroyed by Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS. This year they may lose the ability to walk, talk, feed themselves, bathe themselves, swallow, scratch an itch, wink an eye, go to the bathroom on their own, pay their bills, hug their spouses, tell their children that they love them and even breathe on their own.

Next year will be even tougher. Many of those living today will be dead.

That’s because the average life expectancy for people with ALS is just two to

five years, and there is no effective treatment and no cure. And following the loss of their loved one, families will try to come to terms with why it happened to them and why there was not more help available. The families will cry every night for months at the loss of their loved one and at the horror of the life that their loved one had to endure. Their children will struggle with their memory, not just next year, but for years to come because the person that they lived with for years, and will remember, was sick and dying.
In light of all I have detailed, I find it difficult to comprehend that it is “tough” to get a tiny amount of funding set aside to help Pennsylvanians and their families suffering from this horrific disease. I had faith in our state government to see its way clear to grant such a minimal request — about $800,000 — that would have had a tremendous impact on the lives of families across the state. My faith, unfortunately, has been displaced by disappointment and the realization that the governor and the state Legislature have no real interest in supporting the ALS community in Pennsylvania despite our outreach and education efforts with them in the past three years. Had Lou Gehrig lived in Pennsylvania on this July 4, I doubt he would have considered himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Donna Shultz

South Lebanon

http://www.ldnews.com/opinion/ci_9886411