I know I'm late...
 

...but when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's I looked for support groups online. What I found time and again were, indeed, "support" groups - poor, sad figures waiting for the medical profession and Big Pharma to save them. And not doing anything to save themselves.

Then I wandered into BT and found a different energy. There were people who were climbing the mountain to understand PD, and reaching back to give the ones behind them a hand. Together they were struggling toward a summit they might never reach but were determined to seek. They gave their opinions, criticized their doctors, and did their research and shared it. It was a community that took care of its own.

Fear and over-caution would kill such a spirit. As has been pointed out, if someone gets too off the wall the others call them on it. Moderators are seldom needed because most of us are civilized grownups.

That's why I'm still here.
-Rick

WHAT?! I just read the article that Lara posted on here and I can't believe this!:mad: Who wrote this- Adolph Hitler?! Then I read WonderBoy's post....sometimes I think our society has just gone crazy....and not in just the situations discussed here. Society "says" that we, particularly women, should look like Tootsie Roll pops or stick figures, so our teenage girls, and alot of grown women, starve themselves, sometimes to death. Society says that people with certain illnesses are "damaged" so they should matter less than what society considers "normal". We ignore or mistreat our elderly, where they're stuck in nursing homes when alot of them don't need to be there, and they can't afford their medicines because the drug cos. haven't made enough BILLIONS this quarter, or they can't afford decent food so they eat catfood....I could go on and on....I guess this is my vent for the day.

Since we are venting today then this is mine.

While what we are doing to our young girls is tantamount to cruelty so are we treating out sons as if they are dispensible.

We talk about the coming advent of Stem Cell research and we believe that our children will reap the benefits of this research and yet today we celebrate the remembrance of the deaths of over 600,000,000 million young men and women who have died early deaths since the first world war.

How can we celebrate their memory and still send them off to wars.

What agaony some of them must go through to know we value their lives so little and yet we advocate for the preservation of life.

Is democracy that which the whole world must emulate for the good of all or the good really of who?

We, my generation felt the horrors of the first world war in that I remember my grandfather as a extremely quiet man who never talked of anything in his life time after that war.

I lived near a burn hospital in Kingston Ontario Canada and ran and screamed when I saw the men who walked the paths of the nearby park. We as chilldren knew no better as they looked like a horror film escapees. What they must have suffered in addition to their burns in the attitude we children displayed.

Today we are doing it again and again and it really has never stopped.

I guess my one thought of us as real human beings is that in the whole we are hypocrits.

Are we doomed to always devalue that which is all we really ever have of value
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LIFE ............................BRING OUR CHILDREN HOME

Mr Clinton says Canada needs to send more troops to Afganistan I say you go Sir because as most polilticians are around your age their lives are almost over so again

BRING OUR CHILDREN HOME

Sorry John but this day gets to me................................

And the veterans of this war are so young, it is heartbreaking. :(

You are so right Alfie...........

We send our babies to fight the wars we create ........then we call them all heros if they survive........firemen are heros......police are heros........baseball players are heros............hockey players are heros............soon we will be a world of heros..........and all will be as the reporters of CNN are............The best news broadscasters of all time

The biggest and the best and the most heroic are what we call ourselves in all areas

Now they say of the troops.........killed by enemy fire.........killed by roadside bomb.........killed by mortar impact.....Killed Killed Killed

Killed they are and by us !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Yes the whole thing is a sad situation.

I'm afraid those countries will always be an area of unrest.

What a great discussion on this thread! I want to say that I really appreciate and respect everyone's input and perspective.

I happen to be on a non-mainstream medication, one that is FDA approved, but not for the condition that I suffer from; Multiple Sclerosis. I did a lot of research on this drug, and based on anecdotal evidence & safety information I read, I knew I had to try it. I was in for a big fight to get this prescribed by my doctor/neuro though.

Frankly, I had almost given up; my life almost felt not worth living before this drug. Within days of starting on it, 18 months ago, I KNEW this was a "blessing", and a gift that I was meant to share with my peers/comrades.

Rest assured, talking about this drug so positively stirred a lot of controversy on the boards. :rolleyes: It is "unproven", "unscientific", perhaps even "dangerous", and I was told many times that it was "irresponsible" for me to tell people about this. I often wondered if sharing this information was worth the flack, stress and negativity I encountered . . . But, I knew that there was a chance that the research and doctor presentation information I prepared might REALLY help some people, so I persevered.

There are a lot of people using this drug now, and doctors/neuros most everywhere that are willing to prescribe it. I certainly can't take credit for that (there were already many willing to attest to it's effectiveness), but I DID help a lot of people get on it and feel better.

Some will still call me irresponsible, but I wouldn't change how I handled that. I met some of the best and now healthiest MS friends I have by sharing what I had learned.

Cherie

hello Thelma,
 

I am Julia aka Jo. It is nice to finally meet you after all these years.

I have agreed and also disagreed with you over all these years we have been roaming the WWW. It's nice to have friends that you can talk with, but not get into hateful words that linger on and on.

The older I get , the more I try to look "inside your heart", try understanding what you say and why. I doubt I always get it right, but our boundries seem to be pulling in, closer to the same more or less.

Dear Alffie is also one I truely do respect, especially when Mr. Froggy is kicking up his hills beside her. Then there is dear sweet Lara, she has such a good heart and I listen when she "talks"!

So many more dear ones, I will stop naming because I will surely miss many. I call you all "my family"

Thelma, I don't think we have ever been formally introduced, but I think it is time to do so. If I sound like a "crazy old hag"as I have been refered to by some, then I guess I am that, a "crazy old hag":) I have wondered how those that call me that have been able to see thru the monitor:eek:

If anybody is looking this a.m. they see the old hag in her warm robe with pinquin trying to keep upright on their snow skies all over the place. lol I don't think I have read the rule where you have to be dressed to the hilt, purple dress, red hat and multi strings of pearls on this early in the morning.

Well, nuff of that. I love you all, but I did want to meet Thelma. She has a good heart too. I understand what I mean in my heart, but many times others do not "get" what I'm saying. That's ok, I've lived with some of you around 10 years now. I am thankful I dropped into the Classic chat one night, desperate as all get out and many took me under their wing. I am grateful!

Thelma, it is so nice to finally meet you. Many times I understand you even when others do not. Thank you for being a dear friend to me, even though you didn't know me.

This is probably way off topic, but I'm running on empty these days and have no idea when time is up. Sixty four more years wouldn't hurt my feelings:p

About your avatar, Thelma. I see a dear one on that picture, actually several very dear ones. I like it, I really do.

Thank you all for letting me ramble on and on. my love, Jo

aka Issy

Julia

YOU really know how to make one day a bit brighter. Thank you.

The small picture is of my eldest grandson Christopher who has been gone for over 3 years now. Chris was a lost soul on this planet of ours. He never found the will to find a reason to be good to himself.

Chris was an alcolollic and a pill popper and in the end he had aids. He married after the diagnosis and both his wife and his only child have remained clear of this foul disease for 12 years now. They divorced after being married only a year and a half. She was as he was but changed during and after the marriage. Their daughter is the spitting image of her Father.

In all of the years that he and I had and on and on again episodes of drinking and running around he never was drunk in front of me. He would steal my wine and run with it. Maybe he came back to sleep or maybe he never came back for months at a time then the phone would ring and please Gramma come get me.

He never wanted to die but he never wanted to live either. I still look for an understanding of the why's and what's but they don't come easy.

He would use the treatment centres as stopping off places and indeed that is all they really are in the long run, places to rest for awhile.

I once asked him why he didn't join the service and see if the hard work and regulations could help him and he said, to H with that I don't want to kill anyone.........or even learn to.

He was a paradox.

The picture illustrates to me, when I use it, of the time and the memories past as his face is superimposed on the last picture we have of him. It appears to be fading into the past now and that is good. He is in my mind and that is where he is safe and free of all his torment.

I cared for the boy.........I disliked the man.........I loved my grandson






Each and every person on this forum has a heartache and an experience that is hard to talk about but if they stay here and allow themselves to open up they will find their own lives are not as unique as we all think.

There is a peace that comes from sharing.............the good and the bad

Thank you for asking me too.

I absolutely agree with you Thelma
 

I have seen it a number of times when people tell you to do this or that, and can be very insisitant. I remember one forum member privately IM'ing me and telling me my life was in danger if I didn't do such and such thing right away. Of course I know better... but I know others here do not.

I would not assume that everyone here knows better, that would be naive. I know to forum members in particular who have blindly followed the advice they got from some posters... and it was very bad, and in one case really detrimental to her child.