Here is a copy of the letter my husband sent to the paper. Sorry it took so long.

Shame on Ansley Haman and the News-Sentinel for presenting Multiple
Sclerosis as a mental illness ("Who's going to speak up for these
people?"). Most of the picture captions and all of the front page text
talk about nothing but MS and the trouble this poor man has gotten
into - NOT as a result of his MS, but due to his bipolar and a
paranoid schizophrenic illnesses. Not until the very last page of the
article on the back page of Section B is the mental illness diagnosis
ever even mentioned. People that don't know much about MS and read
any, or even all, of the article are going to get the idea that the
disease is a form of mental illness. And they will now see anyone with
MS as mentally ill. Why do I care, and object to this false labeling?
My wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 13 years ago and, ever
since then, she has researched the disease as thoroughly as anyone
possibly can. As a matter of fact, she routinely surprises her MS
doctors with her knowledge of the subject and frequently presents
research, findings and other information they were not aware of. So
she knows what is and is not involved where the disease is concerned.
As for MS and bipolar, paranoid schizophrenic or any mental illness,
there is NO KNOWN CONNECTION. And the only known mental concerns that
have presented with some patients taking Betaseron are depression and
suicidal thoughts. These would certainly not result in the kind of
actions described that led to the man's multiple arrests, as the
article would have you believe. At the very least, the News-Sentinel
should print a retraction and a public apology to the hundreds of
thousands suffering from MS. This man's plight is indeed great and
should be addressed. And public awareness does need to be raised for
both MS and mental illness. But the paper had no right casting the
mental illness label on Multiple Sclerosis sufferers - especially
since there is so little public awareness of the disease. In this
case, bad press is indeed worse than no press at all.