No matter which side of the health care argument one is on, THIS behavior by the tea baggers is just WRONG. I so wish there was a way to determine who the individuals are expressing such dehumanizing behavior. Perhaps we shall see them on Rush Limbaugh's program in the near future (~50 seconds into program individual with Parkinson's sits down holding his sign)
(this rally took place in my state, Ohio--shheesh. when did people become so mean?)

http://www.progressohio.org/page/com...veharding/CXlF

Madlyn - this moves me to tears and anger. I just posted it on Facebook; I hope lots of people take the time to look.

It actually has very little to do with the fact that this poor soul has PD. It speaks more to the sad state of the world where some people lack any semblance of compassion and empathy, blinded by their selfishness and arrogance.

But it does matter that he has PD. Not that having PD is better or worse than having another disease, but his having PD is germane to why these people felt they could so berate this guy. He was offering up what is for most a highly personal and painful reality. A frightening weakness. This was no Michael J Fox or Muhammad Ali, or Andy Grove. This guy is just a guy: just a guy who not only laid bare the sickness in our society but the individual sickness of PD.

Fortunately people you meet individually on the street--even in central Ohio--aren't likely to treat you so badly even if you are freezing or festinating right in their way, but get the mob together and the weaker members of society had better watch out. It just gets down to basic animal behavior: the mob is afraid that there won't be "enough" (of money, health care, material goods, American dream) to go around and they get scared (don't tell them that). They want to make sure that some sickly competitor doesn't take anything that is "rightfully" theirs. It's an old, old story, putting all your fears and frustrations but mostly your fears onto the shoulders of a weaker being, a scapegoat.

This clip has hit the internet and televised news shows around the world. Representative Kilroy, who herself it turns out has MS, took time on the house floor this morning to lament the episode. Its on c-span http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/292588-1. She starts talking at 10:11.

Devils Advocate statement:

Everyone is upset over the guy with pd. He chose to sit where he is and may have known exactly what he was doing. We are not helpless because we have pd. He was clearly baiting them.

Which of us is right? Neither of us knows. But what if the statement above is correct?

Which is what madelyn is saying. Attack via disability...and that would be from both sides -the real issue is pure politics. Here we go again.

Judging and categorizing people because we take the bait of politicians and media is our own fault. It's like an illness - this falling for political views usually based on falsehoods and hate.

I imagine the actions of those people will come to haunt them when they are alone. I'd like to know about the guy with pd and the videographer.

Paula - the "videographer" was the Columbus Dispatch - a newspaper. They were reporting on the rally. This footage was not taken by an observer, but by a reporter and camera crew who were there to cover the story.

I am actually old enough to remember a time when well meaning and sincere people could debate political differences with passion, good humor and civility. Occasionally one even changed another's position with a well reasoned argument. It was long ago and far away.

This clip illustrates the worst side of human nature and we can only hope that when those cruel and heartless demonstrators saw themselves they were mortified by their behavior.

One wonders if any of those men has a living mother, surely they would not have carried on in that manner if they did.

Ugly, ugly, ugly, where is compassion in all of this

I, too, was moved to tears when I saw this display of inhumanity. I am not the one with PD...I am the care partner, and after the tears, came the rage and anger. I realize that many of these people are gullible, uneducated people who "soak up"the visciousness of those who would lie and deceive...but, where is their own sense of decency and compassion? Have they been so indocrinated that they are devoid of their own sense of decency? Were they once decent people who have literally been so brain washed that they have forgotton who they once were? I have been watching and listening to all the vile rhetoric...lies...misinformation being spewed by those who have no interest in real Health Care Reform...whose only "platform" is greed...receiving millions from the Pharmaceutical and Insurance companies in an attempt to stop ANY kind of reform...lining their pockets with those millions. For months, now, I have been raising my voice here at home...even shouting at the television...and my pwp has not understood my almost "violent behavior"...UNTIL this evening when she saw what happened to that poor man with PD. She actually couldn't believe her eyes. I called her to come see and hear what I've been attempting to tell her for such a long time. If nothing else, she now understands, and she, too, was brought to tears...and I ask as I did in my title..."What has happened to our country?"

I haven't posted here in a very long time, but I felt compelled to be part of your "anger" and sadness, too.

Virginia (aka Therese)

Being from Ohio and living about 50 miles away from Columbus where this display of inhumanity took place, I am appalled that the people of this state (who are usually warm caring people) could be so cruel and insensitive.

GregD