[Vision2020] Michael J. Fox interview

[Tom Hansen]

To quote Michael Fox's book, "No Clue":

"Snippets of my testimony were featured on several of the nightly news 
broadcasts.  One line in particular from my prepared statement got a lot of 
play:  "In my forties, I can expect challenges most people wouldn't face 
until their seventies and eighties, if ever.  But with your help, if we all 
do everything we can to eradicate this disease, when I'm in my fifties I'll 
be dancing at my children's weddings."  I had made a deliberate choice to 
appear before the subcommittee without medication.  It seemed to me that 
this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, 
and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard.  
For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the 
transformation must have been startling."

Pat Kraut's statement:

"Did you read the book wherein Fox was the first to say that he had played 
with his meds to put on a good show?? People with Parkinson's were incensed 
when they heard he did it! Rush didn't make it up...Fox did!"

My original statement that Michael Fox NEVER made such a statement still 
stands.

As far as "People with Parkinson's were incensed when they heard he did it" 
is concerned, here is another passage from Michael Fox's book (shortly after 
Fox's testmony before the subcommittee):

"As Joan [a California attorney suffering from Parkinson's Disease] and I 
left the corridors of power we must have looked like a pair of drunken 
sailors; the day's hectic events had brought our symptoms to full boil, and 
both of us were a little wobbly.  But something else was going on with Joan 
- I noticed that she was fighting back tears.  'Am I missing something?' I 
said, baffled.  'I thought we did pretty good back there.'

'Oh, it was fantastic,' she said.  'It's just that it's always been so hard 
to get anyone to even listen to us, never mind invite us into their 
offices.'  She flashed me a smile.  'It's a whole new world.'"

Just what is your definition of "incensed", Pat?

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho



>From: heirdoug at netscape.net
>To: thansen at moscow.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020]  Michael J. Fox interview
>Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:16:40 -0500
>
>Tom-Tom,
>
>Try this one:
>
>Lucky Man: A Memoir, by Michael J. Fox. On page 247-248, he describes
>his testimony before the Senate hearing. He does not say that he played
>with his medication; he says he did not take it (to show the true
>effects of PD).
>
>lemeno, Doug!
>
>PS: I'm still waiting!