[Vision2020] Michael J. Fox interview

[Paul Rumelhart]

Tom Hansen wrote:

>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."
>  
>
I admit that I don't understand how this can be construed as a bad 
thing.  Not masking the effects of your illness with medication before 
testifying on the conditions of your illness before a subcommittee?  
Where's the problem, again?

Would it have been better to have taken the medication in order to 
appear as "normal" as possible?  How would that have helped?

How could this possibly be worse that accusing someone who has this 
disease of faking it's symptoms for the cameras?  I can understand 
someone who is not familiar with the disease who wonders if it might not 
be real because it shocks them.  However, you would think that a radio 
personality with a cult following would think first before spouting off 
about it on the air.

But then again, I've often wondered if Rush Limbaugh is really just 
faking being a conservative windbag.  I mean, he does it so well, he 
must be acting.  I guess that's what they mean when they say that truth 
is stranger than fiction.

Paul