Jocelyn.Lovell@f415.n259.z1.fidonet.org (Jocelyn Lovell) (06/06/90)
Index Number: 8660 [This is from the Spinal Injury Conference] Elizabeth, The U.S. Senate is well aware of paralysis and the Spinal Cord Society, A lot of people look to government for miracles. It's gimme this and gimme that. They are hardly to be blamed. The government certainly ladles out a good deal--but little that might be used to rock any boats. Whatever, the notion that government can or likely will solve this problem is probably a pipe dream. In anything but the most dire emergencies the efforts of government are hopelessly politicized and defocused. While government has supported much basic research of value, there is never any follow-through to a conclusion aimed at human welfare, probably because that would be an "unwarranted interference with private enterprise". Research funds always go through a government bureaucracy. There, as in any bureaucracy, people have their own priorities which seldom have much to do with the public interest. After this laundering it is doubtful very much would get done. It is the same here in Canada. In a free society it is the job of people to use their hard fought for rights to citizen advocacy and reform. In North America and a few other areas are just about the last places on Earth where this can be done. It is up to the paralyzed to understand, to help themselves, and to help medicine help itself. Medicine cannot create public demand or generate understanding and support for itself. Most especially it cannot do that if there is a wide perception it stands opposed to progress. Like it or not, support for the goal of progress is the job of us all. If anyone can look at the SCS record in the past 5 years and doubt the impact only a few thousand hard working volunteers can have, then they are blind indeed to reality. Still blinder are they if they think improvement can always be left up to the other guy. You can support the cause, subscribe to the monthy SCS Newsletter, $30.00 per year, to Wendell Road, Fergus Falls, Minnesota, 56537, USA. It will give you up-to-date information on cure research. .............Jocelyn -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!259!415!Jocelyn.Lovell Internet: Jocelyn.Lovell@f415.n259.z1.fidonet.org
Liz.Petry@f308.n398.z1.fidonet.org (Liz Petry) (06/06/90)
Index Number: 8677 [This is from the Spinal Injury Conference] Jocelyn, Even though I am not a "plegic" (in other words...with a permanent-type of spinal injury that makes me wheelchair bound), I have developed a tremendous amount of empathy for people who ARE wheelchair bound...since I could've been in the exact same predicament!! I believe I am going to help you do some supporting of this...because I spoke to a good friend of mine in Austin who is a Nursing Student at UT Austin, and also runs his own BBS...(If you want the phone #, it's 512-454-0804...called HUMANTIAS..Richard DeWald is the Sysop) and he told me the other day that maybe if methylprednislone (sp?) was available to the public last year...then MAYBE, JUST MAYBE..I wouldn't even have the daily, chronic pain that I have had to live with for the last year!! But, our beloved Government, who will not hesitate to cut military benefits, and will study the sex life of a tse-tse fly...makes me sick that our FDA takes so D--- long to get a drug out on the market! I think that this drug should be administered to ALL serious accident victims...TO PREVENT PERMANENT SPINAL INJURY! I copied down the address of the newsletter, and I plan to subscribe...do you get it? What kind of articles does it have? I hope we may talk again soon!! Elizabeth -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!398!308!Liz.Petry Internet: Liz.Petry@f308.n398.z1.fidonet.org