Election Time

            Currently, there is a certain person running for president, who I don’t support. Then again, I don’t support the other person either. To be honest, I don’t support either of the 2 big third party options either, though I do like one person, mostly, better than the others. Personally, I’m not sure who to vote for.

However, if he were running, I would vote for Mike Rowe. I think he would get me as an everyday person. At the very least, I’d sit down and drink a raspberry iced tea with him since I can’t drink a beer with him. Medicines, you know.

With the choices I have, I really don’t know who to support. There’s nobody in the center enough for me, and frankly, while Vermin Supreme seems like a joke candidate, at least he sounds like he cares about our planet’s future. At the very least he has a plan for the zombie apocalypse and a pony for everyone. I personally can’t turn that down.

            Nevertheless, this isn’t about who to vote for, but rather it’s about the unprofessional attacks on a person who has enough legitimate problems to attack without speculating on her having Parkinson’s disease or not (as does the other guy, though nobody is trying to out him as a Parkinson’s sufferer – maybe they just think he has some kind of antisocial disorder).

            In short, I bring this up to say it’s nobody’s right to out anyone about anything. For instance, I think back to when musician Bob Mould (Sugar, Husker Du) was outed by Faith No More’s Roddy Bottum in 1993. At the time, Mould was livid that his life was changed by someone other than him. While much of society looks at being uncloseted with regard to homosexuality differently now, at the time, it was a big deal to make the choice to be out. Now, it’s almost like, OK, nice to see you have chosen to find love and contentment as you choose. Eventually, Bob Mould came to embrace his place as a role model, but in the end, it’s his choice, not someone else’s.

            Parkinson’s is no different, especially with respect to Hillary, who the National Parkinson’sFoundation actually had to put out a statement about her innocence, at least with concern to her health / POTENTIAL condition. How we came to that point where people are wondering about her health in this way is ridiculous, but you gotta love the Inter-web thing. Maybe this is just revenge for the agist attacks onJohn McCain in 2008. Then again, maybe this is just discrimination toward people’s notion of able and not able. There’s already enough discrimination and rottenness to go around. We don’t need any more confusing people as it masquerades as truth. A lot of people hear or see a few things and they get dangerous. With a position to rant their nonsense, this is where we are now. What’s worse, this is now a topic of conversation, but we’re not conversing about solutions or living life with these conditions.

            Dumb, dumb, dumb.

To me, I look at this really simply. It seems like people forget that one of our 3 historically mostsignificant presidents had polio, and he still got us to the end of World War 2 before dying.

            Then again, history is boring, and nobody wants to think about it. Was there a president before Bill Clinton? What did people do before 4G cell phones? It’s like we were all Neanderthals in caves.

            To me, I believe in the right and responsibility of people to stand up for one another. Whether we have disabilities or not, we need to be respectful and understanding of others and we need to tell others to do the same. Yes, some disabilities may be more aggressive and scary than others, but when we educate ourselves to them, we grow and we work through it while helping others work through it, too. Other disabilities may seem like they suck the life out of people, and for this, we are saddened by these conditions, but when we see the person with them as a person and not a death sentence or a lifeless husk waiting to happen, we can enjoy our time with that person before the bad stuff comes.

            Here, life is not guaranteed. Enjoy it while you have it.

            For me, if I can show people that despite my tremors and other symptoms, I enjoy life, then all the better. If I can speak up for others, all the better. I can understand why people wouldn’t want to come out, but my tremors revealed my place in the world whether I want them to or not. That’s why I’ll talk to anyone about this since I need to learn from them, too.

            With regard to this, I also think of Yankee great Joe Dimaggio, who was asked about why he plays so hard. His response was, "Because there might have been somebody in the stands today who'd never seen my play before, and might never see me again."

            I apply that to this because there might be someone out there who doesn’t know what to think about people with Parkinson’s. Maybe he thinks I’m going to break in half if I fall. Maybe she thinks my mind is scrambled eggs. Maybe that kid is afraid to talk to me. Maybe someone is worried that they did this to me or I’m going to die tomorrow. The truth is that I am what I am, and I’m here until I’m not. In the meantime, if I hike the waterfalls of Glen Onoko or up the boulders of Lehigh Gap to the top of the Appalachian Trail, I get to be an overcomer, a role model, and a setter-straight of all facts. If I smile in public, I’m having fun and enjoying life, not suffering. I’m sure I’ll do that, but for now, I’m not.

            For that, I write this blog, and I keep on living.

            I’m smart enough to know my condition will progress, and things will happen. Until then, I’m fighting to keep that day from coming before it has to. As I do so, my wife, family, and friends will be behind me. People like you who are reading this will also be inspired to do more, whether you have Parkinson’s or something else or you’re living a “normal” life.

            In the end, we’re as able as we let ourselves be.

            As far as our speculations and dislike of a certain candidate, hate her for the e-mails, Benghazi, Whitewater, and her policies (or vote for her; it’s your choice), but people should just drop the “hey you disable piece of crap” nonsense that they’re foisting on her and others. It just makes them look like someone we wouldn’t want to have a beer with, much less, stand next to in polite company.