17 Jun
1998
17 Jun
'98
2:46 p.m.
Uncle Roger wrote:
At 12:11 AM 6/17/98 -0400, you wrote:
Rog, my wife is a nurse whose main specialty is home care of quads and
ventilator patients -- and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) is not a stranger
to me. I've met Stephen Hawking. He still amazes me, not just the way
he does maths but that he was diagnosed with ALS in 1966 and has now
lived over thirty years further with a condition that averages less than
six years from diagnosis to mortality. The man gave us quantum black
holes, then he told us why they weren't around anymore. Yes, I've got
his whole recent PBS series on tape. Lisa has sort of semi-retired from
nursing because she got tired of taking care of patients who (on schedule)
died on her. And our car also has a handicapped card, as Lisa's back is
_severely_ screwed up from taking care of the occasional 400-lb quad plus
we regularly transport her father who finally took the 100% disability
retirement from the USAF in 1957 that he was granted by the Navy in 1945.
(Yeah, he came home for a while in '45. He got bored so he signed up
with the OSS and hunted "ex"-Nazis until the OSS had its brains removed
and became the CIA, so he joined the USAF and wound up spending 18 months
as a guest of the PRC at a resort they had in Manchuria after a plane he
was in made an unscheduled landing during the Korean unpleasantness).
(One of these days, I've got to put up a _real_ web page including scans
of his DD-214).
--
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Hire the handicapped. They don't get much
work done, but they're fun
to watch.
Call me a pissing-liberal, but I have to reply... (and yes, I understand
it was most likely a joke, but for them what don't understand that...) (And
keep in mind that especially on the internet, there is a very high
probability that someone who reads your message may be physically
challenged. (I know for a fact that at least one person on this list is.))
The "handicapped" are often more productive than the rest of society.
Hawking is a good example. I can cite more if you want.
So call me hyper-sensitive, but as one who drives around with a crip-card
in the car most of the time...
Actually, it is the people who seem physically fine that are often the most
handicapped.