msb-0304 I can't complain

Direct Link to episode -> http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/msb-0304_I_cant_complain.m4a

YouTube Vids

Intro

Feedback comes first, so...

After watching the cyclone news from "Myanmar" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burma ] (the country formerly known as "Burma", home of a xenophobic, self-congratulatory, inept, bumbling and murderously idiotic military regime,) and the earthquake news from China, I have "nothing" to complain about.

As I sit here in my dry, intact, almost affordable condo, hundreds of feet above sea level, on a solid piece of one of the most stable land masses on earth (its stable, but its not the "Nullarbor" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nullarbor_National_Park ] plain of Australia,) in a land without bombs going off, where there are more people killed by their own stupidity than by guns and where hate crimes are the laughably inept knocking over of gravestones, I "really" can't complain.

---- "Blue Days" by: "2AM" http://www.2amband.com/

FeedForward

---- "Some Days Intro" by: "Pete Scafidi" http://petescafidi.com/

FeedMe

---- "Some Days" by: "Pete Scafidi" http://petescafidi.com/

"Thesis:"

I've had people complain to me that I don't seem to have a lot of medical information on this podcast.

Apart from me describing my symptoms and how I'm coping with them, you "won't" hear me pretend that "I'm" any sort of a doctor.

There are a lot of reasons for that, chief among these is the fact that I respect you too much to lead you astray, and I hope you respect me too much to ask me to work miracles.

The best I can hope to achieve is to work towards some redress of the underrepresentation in the media that MSers all "also" suffer from.

---- "8 Days Down" by: "Jen Elliott" http://www.citycanyons.com/jenElliott/index.html

"Synthesis:"

We've got a real problem we MSers, we one in twelve hundred, we 0.0833% of the population.

(Apart from the obvious, I mean. Yes, we got clobbered by a bus with the license plates MS. Shit happened. And we're all trying to "get over it", thank you very much.)

But its a problem we share with the remainder of the 15% of the population that the World Health Organization, (the W.H.O.) estimates is disabled.

Apart from very infrequent guest spots on "Oprah" or as the tragic love interest to some or other cinematic or TV hero, we're an invisible minority.

Oh there are all those curb cuts that the FedEx and UPS men use to move their dollies from the street to the sidewalk and all those spots that people aren't "supposed" to park their God damn cars in ("Yeah, lady in the green Jaguar. I would have parked my car there but you were where you had no business. If I could've, I would've parked right behind you, but I would have been blocking traffic, and two wrongs don't make a right.")

But we, the handicapped, never mind the MSers, are all but forgotten in the media that's made for the other 85%.

"That" is why I was so taken with "Joel Goldman" [ http://www.joelgoldman.com/content/index.asp and http://media.libsyn.com/media/msb/msb-0287_Shake_Down.m4a ] and his fictional hero "Jack Davis."

If I had the time and the talent, I would write a character with MS into a piece of fiction concerning a possible aftermath of 9/11. But, sadly, I don't.

We want for heroes and heroines who can act as role models for us, the 15%ers. (Face it, when's the last time you saw a "Marlee Matlin" movie? [ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0559144/ {and her handicap is not at all visible. Its not even audible until she opens her mouth to speak. (Its not like having to watch her struggle with a cane. Then I don't care how cute you are, boyfriends are dust trail vanishing in the distance.)}])

I'm not going to denigrate the everyday heroes who triumph every day by getting up and doing the things that the 85%ers do without a thought, but I do feel we're too invisible for our own good.

The blogs and the podcast are here to remind us that we "are" here, that we "do" exist, "if anybody reads them", and I'm no "Gutzon Borglum", [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutzon_Borglum ] but I'm trying to carve out of the solid granite in people heads a "Mount Rushmore" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rushmore ] with "our" faces on it.

And so I keep on using "Wikipedia" [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page ] to inspire you and I keep "Twittering" [ http://twitter.com/msbpodcast ] to try and build a network of people like you.

Its not competitive, its collaborative.

And we're all the stronger for it.

---- "My Yesterdays" by: "Eddie Ramirez" http://www.eddie-ramirez.com/

"Conclusion:"

I've had people complain to me that I don't seem to have a lot of medical information on this podcast.

Apart from me describing my symptoms and how I'm coping with them, you "won't" hear me pretend that "I'm" any sort of a doctor.

And that's not likely to change.

But if I can make any difference in peoples' perception of disability in general and MS in specific, I'll consider that a major achievement.

---- "Sweet Vineyard Days" by: "Ben Willmott" http://www.benwillmottmusic.com/

Outro

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