Existential Punk

IMPORTANT Lyme Disease Legislation Introduced

'Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Chairman of its Subcommittee on Children and Families, along with Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), have introduced the Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Prevention, Education, and Research Act of 2009. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-CT), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD).'

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE.

PLEASE PHONE YOUR CONGRESS PEOPLE AND INSIST THAT THEY SUPPORT THIS VERY IMPORTANT LEGISLATION FOR ALL OF US LYME DISEASE & OTHER TICK-BORNE DISEASES SUFFERERS! LYME DISEASE IS AT EPIDEMIC PROPORTIONS, WORSE THAN HIV/AIDS! PLEASE TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS LEGISLATION! THANK YOU! As someone who suffers daily with this HORRIBLE and GHASTLY disease that has wreaked havoc on my entire being, PLEASE help me and all the others who suffer mercilessly with this disease that is HELL ON EARTH!

Dr. Oz and Lyme Disease

"Under Our Skin's" director, Andy Abrahamson Wilson, will be a featured guest on Drr. Oz's satellite radio show. Here's the lowdown from a Lyme Disease Yahoo group Katryna is signed up on:

Under Our Skin will be featured on Dr. Mehmet Oz's radio show on Oprah
and Friends.

XM Satellite Radio, November 26, 2008.

It airs 3 times during that day at 1:00 am, 7:00 am and 6:00 pm Eastern time.

*You can listen to via the Internet FOR FREE even if you don't have Satellite Radio!

Plus Dr. Oz said, "He wants to hear from people who are suffering with Lyme."

Dr. Mehmet Oz said, "His entire family couldn't stop watching Under Our Skin". Dr. Oz interviewed filmmaker Andy Abrahams Wilson along with medical reporter Kathy Fowler for nearly an hour about the complications and controversies of Lyme disease.

It's a very big deal for the Lyme community that Dr. Oz featured this topic on his show because he is well respected and has a lot of influence in the medical community as well as the general public.

Dr. Mehmet Oz is professor and vice chairman of surgery at Columbia
University in New York City, director of the Cardiovascular Institute
and founder and director for the Complementary Medicine Program at
NewYork-Presbyteria n Hospital. He is a regular contributor to The Oprah Winfrey Show and Oprah.com.

On The Verge of A Tipping Point . . .

Andy Abrahams, director of the new documentary on Lyme Disease, "Under Our Skin" was presented The Vision of Hope Award on November 13, 2008 by Turn The Corner Foundation. Hopefully all the press that Andy is receiving will bring a greater and wider awareness to this life-changing and debilitating disease. Turn The Corner is assisting Andy in raising awareness about the film and Lyme Disease, as well as money in order to have a wide release theatrically.

DUE TO TECHNICAL ERROR at the WEBSITE, THIS POST WILL BE UPDATED LATER!

UPDATED @ 3.30 P.M.:

Below is the text of Andy’s speech as he accepted his award. It is a message to the entire Lyme community:

“What an honor to be here tonight to receive the Vision of Hope Award! Words that are dear to me: vision and hope—and award!

This has been an incredible journey for me as a filmmaker and individual these past several years at the helm of UNDER OUR SKIN. I started the project with little more than compassion and curiosity—and perhaps courage (or craziness), given I had no funding at all at the time. But at the onset there was no great vision of hope—and I’m glad.

Because what I went through was nothing less than the transformation of my soul. It was not just an ideal. Hope as an abstract. Or a cause to champion. An axe to grind. My being was changed irrevocably by what I witnessed: suffering, injustice, and deafening silence. And above all: the courage of so many to persevere, to fight for life amidst the eclipse of light: the pain, fear, loneliness, and the mantra ‘It’s all in your head.’ I was changed by the responsibility to do justice to the people who entrusted me with the only sure thing that remained amidst a disease which robbed them of everything they knew: their story.

We’ve been thrown together by shared, lived stories about the adversity of a disease, and its denial. What an unlikely reason to gather. And yet what also draws us together is the knowledge that together we can make a difference—not just for ourselves, but for others behind us, or next to us, who don’t have a voice, have less resources, or simply have given up. Our vision of hope is that together we can turn the corner.

In every struggle there’s a point where the vision of a few becomes universal, where what’s seen as primarily a community’s concern enters public consciousness and shifts public perception. We’ve seen it with civil rights, women’s rights, AIDS, global warming, and soon gay rights: The point where the cause is championed by the many, not just the few who would seem to benefit directly. Where it is understood that the well being of others affects our own well being, and the threat to others is a direct threat to ourselves. That we are linked. We are linked.

That is where we stand today, linked—at the verge of the tipping point. We cannot give up holding the vision or maintaining the hope, or giving everything we can: our money, our sweat, our love. Because the shift is not assured. But it is near.

So tonight I feel proud and humbled to be recognized for vision of hope in the Lyme disease struggle. For what I have envisioned and imagined is simply a reflection of what and whom I have seen and come to know. I owe this award to you, some of you here: Mandy and Jordan and Kris and Kathy and Elise. And some of you missed: Alan, and Leslie—a fallen hero.

I thank ALL the UNDER OUR SKIN film subjects who shared their stories in the vision of helping and healing, even as their own hope diminished.

I thank Eva and all the UNDER OUR SKIN crew who shared their great talents and care.

I thank you, Turn The Corner Foundation, for your own vision of hope, and for entrusting our film and your support of it with this vision.

And I thank all of you here tonight who embody compassion, curiosity–and courage, who envision change, and have hope and faith that the tipping point really is around the corner.”