November 16, 2010
Ms. Sally Huffstetler
390 Golfview Road
Atlanta, GA 30309
Dear Sally,
I capture your mind by breaking down memories built throughout your lifetime. I am a thief, who detaches you from the familiar, leaving you lifeless. I am a plagiarizer, who destroys your identity – preventing you from discerning your comb from your car keys. I make you question if you ate breakfast and nullify your judgment. There are no survivors to walk for my disease, no survivors pleading to Congress to fund research for my disease – I attack more than 1,200 people daily. The government funds my disease at 1% that of AIDS, yet I kill five times as many people. Sandra Day O’Connor said it best in The New York Times:
“Our government is ignoring what is likely to become the single greatest threat to the health of Americans: Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that is 100 percent incurable, and 100 percent fatal. It attacks rich and poor, white collar and blue, and women and men, without regard to party. A degenerative disease, it steadily robs its victims of memory, judgment and dignity, leaves them unable to care for themselves and destroys their brain and their identity – often depleting their caregivers and families both emotionally and financially.”
You cannot continue to disregard my disease, as I will bankrupt health care if a cure is not found. I am Alzheimer’s.
Sincerely,
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