Time Machine

The other day I caught myself thinking about 30 years ago — way back in 1979.   I wondered what was I doing this time 30 years ago?   Well, Labor Day weekend 1979 would have found me in Morgan City, Louisiana.   I would have just started 10th grade about two weeks earlier since we started school in late August.   Labor Day weekend was a big deal back then.   Friday would kick off the start of the local Shrimp and Petroleum Festival, which lasted all weekend.   I would probably be at a local parade with my family, excitedly watching for my high school friends marching in the band.   There would be floats featuring local business owners and charity club members.   Then there would be the 4H club riding on their mounts and other horse riding groups.   Those were fun days.

Me doing the Telethon 1978 or 79.

Labor Day weekend was also big for my family because of the MDA telethon that would start on Sunday night.   We usually participated in some way either driving to Lafayette to appear on TV or making an appearance at our local cable station where the Jaycees were doing their own version of the Telethon.   Often I felt like a celebrity.   It was a mixed bag of emotions for me.   In high school I wanted to be seen as capable and just like other kids my age.   The telethon sometimes made me feel like people pitied me.   Pity is the last thing I would ever want!   Compassion, yes, because compassion is necessary in this life.

I’ve always appreciated people who were willing to be compassionate and give towards worthy causes.   I don’t always agree with everything MDA does with the funds they receive, but they have often helped me and my family and for that I’m grateful.

I’ll be honest here.   My gripe with the research dollars MDA spends is that it doesn’t go directly to help individuals today and I don’t put much stock in what kind of research they are doing.   In my opinion some of it is wasted on genetic research to encourage abortions of babies and on embryonic stem cell research, which has never yielded a promising result.   (Adult stem cell research has yielded many life-saving treatments.)

If you care to donate to MDA this weekend during their annual telethon, you can mark your pledge as being for equipment or summer camp and that way you know it will go directly to help someone with a muscle disease.   Technology has done more for my life than medical research.   Technology is expensive, so your donations definitely do help.