Michael J. Fox was on
This Week with George Stephanopolous earlier today. First of all, three cheers to this guy. He has the cash to spend the rest of his days in luxurious, secluded retirement surrounded by loved ones, instead of becoming a lure for the vicious smears of right-wing media. He's been doing it for years with style, class, and infectious humor. Here, Fox responds to Rush Limbaugh who said in part "
When you start telling them that there's a cure ... You are creating a false hope scenario. And that is cruel."
Video and transcript at Crooks and Liars --MJ FOX: What is crueler, to not have hope or to have hope? And it's not false hope. It's a very informed hope. I mean, it's hope that's informed by the opinion of our leading scientists, almost to the point of unanimity that embryonic stem cells, because they're pluripotent, because they have the capacity to be anything ...
I don't want to get too corny about it, but isn't that what that person in harbor with the thing is about, hope? And so to characterize hope as some kind of malady or some kind of flaw of character or national weakness is, to me, really counter to what this country is about.
What ever irrelevent side issue the GOP is creating out of thin air today, I can safely predict for most of you reading this, regardless if you're a republican, democrat, independent, or apolitical: During your life, someone you know and love deeply, a parent, a sibling, a child, a friend, a spouse -- there's a good chance it will be you -- is going to die a long, lingering, dehumanizing, painful death from a disease or injury that Embryonic Stem Cell Research holds great promise to treat. In fact, most of us will have to witness this several times, before it's our turn.
These blastocytes, about 100 cells or less, ten times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence1, are going to be thrown in to a medical waste dispenser, or used for research. President Bush used the one and only veto of his entire miserable term to date on a bi-partisan Bill that would have saved a few dozen blastocytes out of hundreds of thousands from destruction, and marked them for life-saving research. Bush did this solely to retain the votes of a small minority of Americans and against the will of the great majority of the rest. He did it knowing full well it would not save a single human life, and that it could well cost the lives of millions.
Here I speak purely for myself and not for Michael J. Fox: In my view, that veto will not be overridden, and this great nation will be held hostage to these bug-fuck-crazy neoconservative extremists, as long as there is a Republican Majority in Congress. It's really that simple.