This blog entry is part of the Protest Pity blog-a-thon. Find other articles there. DISCLAIMER: I have taken money from the MDA...not directly..mostly to help pay for part of a wheelchair the state would have paid anyway...and a trip to the MDA clinic at OHSU, where the doctor admitted I knew more about my condition than he did...and to call him again if I ever found anything on the Internet that could help me...hah! I am going again in a few weeks because my doctor begged me. What a waste! My parents went to a support group that I refused to waste my time on - they must not have learned much. They stopped going after 3 months. I don't know exactly how I feel about the MDA. I've found the medical care to be sub-par.(see above) 50 years of telethons? And not one cure of the dozens of diseases MDA researches? Not one? Their support sucks. A cure is a fine goal, but why can't the MDA help us live with this first? I had to learn how to navigate the state health care system alone. They haven't helped me find a job...or deal with day to day life...I've even asked for this kind of help...I wrote a long email once to the MDA coordinator at OHSU and she ignored it. She didn't even write me back to tell me she couldn't help! I do like their magazine, Quest. It's well-written and full of good tips . The web site is good too. It explains my conditions quite simply. And, I'm sure the summer camp for kids is great. Jerry Lewis and the telethon? Depressing! I remember watching it as a kid (before the advent of my disability) ,and thinking being in a chair must be so horrible and I would rather die than be a poor, disabled folk. I even held off on the wheelchair -- something that made my life easier -- partly because of the ideas the telethon gave me. I can't watch it anymore. I think the MDA should stop using pity to raise money, because keeping us down is not helping the people MDA is proclaiming to help or making the MDA accountable...I'm sure the bulk of that money goes to research and medical care, which stink in my opinion.