"Be kinder than necessary.
Everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle."
Everyone you meet is fighting some sort of battle."
So many people in this world are dealing with trials of so many kinds. Just look at the evening news broadcasts and there's enough to overwhelm even the hardest of hearts. After a while, it's easy to become desensitized to the suffering and the struggles of others, particularly when they are represented not as individuals but as a collective statistic. And when that statistical total drops by one point, it's often too easy to forget that, a precious human being's life has just reached a tragic end. Someone's father or mother; a child; a relative; a friend. And for every number on that chart, there is a whole group of people who are affected deeply by the loss, for when we lose someone close, a little piece of us dies too.
NBC correspondent Charles Sabine, who has witnessed some of the most horrific events humanity has been subjected to during the past two decades, most recently took the test and discovered he also has the mutated gene that took his father's life and with which his brother is now struggling. And out of all the conflicts and experiences he has had, "nothing," he says "instills more fear, dread and terror in him as Huntington." (Taken from the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics. The full article may be found .)
Currently in the United States, there are some 30,000 people who are living with Huntington's Disease, though the total number of those at risk is much higher. Right now, for just a moment, I'd like to peel back one of those statistics to reveal a real human being hidden behind it, behind the shroud of ignorance that so easily clouds our understanding of problems we often feel are just too big for us to do anything about. It's all too easy to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of people you don't know. You are about to meet one of those people. I ask you, please don't turn away in fear.
NBC correspondent Charles Sabine, who has witnessed some of the most horrific events humanity has been subjected to during the past two decades, most recently took the test and discovered he also has the mutated gene that took his father's life and with which his brother is now struggling. And out of all the conflicts and experiences he has had, "nothing," he says "instills more fear, dread and terror in him as Huntington." (Taken from the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics. The full article may be found .)
Currently in the United States, there are some 30,000 people who are living with Huntington's Disease, though the total number of those at risk is much higher. Right now, for just a moment, I'd like to peel back one of those statistics to reveal a real human being hidden behind it, behind the shroud of ignorance that so easily clouds our understanding of problems we often feel are just too big for us to do anything about. It's all too easy to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the suffering of people you don't know. You are about to meet one of those people. I ask you, please don't turn away in fear.
