Recent news articles talk about the unfortunate incident in which Verne Gagne, a popular former Minneapolis wrestler now an Alzheimer’s victim, attacked and injured Helmut. Gutmann, a 97 year old scientist (former escapee from Nazi Germany in 1936) and also an Alzheimer’s victim. The attack caused injuries to Mr. Gutmann from which he later died. Neither party later could even recall the incident. The events all took place in an Alzheimer’s care facility. The unfortunate incident was then officially ruled a homicide. The question was then raised: “Should some one be criminally charged for Mr. Gutmann’s death?  

I would say that the answer is a resounding yes.

 We have a President and a Congress that should all be charged with negligent homicide.  

They should also be charged for the death of my wife June K. Berg and my mother Ellen F. (Nedland) Silbaugh and the 200 other people that die every day in the United States from Alzheimer’s disease. Four die every day here in Minnesota alone. 

The years of neglect by our government should be obvious to a first grader. We have a government of a president and a congress that have grossly under funded research into the cause of Alzheimer’s disease now for many years. 

Our government has given 21 times more funding to AIDS research than they have given to Alzheimer’s research. That is in spite of the fact that AIDS is not one of the 15 leading causes of death in the U.S. Alzheimer’s is the 5^th leading cause of disease death in the U.S. Six times more people die in the U.S. from Alzheimer’s compared to the number that die from AIDS. I have no objection to giving adequate funding to AIDS but do not take it away from Alzheimer’s when Alzheimer’s is actually the greater problem.

My wife June died from Alzheimer’s on October 23^rd, 2008. My mother Ellen died from Alzheimer’s on October 21^st 2007.  

We have a new president who did nothing with his four years as senator except to run for President. (A quote from Hilary Clinton during the primaries.) We have a congress that spends their time funding all of their favorite pork projects and bailing out those who are responsible for our present economy. The president’s new 2010 budget has over 3.5 trillion dollars allocated to every presidential and congressional wish list but actually has a negative of 1.7% for Health and Human Services - compared to Bush’s 2009 budget.. (Wall Street Journal “The Obama Budget” –full page analysis - 2/27/2009). Has our government gone completely crazy?  Are their no sane members of our government functioning in Washington? 

When my wife was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in January of 1998, she and I were told that with all of the research going on, there would be a cure for Alzheimer’s in 5-10 years. Well, my wife died almost 11 years later and we are no closer now to a cure than we were then. It is clearly because the funding for Alzheimer’s is grossly under funded, and the existing medical research funding is inappropriately allocated.

Half of our present WWII veterans are now afflicted with Alzheimer’s and the government has effectively turned their backs on them. This is shameful and disgraceful. 

Yes, there is blame for Mr. Gutmann’s death...enough to go around all of Washington. But the blame has little to do with Mr. Gagne. Just as a negligent and irresponsible government is to blame for the hundreds of thousands of other victim’s of Alzheimer’s who have already passed on from this dread disease.  

This article was submitted to the “Letters” section of the Minneapolis Star – Tribune.- An emaciated version was published in the Monday 2 March 2009 issue of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. The letter was published under the title of: "Alzheimer's Disease - Government Hasn't Made it a Priority."

It has also been published in the "Letters" section of the Wednesday 11 March 2009 Edition of the Barron News-Shield, Barron, WI. The letter was published under the title of "Says Government Neglect Caused the Death of his Wife, Mother."

Note: For those readers who have relatives, loved ones or friends who have Alzheimer's or who have died as victims of Alzheimer's, are you speaking out against this shameful and disgraceful conduct by our government. If you have never considered this means of action, now is the time to do so. If you prefer to not speak out for reasons of your own, please consider the following admonition by Dietrich Bonhoeffer:  

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."  

— Dietrich Bonhoeffer*  

*Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, participant in the German Resistance movement against Nazism, and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plots planned by members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office) to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer was arrested in March 1943, imprisoned, and eventually executed by hanging shortly before his rescue by the allies at the war's end.