There has been something which I have been hiding, but now feel I must
admit to and begin to make more public. It is very sad and difficult.
For this I apologize.
Has it now been two years since my younger gay brother committed suicide
by hanging himself, I cannot remember, date time has become something else.
It is now two months and more, over six months, that my treating doctor
has refused to provide treatment for a treatable illness, CFS. He has
told me that since I am a single man living alone on a boat, I am a drug
addict, who does not have a wife to control my drug and alcohol intake!
I am sick because I do not have a wife! I am not sick; I am an addict!
Needless to say, this is a breach of state and federal
anti-discrimination law, aside from being blatantly homophobic. Yet for
the past six months I have been living in severe disabling pain, not
able to sleep. I oppose suicide but pain prevents me from getting
enough sleep to hold my sanity so I try to get myself to sleep with the
hope that I may not wake again; in severe disabling pain, yet again
lying still, gripping my torso, hoping the pain may end, through the
long night hours. I no longer wish to live in this sort of pain,
although I will refuse the easy way of suicide. And I am spending most
hours of the daylight lying still, trying to breathe slowly, hoping the
fatigue, pain and severe flu-like illness will leave me alone enough
that I may do something. I struggle to cook for myself a meal; let alone
write and do some more work on my photo art.
I am currently composing a letter, which I intend on sending to my
medical practice, the NSW Minister for Health, the Federal Minister for
Health, the Prime Minister of Australia and the United Nations in New
York giving a detailed account.
Sorry for this heavy post, but must begin to make this situation more
public and have chosen this list as only the beginning. This is the
first stage in my fight for life and my right to practice as an artist
and poet in Australia which, aside from a basic human right to live pain
free, is also my right to practice as an Australian artist. The current
political situation is denying me this right. Australia is in breach of
human rights and as such in breach of international law. The fight for
life, here, has only just started. This is one of my opening shots. I
have chosen this list to begin to make this situation public, on an
international scale. Action is life. Silence is death. And I will
continue to fight, not just for myself but all suffering severe illness
and discrimination living with severe illness such as CFS (aka CFIDS...
see wwww.cfids.org.)
Yours faithfully, Christopher C Jones, BA (Communication) Hons UTS
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