For me... there was no place to begin, I can't tell you when it all happened.
I just knew at some point, I suddenly didn't feel the same. But I can't place the particular day.
I spent a year and a half going to many hospitals, doctors, and being diagnosed with many diseases,
I didn't have. I have been to more hospitals than Springsteen has tour dates.
One day, I just woke up and I was in a whole different world.
I think that it was three Easter Sundays ago.
Odds are, I have just two more years to live.
The world didn't stop, when I found out what I really had last October.
Now every day is a little different from the day before, a new nightmare, a new story and suddenly,
I am on the sliding board called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.
I am being pushed down the sliding board, by a failed Health Care System, a failed Social Security System
and a bully I call America.
Do horror stories like mine exist in the land of the free and the home of the brave?
I am here to tell you they do, and I am not the only one suffering.
There are hundreds of thousands like me.
My name is Ron Riker and I have been diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.
One out of four Americans will suffer from a terminal illness in their lifetime.
Take a quick look around the next time your at a super bowl party, or a family reunion.
One out of four will suffer from terminal illness. In your lifetime, it's going to affect you.
The American Government is poorly equipped to face the strains of ALS, or any terminal illness.
Furthermore, each and every American suffers from a disease called the Social Security System.
The Disability System in this country is a joke and it's treats it's disabled citizens, like expendable punchlines.
Each and every American who must pay into this system, suffers from it's poor management,
improper execution and it's red tape.
12 percent of your lifetime earnings are invested in a program designed in 1934 that clearly,
does not meet the expectations of today's generation.
The goal of this website is awareness, and information.
If you find it useful, I ask that you pass it on.
I ask that you keep an open mind while viewing it.
Never in a million years, did I think I would face this horrible fate.
I assure you, it can happen to you or your family.
We live in a great information age, with the Internet, faxes, cell phones,
and breaking news broadcast worldwide in seconds.
Living during this great time.. it would be a mistake on my part, not to make you aware of the injustices I have faced,
in the hopes that we could right some wrongs for all Americans.
It would be a sin on may part, not to use my talents to help spread awareness and information
that may aid others who travel the ALS Road or the dead ends of the Social Security System behind me.
The Internet, may not save the world, but timely information can be the key to survival.
Information has been the sole key to my survival.
The opinions expressed in this website, are solely my own, and do not represent the opinions of my sponsors,
political figures, friends, family or the community I live in.
I am neither Republican or Democrat. I am an individual. As much as this country, would like
to entinguish my individualism, one day a time, I will not give in.
I support ALS Awareness, the hope for a cure,Social Security Reform, and Health Care Reform.
I pray that America will stop treating it's disabled citizens as the expendable poor,
and will take care of the needs of it's own people, before aiding the people of other nations.
While Lou Gehrig's Disease has taken my physical voice away from me,
it will not extinguish my determination or my right to speak out.
My name is Ron Riker and I have been diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.
