Alex Keaton Takes on a New Role

On Tuesday's episode of "Spin City," in which for no good reason all the characters were dressed for a costume party, Michael J. Fox, as deputy mayor Mike Flaherty, burst out of a telephone booth in a Superman suit and cape. The symbolism might have been unintentional, but it was certainly striking: after announcing two weeks ago that he has been afflicted with Parkinson's Disease for the past seven years, the 37-year-old actor seemed as healthy and funny as ever--and like the real Superman, Christopher Reeve, who has been a vocal activist for the rights of the paralyzed, he was joining a public fight against a disease which has struck him so personally.

Few people who read Fox's interview in People Magazine revealing his long-kept secret or saw him talking with Barbara Walters on last Friday's "20/20" can fail to have been impressed by his faith and optimism in battling the degenerative neurological disorder. Amidst such melodramatic headlines as "The Fight of His Life," Fox has kept a calm, almost beatific demeanor in addressing concerns about his health and future. This is no small feat when you consider the disease he is facing.

Imagine that you are a young person at the height of your career--specifically, a career which demands physical energy and vocal skill. Now imagine that one day you looked down at your left arm and found it shaking uncontrollably. Imagine that you felt your muscles becoming rigid and your gait hesitant and unsteady. Imagine that you had no idea how to stop these symptoms. Imagine that a doctor told you that you have Parkinson's, a disease usually associated with (but by no means limited to) the elderly. In the later stages of the disease, communication becomes nearly impossible: patients' voices become soft and slurred, their handwriting is illegible because of the tremors in their hands, and their movement is severely limited. In short, put yourself in Fox's shoes. Now, what would you do?

Well, besides starring in several movies and starring in and producing a new sitcom for ABC (which won a Golden Globe this year), Fox seems to have decided to attack his condition with the notable combination of faith and science. Last spring, he underwent one of the most aggressive treatments for Parkinson's, a thalamotomy, in which doctors removed the brain cells contributing to Fox's most severe limb tremors. Despite the operation's risk of paralysis or death, he told Walters, "I had full faith in my doctors, and I had full faith in God."

As a result of the operation and the daily medication he takes, the actor hopes to continue working on his hit show for years to come. Ultimately though, Fox told Walters that he believes that "within the next 10 years, they're going to find a way to flick a switch and this is gone. Maybe one of the reasons I'm more optimistic and happier and more relaxed than people would expect me to be is I won't see 50 with this. I will see 50, but I will not have this."

For the more than a million and a half Americans suffering from the devastating effects of Parkinson's, though, it might be difficult to share such faith and optimism. The surgery Fox received is not helpful to all patients, nor is it a permanent cure. Though one of the most important legislative acts of the Clinton Administration was the lifting of the ban on fetal tissue transplant research to aid Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in 1993, increased funding and public awareness are still lacking in the search for a true cure for the disease.

And that's where Fox comes in. The former Alex P. Keaton and Marty McFly might just be the best spokesperson for a disease which has been somewhat on the periphery of the American consciousness. There have been occasional revelations that public figures suffer from the illness, including Attorney General Janet Reno, the boxer Mohammed Ali and Pope John Paul II. And in 1990, the movie "Awakenings" illustrated with striking realism the physical incapacity of patients with Parkinsonian symptoms. But for whatever reason (perhaps because the public figures stricken with Parkinson's are in the expected age bracket for the disease and have not been vocal about their health), the illness does not have a high level of public awareness.

Michael J. Fox, by speaking out about his struggle with Parkinson's and sharing his optimistic belief that he will survive to see a cure, is in a position to spread both a wider understanding of Parkinson's and a different perception of Parkinson's patients--not as victims but as people who can live productive and happy lives while hoping for a cure.

Fox is depending not solely on science or on faith but on a combination of the two. He isn't more powerful than a locomotive or able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, yet he is fighting a noble struggle against this neurological version of kryptonite. Superman would be proud.

Susannah B. Tobin '00 is a classics concentrator in Lowell House. Her column appears on alternate Thursdays.