X-Message-Number: 6853
From:  (Thomas Donaldson)
Subject: To Mr. Friedlander
Date: Sat, 7 Sep 1996 14:08:14 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Rick!

I too have found the last several Cryonets to be quite obnoxious, and full of
postings which in no way contributed to anyone's survival.

However you, I, and everyone who watches these struggles of cryonics and
cryonicists have a serious problem. We are watching, for good or bad, the
only game in town. Cryonics is still too small for anyone to think that they
can simply join up and everything will run smoothly afterwards. If you think
the current "leaders" aren't worth following, then its reasonable to try to
become a leader yourself. But simply waiting is also courting death: you
may find yourself very ill or disabled long before you expect it, and if you
have not signed up with any society, by then you will find that it has become
extremely difficult, even impossible, to do so. Most of us pay for our 
suspensions with special life insurance policies which we organized when we
joined, or even before, to pay the expense. If you've ceased to be healthy,
that way to funding your suspension will also have disappeared. Other ways
are possible but do require a good deal more legal backing and filling.

I don't intend to tell you which society to join, but I will say that if you
want to have a role in its policies you should look at all of them with that
in mind. Some are open, others not, to new members willing to work and 
with ideas about what should be done. (Though by now ALL societies have gone
through lots of incidents and events which show that many ideas of newcomers
have been tried before, several times, and failed completely --- do not 
confuse such a response with a flat denial of your own ideas).

As a cryonicist of 20 years standing, I apologize for these postings, and
hope that you will wait them out to learn more helpful things about 
cryonics.

			Best wishes, and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson


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