In a very personal way I appreciate the Academy Award acclaim given to movies about people with mental disabilities who prevailed in life like "A Beautiful Mind" and "I Am Sam". I had severe bi-polar disorder when I was a student in the 1950s. Thanks to the late Lee Atwater, the electro-convulsive "shock" treatments I received over forty years ago have probably been the most publicized political episode of its kind since Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri was replaced on the Democratic ticket in 1972 because of a "nervous breakdown" in his past.