World Science Festival Street Fair
I spent most of Sunday, June 14th walking around the World Science Festival Street Fair in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, amid the only sun most of us have seen all month.

What a renal blast. Here are a couple of highlights:

In which I visit the renal kids of Westwood High ...
On Friday evening, March 27th, I was honored to attend a community-service event at New Jersey's Westwood Regional High School. There I met a rare breed of students, who gave up a Friday night of sneaking around behind their parents' kidneys to pollute their own. Instead they opted to describe their work on projects important to them -- educating displaced kids in Iraq, fighting autism, saving what's left of the planet, and, in the case of Ramy Youssef, curing PKD.

Here are a few of these great kids:

Giants Coach Kevin Gilbride, Dr. Irina Barash = My New Heroes
On Wednesday, June 10th, my manager went to an event for PKD research at NYU. One guest speaker was Dr. Irina Barash. Dr. Barash told everyone about the state of PKD research. She was terrific. Obviously pregnant, she was also obviously in very good spirits. She's already been to three Walks for PKD, and will be there in Lower Manhattan on October 25th if her newborn allows. Three cheers for Dr. Barash!

The main attraction was NY Giants Offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride, who was kind enough to lend his time to become the TriState Walk for PKD's Honorary Chairman. The Giants wrote a nice article about his involvement, and my manager's good friend, SI Senior Sportswriter Damon Hack, asked Gilbride a question that made it into a story he was working on:

Can Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco avoid the sophomore slump?

I'm just a kidney, so I don't know much about the chances of Ryan or Flacco, but with support like this, the PKD Foundation will be able to avoid matching the greater economic slump.

PKD Foundation President Dan Larson was on hand to introduce Coach Gilbride, and after Gilbride talked about his family's experience with PKD and his own experience with the Giants, the always-inspiring Leigh Reynolds, the PKD Foundation's Director of Special Events, asked the audience, "How many of you know 20 people from whom you can raise $20?"

If enough people in the PKD community would ask 20 friends for $20 each, we'd have this disease cured in no time. — Kenny

Lobbying Washington
My manager was in our nation's capital this week, asking the staffs of four senators and four representatives for a little more funding for PKD research, and a little help making more organs available to those who need them. Along with a number of old and new PKD friends from around the country, Bill met Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley (R) in person, and met the staff of Sens. Gillibrand (D-NY), Schumer (D-NY) and Harkin (D-Iowa), as well as the staffs of Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn), Paul Tonko (D-Upstate NY), Carolyn Maloney (D-NYC) and his old friend Tom Perriello (D-Charlottesville, VA & surrounding).

Each day, more than 16 Americans die while waiting for a kidney. We're hoping to do something about that.

Racist NY Post Cartoon
Today's NY Post features a political cartoon by Sean Delonas that has to be seen to be believed.

Two cops have shot a chimp to death. One says, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

Comparing our black president, the author of the current economic stimulus bill, to a rampaging chimpanzee that has been shot dead by two white cops is inexcusable. But publishing such a cartoon in New York City in 2009? That’s beyond belief.

I’m just a kidney, and I may well have been removed from the body of a white person. (I didn't look, so happy was I to be out of that confined space — and so ignorant, then, of the impact of race.) But this cartoon’s racism is obvious even to me. And if it's obvious to a *kidney,* then how did it ever get published?

Shame on Sean Delonas, and shame on every member of the Post editorial team who approved the publication of this cystic cartoon.  — Kenny