CFS~Mr.Howard Bloom Chooses To Marry July4th~Not In The.....
SUSY DOG
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Source: New York Post
Date: June 4, 2001
Author: Douglas Montero
URL: http://www.nypostonline.com/commentary/31789.htm
Ref: URL: http://www.bookworld.com/lucifer/author.html
E-mail:howl...@aol.com
Red Tape Gums Up Trip Down Aisle
--------------------------------
Howard Bloom is going on the 13th year of a torturous prison term - inside his
Brooklyn home. Sentenced by a physical handicap, the former publicist to some
of
the most famous names in music has even managed to pump out two critically
acclaimed scientific books on human nature. Yet this brilliant Renaissance man
wasn't able to escape the frustrating shackles of New York City red tape:
He couldn't get a marriage license.
"A person in my position doesn't stand a chance with a bureaucracy like this,"
said Bloom, 57, who wants to get married on Independence Day inside his Park
Slope home.
Bloom's independence was stolen by chronic fatigue syndrome, a debilitating
illness that prevents him from going to the City Clerk's Office, as required,
with his fiancee, Diane Petryk, a reporter for an upstate newspaper.
He's afraid the slightest exertion will debilitate his body, as it did during
the first five years of his illness, leaving him bedridden, unable to mumble a
word. "The leading cause of death [from] CFS is suicide," said Bloom, who tried
to kill himself with prescription drugs after his wife of three decades left
him six years ago. "You lose your life... you lose your family. You lose
everything that allows you to be a human being," he said, cursing and
apologizing quickly, his lower lip quivering with anger. "You don't how naked
you feel," he said. "The pain... you can't stand the next minute of pain. I
didn't exist in the world anymore."
He slowly regained speech in 1995, and he's regained some semblance of a
normal, yet secluded, life. He wakes up every morning, showers, shaves, gets
dressed and, that energy spent, sleeps until 4 to 5 p.m., when he starts work
on his bedside computer - his only link to the outside world and the dozen
scientific organizations
he belongs to.
He met Petryk through the Internet in February; on May 8, Bloom asked his
part-time assistant to arrange for a marriage license. The assistant came up
against a voice-mail system, busy signals and unanswered phone calls.
The City Clerk's Office visits hospitals, nursing homes and even prisons to
issue marriage licenses - but not homes. "That's the law, that's all I know,"
one
City Clerk employee said.
One bureaucrat suggested that Bloom take an ambulance to the clerk's office -
which he refused. The sick man is no slouch.
At age 12, he was building computers and won the Westinghouse Science Award.
He became a hippie, pioneered a heavy-metal magazine, and in 1976, created a
public-relations firm that helped shape the careers of John Cougar Mellencamp,
ZZ Top and Prince. By May 25, he was through being pushed around. He recruited
his publicist, who called the media - forcing the city to act.
"We're not heartless," a defensive Manhattan City Clerk Carlos Cuevas said
Friday, just hours after one of his workers called Bloom to arrange a home
meeting. Cuevas said union rules prohibit his workers from going to people's
homes, but he will visit Bloom today.
That's little comfort for Bloom, who wonders about the other prisoners of CFS
who don't have the money, an assistant and a well-connected publicist to trudge
through the bureaucratic swamp. "There are hundreds and thousands of people who
are just like me," he said. "And they are voiceless."
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(c) 2001 New York Post
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