So, of course we care about stem cells research here. Sorry if I offended anyone by seeming to suggest otherwise. We care because it's right, because waste is stupid, and because the politics of this issue belong to us. I wrote the diary to ask for people in the DC area to show up when a bunch of wheelchair-bound folk rally on the Upper Senate Lawn on April 24th at 11 am. We have been patiently asking for our government to make an investment in basic research for 6 years, and our government has not yet found the will to do it. It's a happy coincidence that this rally will happen somewhere around the time that Bush vetoes federal funding for escr again; our presence in DC will hopefully help to push Republicans further into their shrinking corner.
When Christopher Reeve died suddenly in October of 2004, we lost a voice. I'm using "we" here not in the Kossack sense, but in the paralyzed community sense . . .my family has lived for some time now in what Anne Lamott might call The Land of the Fucked. Skiing accident. C6 injury. Devastation in every sense, followed by scenes you don't even want to imagine--but this diary is not about us.
Why does this matter to you?
Because you're decent human beings. Also because you want our government to function on behalf its most vulnerable members and not its most privileged.
The quads and paras I know had a moment of truth that fall--if Chris Reeve was not out there fund-raising and speaking and demanding basic medical research, who would do it? A few hardy souls understood that it would have to be us, ourselves, who found a way. From their computers in Oklahoma and Oregon and Minnesota, they organized a spring 2005 rally in DC, attended by a few dozen people in chairs. (The one in Minnesota is a high quad who must use a pencil stuck between her teeth to type. She's a brilliant and beautiful mother of 2 who has to be fed like an infant. She wants to be able to scratch her own nose again, among other things.)
Dana Reeve was at that first rally, along with a prominent researcher and great soul named Wise Young. My family--still financially strapped and wondering if we would ever get out from under the medical bills--could not afford the plane tickets. The following year we did go. That time we had John Kerry, Hilary Clinton, Tom Harkin, Jim Langevin, and Susan Sarandon up on the podium. The problems of traveling across the country in wheelchairs did not keep hundreds of paralyzed people home. They came, risking their own fragile health as Reeve himself had done so often. Bush did not care; a few months later he vetoed a stem cell research bill that was one of our top priorities. So, what's going to happen next?
This is where the serendipity comes in. By lucky chance, the 3rd annual rally has been scheduled to happen on Tuesday, April 24th.
Today the Senate took up debate of S5--the bill that would restore federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. (Ignore S30--it's their hail mary pass, launched in the hope that they can pretend to have tried to compromise. It's shit.) We have the votes to pass it, and it will likely go to Bush's desk during the time my family is in Washington. This means that crowds of people in wheelchairs, along with their families and friends are going to be staging a major event right when the press will be most interested. It used to take a Christopher Reeve to bring the cameras and microphones out. This time, just maybe, they will show up to hear ordinary people demand that George W Bush's bizarre personal version of Christianity not be allowed to prevent ethical research from going forward.
Upper Senate Office Park
11 am
Tuesday, April 24th
The country supports this legislation, as all of you already know. Our side won at least one close race last fall because of Michael J Fox's courageous willingness to demand action. Bush is about to veto the bill that sets a target date for troop withdrawal, and right after that he's going to be faced with this one. He's already said he's going to veto this bill as well, and --so far -- we don't have the votes in the house to override him. But legislators do understand that they can be targeted over this issue, and we can either win them over now or use this against them in 2008. I saw this dynamic up close and personal in 2006.
I spent last summer and fall trying to get Darcy Burner elected in WA 08. Her opponent was Dave Reichert, who had voted against the original stem cell bill. When the president vetoed it, Reichert switched and voted to overturn the veto, because he knew his election was going to be close and he could not afford to piss off independents who supported him. There just aren't that many wingnut true believers out here, thank God. He won his race by not much, and Darcy is taking him on again next year. My point is that the politics of this are working in our favor, and we need to seize this opportunity to make the most of it.
My husband is 52 years old. He's been paralyzed for 6 years. I don't know if this research can help him, but I do know that somebody in America sustained a spinal cord injury in the time it took you to read this diary. I know that Chinese scientists are preparing to go into clinical trials next year. I know that the NIH lab doors have been locked against American scientists ever since Bush was sworn in. I know that the consensus worldwide on the subject of curing paralysis is that it's only a matter of time. Pessimism and politics have sentenced a great many people to years of needless suffering; when someone tells me that it will get done eventually, I tend to go a bit screamy on them. Sit down. Now imagine that you can't get up until next Christmas. You have to stay sitting until next winter. Your legs don't work at all. Now imagine someone saying, Oh, sorry, we meant the Christmas that's 5 years after that, but don't worry! Eventually you'll be able to do it!
If Bush is going to stop this again, I want the satisfaction of knowing that his party paid a price, and that better days are ahead.
I'm writing this diary to ask you who live near DC to show up on the upper Senate lawn on the day of the rally.
For every paralyzed person who manages to get there, there ought to be a thousand able-bodied folks standing behind them. As Chris Reeve's signature used to say, "Stand Up For Those Who Can't." Look, it's not going to be a million people on the mall. It's not going to be 500,000 people marching. It's going to be a scrappy band of fools who would like to be able to feed themselves and walk onto an airplane and take the stairs. It's not that much to ask