Thank you for all your work, Ray.

Ellen


 


 

-----Original Message-----
From: rayilynlee <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sat, 31 Jan 2009 5:02 am
Subject: Three Women Warriors









My friend Don Reed had this in Daily Kos last month.  He is key player in 
Prop 71 for California.  The government recently gave the OK to the first 
human embryonic stem cell trials in California which  target spinal cord 
injuries.  Don's son, Roman, has long been paralyzed due to spinal cord 
injury. 
 

Three Women Warriors 

by diverdonreed 

Tue Dec 30, 2008 at 03:40:43 AM PST 

THREE WOMEN WARRIORS 

"...and the female of the species is more deadly than the male..." 

-Rudyard Kipling 

I don't know about the "deadly" part, but I have been fortunate indeed to 
have worked with a great many strong women: Gloria, of course, who brightens 
my life every day with her power and wisdom; Karen Miner, whose endless 
willingness to work is a continual nudge to anyone tempted to get lazy; and 
my sister Patty, gone now, but an early pioneer in the computer science 
field, and a person who could always find the good in every one. 

Today, I would like to give a small shout-out to three dedicated advocates: 
film-maker Jessica Gerstle, martial artist Jennifer Longdon, and Rayilyn 
Brown, fighter extraordinaire. 
 

The movie-maker first: here is your official invitation from Jessica 
Gerstle. 

After a
 bicycle accident left Dr. Claude Gerstle paralyzed from the neck 
down, he and his daughter Jessica discover hope in stem cell research. The 
Accidental Advocate is a wheelchair odyssey of a father and daughter 
tracking down the leading stem cell scientists, politicians, crusaders and 
nay-sayers, in order to understand the promise of stem cell research and why 
a political quagmire is stalling a cure. 

The Director of the film will be in attendance for a Q&A after the 
screening. 

The Film premiered at the Democratic and Republican Conventions as part of 
the Impact Film Festival. You can read more about the film at 
www.theaccidentaladvocate.com 

*Tickets will be available through the theatre website after January 5th 

Dear Don, 

Happy Holidays! 

I have organized a roll out of The Accidental Advocate, my documentary about 
the stem cell debate, which I am calling "One Night Only!" 

This January, for One Night Only, The Accidental Advocate will be shown in 
theaters across the country and at rehabilitation hospitals. As you know, 
President-elect Obama has indicated that advancing stem cell research will 
be a priority for his Administration, and we expect him to act quickly 
through an Executive Order and Congressional legislation after the 
inauguration. But this does not inform the public about the issues and will 
certainly re-ignite the controversy. The Accidental Advocate's nationwide 
coordinated screening is timed to engage audiences and policymakers to 
suppo
rt effective stem cell policy, and to pre-emptively refute the 
opposition's inflammatory rhetoric and attempts to confuse the public. 

Showing the film in 15 cities at once will add to the informed debate about 
this country's emerging healthcare crisis and the future of regenerative 
medicine. My goal is to pack the theaters with politically intelligent 
audiences including patient advocates, scientists, politicians, researchers, 
doctors, and religious leaders, who are familiar with grassroots advocacy 
and the stem cell debate. Please share this announcement with the local 
chapters of disease organizations like JDRF, ALZ, PAN or Hadassah or 
research and medical hospitals that would send out the press release and 
invite. The national headquarters have already put me in touch with many of 
the chapter presidents. 

The kick off screening will be on January 12th in Washington D.C. followed 
by a discussion panel which I will videotape and make available to host on 
the web. Most of the other screenings will be on the same night, January 
14th, 2009 at 7pm. The other cities are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, 
Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, LA, Minneapolis, St. Louis, San Diego, 
Santa Fe, Seattle, Washington D.C. 

Given the current economic climate, I am not asking for a donation to help 
us put on the event, but tickets for the screening will be $10, and will go 
towards the costs of the screening. The tickets will be purchased directly 
through the Landmark Theatre website and at20the box office after January 
5th. 

I hope you will be able to help me publicize the screenings. Let me also 
know if you can help me reach out to press contacts to build interest in 
this event.  I can provide a press kit after the holidays, but would like to 
begin the process of identifying solid press leads: TV, newspaper and 
online.  From now until January 5, I am trying to get organizations to put a 
notification about the upcoming event on the homepage of their website 
and/or under the events tab.  Feel free to put up the notification on your 
Facebook, MySpace or blog. 

On January 5, advanced tickets can be purchased through the link on my 
website: www.theaccidentaladvocate.com and on the Landmark Theatres site.  I 
will have a press release and new launch of my website with a trailer. On 
January 12th, we will be having a screening and panel discussion in 
Washington, D.C. to kick-off the week and draw in the media. 

Please feel free to send out the flyer. There is a short synopsis for you at 
the end of the e-mail and you can read a recent review: 
http://blog.newsweek.com/...  or you can visit the website: 
www.theaccidentaladvocate.com. 

Sincerely, 

Jessica Gerstle 

ABOUT THE FILM: 

When Claude Gerstle, a surgeon and athlete, suffers a tragic bicycle 
accident that leaves him paralyzed from the neck down, he and his daughter, 
Jessica, discover hope in the politicized area of science called stem cells. 
"The Accide
ntal Advocate" is a wheelchair odyssey of a father and daughter 
who track down the thinkers, the politicians, the crusaders and the 
naysayers in an effort to understand the promise and potential of the 
science and why a political quagmire is stalling a cure.  By way of 
background, Jessica was at NBC News for 12 years, mostly producing for 
Dateline NBC and left the network three years ago to independently produce 
this documentary. She employed her dad as her correspondent and they 
traveled the country to meet "A" list scientists driving the research and 
interviewed everyone from Dr. Jamie Thomson to Michael J. Fox to Arnold 
Schwarzenegger.  They spent time interviewing politicians on both sides of 
the aisle and went right into the East Room of the White House.  The film 
premiered at the Democratic and Republican Conventions as part of the Impact 
Film Festival. 
 

Our second woman warrior is Jennifer Longdon. A black belt practitioner of 
Tae Quan Do, Jennifer became paralyzed after being shot in the back by an 
unknown assailant. 

Despite major health problems associated with paralysis (I was seriously 
afraid we were going to lose her, earlier this year) she has fought back to 
the advocates' field of engagement-the endless struggle to raise funds for 
research for cure, in this case, the Reeve-Irvine Research Center. 

Here is a letter from Jennifer about her latest adventure-complete with a 
press release about another martial artist, her teacher, volunteerin
g to do 
a 13.1 mile wheelchair marathon with her, although he is able-bodied-check 
it out. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Dear Friends, 
 

A year ago I began a fundraising effort to personally raise $1,000 for 
spinal cord injury research.  I challenged 10 friends to do the same.  We've 
had varying levels of success. 

First, thanks to those who elected to participate.  Thank you to all who 
contributed and very special thanks to Susan & David, Kumar, Marty and 
Richard for reaching the goal with individual pledges.  My own efforts have 
fallen short due in large part to a very serious illness this past spring 
that nearly took my life.  I am fully recovered and back on track. 

On January 18, 2009 I will push my first half-marathon (the PF Chang Rock 
and Roll Marathon), all 13.1 miles of it.  It's hard to believe that just 4 
months ago, I could not push to the mail box and a trip around the block was 
impossible. 

So I am begging for sponsors.  Will you consider pledging? And, if you act 
now, I'll give you the 1/10th of a mile gratis. ?  $5 per mile is just $65. 
$10 a mile is fantastic! "Flat" pledges of any amount ($25, $50, $75 or 
MORE) are also welcome.  I am grateful for whatever you can pledge. 

This has been a year of great victories and deep loss.  Just days ago, 
another friend died a death he would not have faced if not for his spinal 
cord injury. The shock and grief have been a m
ental setback.  I'll be racing 
for those like Patrick who have alternatively pushed me and held me up when 
I could not. 

Every dollar raised will go directly to the researchers at the Reeve-Irvine 
Research Center who work to treat and cure a host of neuro-degenerative 
disorders.  There have been great strides made since my visit to the lab 
almost a year ago.  I am more confident than ever that we're on the right 
track. 

 I'll even be so bold to say that I believe that the next 18 months will 
see the start of human clinical trials and breath-taking announcements as we 
move closer and closer to a treatment for neuro-degenerative disorders 
including spinal cord injury. 

 To contribute, either e-mail me with your pledge challenge or make a 
contribution here.  http://jenlongdon.chipin.com/...  I'll update you on my 
results ASAP following the race on January 18th. 

Jennifer Longdon 

602.738.1227 

Area Martial Artist Sits Down For Those Who Cannot Stand Up. 

Accepting the challenge of a student, Sr. Master Mark Kaup-Lee will compete 
in the PF Chang Rock N Roll Half Marathon in a wheelchair.  A 7th degree 
black belt and owner of 5 area martial arts academies, Kaup-Lee was 
challenged by his student, Jennifer Longdon, herself paralyzed, to complete 
the 13.1 mile race as she will; in a wheel chair. 

The pair will raise money for spinal cord injury research.  Longdon, an area 
martial artist and student of Kaup-Lee's sustain
ed her spinal cord injury 
more than four years ago in a still-unsolved shooting.  Longdon was riding 
in a vehicle driven by her then-fiancé, David Rueckert, when the pair was 
shot multiple times by an unknown assailant.  Rueckert was shot in the head; 
Longdon was shot in the back. 

Kaup-Lee was helping Longdon with her training when she groused "You think 
it's so easy?  You strap 50 pounds to your back and race 13 miles on your 
hands."  Kaup-Lee in that instant agreed.  "It's not the same for me." 
Kaup-Lee explains "I have control of my balance and core muscles in a way 
that a paraplegic like Ms. Longdon does not.  But it's still pretty 
challenging."  Kaup-Lee's first taste of the difficulty faced by those with 
spinal cord injuries came when he was training with Longdon one morning. 
"He flew up a hill while I chugged along behind.  When he reached the top I 
told him to try it again without using his abs.  It was a little more 
challenging the second time." Longdon teased. 

While wheel chair competitors are not, in themselves, new or noteworthy; 
Kaup-Lee and Longdon will not participate in the racing chair division but 
in the standard division.  "We'll be using regular wheelchairs weighing 
between 40 and 50 pounds instead of the lighter racing chairs." Kaup-Lee 
explains.  "Ms. Longdon cannot get in and out of the racing chair any more 
without assistance." 

The pair hopes to each raise $2,500 for the Reeve Irvine Research Cen
ter. 
Donations can be made through http://masterlee.chipin.com/... or 
http://jenlongdon.chipin.com/... or checks made payable to Research for Cure 
may be sent to Lee's Black Belt Academy, 715 W Baseline Rd Tempe, AZ 85283. 
Note "Lee" or "Longdon" in the memo. 
 

And last but never least, please say hello to one of advocacy's most 
dedicated fighters, Rayilyn "Ray" Brown. 
 

Have you ever read an article on line that just infuriated you? Nowadays, 
many articles contain comment lines, so you can respond-but that takes 
effort and time, and most of us leave it to somebody else. 

Not Ray. Despite having a life-and-death personal battle with Parkinson's, 
she takes the time to make a difference. For example: whenever I have asked 
readers of this column to write a letter or email to a Senator to support 
stem cell research, a favor I ask far too many times-I know most people will 
be too busy to actually respond, if I get one out ten, that is a lot, 
probably the best I can hope for-but always, always, Ray comes through. I 
know she does, because she emails me a copy of her letter. 

She also answers negative attacks on the field, as below, when someone 
opposed our research on  religious grounds, in a long letter saying among 
other things that scientists were "playing God" with human lives.  First, 
the opposition viewpoint, (which gently puts supporters of research in the 
company of Nazis, and suggests our afterlife destination): 

"No human=2
0being ever developed from anything other than a human embryo. No 
human embryo ever developed into anything other than a human being. 
Therefore, does it matter where in its development stage we define "life" 
since whenever we eliminate the embryo we have definitively eliminated the 
human being into which it would have developed? Whether it is worth the cost 
of one human life to prolong the life of another should be left up to the 
person whose life is thus to be eliminated. And that means one had better 
wait a bit. 

"And if one decides to go down the road of "that life is not/will not be 
worth living" as justification for using the embryo as a source for what 
could truly be miracle cures, one will find it is not so much a road as a 
slippery slope, at the bottom of which is eugenics in the finest traditions 
of Nazi ideology. You know what they say about the road to hell ..." 
(emphasis added). 
 

To which Ray responded: 

"Blastocysts are not people. 

You say, "whenever we eliminate the embryo we have definitively eliminated 
the human being into which it would have developed? Whether it is worth the 
cost of one human life to prolong the life of another should be left up to 
the person whose life is thus to be eliminated..." 

Those of us who support embryonic stem cell research do not believe a 
blastocyst is a person any more than an acorn is an oak tree.  Every seed 
does not become a plant nor does every bl
astocyst become a person unless the 
conditions of implantation and successful development until live birth occur 
are met.   Not all seeds sprout.  You cannot "ask" a blastocyst whether it 
is worth using it for research because it is a few microscopic 
undifferentiated human cells that, will NEVER,  if left alone in a petri 
dish become anything. 

What you are doing is protecting cellular human life - seeds - at the 
expense of actual persons whose lives have been destroyed by disease or 
injury and are not asking that their lives be "prolonged" but made bearable. 

I can't think of anyone who would favor destroying people for research.  But 
cells are not people.  They are potential life.  ALL cells are, not just 
germ cells. 

Are scientists playing "God" by manipulating cells?  ... many people believe 
God gave man the gift of intelligence to heal suffering... 

I would suggest that if you oppose life saving research you rely solely on 
prayer and let the rest of us have the benefits of science. 

- 

-Rayilyn Brown 

Director AZNPF 

Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation 
 

Three women. Three warriors. Three friends. 

Source:  Daily Kos 
 

Rayilyn Brown 

Director AZNPF 

Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation 

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