Greetings Parkinson's Disease - Information Exchange Network Member,
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 Please take a few moments to read and reply to this message. Please send
 your reply to: [log in to unmask]
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 The purpose of this note is to identify the State in which the listserv
 membership resides, who their Representatives are, what is their=20
congressional  district #, and if these are unknown, what the zipcode # i=
s? =20
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 There are approximately ONE MILLION (the range is usually given between
 500,000 - 1,500,000) diagnosed cases of Parkinson=92s in the USA. The
 importance of that number can be truly significant if we band together a=
nd
 in a unified voice DEMAND the 105th Congress to pass and fund the
 new Udall Parkinson=92s Disease Research Bill. Every day more effective
 medications and new treatment procedures are found, and a cure for PD is
 not an unrealistic expectation. Therefore, the 100 MILLION dollars the U=
dall
 bill is asking to be earmarked for Parkinson=92s research is money well =
spent.
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 We need to reach our Senators and Representatives to convince them of th=
e
 importance of the passage of the Udall bill and we can only do that if w=
e are
 organized and have a politically active presence in each of the States.
 We have learned through our advocacy efforts this past year, that
 Representatives and Senators are ONLY responsive to the their own
 constituents.
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 With this first step of identifying the location of our population, we a=
re
 establishing a grass roots advocacy system that will be ready to spring =
into
 action once the legislators are in office.  Contact will need to be
 established and maintained with every member of the House and Senate in =
their
 home district office.  There are 208 House and 51 Senate co-sponsors    =
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returning  to office in 1997.  We will need to confirm their continued su=
pport=20

or the  new bill and convince the newly elected and previous non-cosponso=
rs =20
to become  cosponsors.

Thank you for your participation.


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Margaret Tuchman(55yrs,dx1980) --NJ-DISTRICT 12
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