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yowsa!!! cross-posted from the pd webforum at mgh Subj: The Power of Activism - Overwhelming Response Forces Bush to Retreat for Now From: GregM (Greg Wasson) Date: June 08, 2001 05:55 PM Hi all, Just got off the phone with John Rodgers, Director of Advocacy for PAN, who also sits on the Board of the Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Rresearch, the umbrella organization for the those who might be helped by stem cell therapies (members include ALS and Diabetes orgs, PAN, many universities, and other heavy hitters too numerous to mention). Mr. Rodgers was happier than a cat locked in a creamery. Why? Because the pro-stem cell forces may not have won the war today, but they were victorious in today's battle, beating back the forces of the organized extreme anti-stem cell Christian right. The response may well cause Bush to once again rethink his position. The power of an immediate overwhelming response in opposition to Bush's apparrent plan to announce his decision (which Rodgers said came from the highest sources and was reliable, and was widely expected to kill federal funding of stem cell research) forced administration officials as high up as Tommy Thompson himself to call CAMR and other orgs. and cry "Uncle," engaging in "plausible deniability." That is, "call off your dogs, we really never intended to make any such announcement." And God didn't make little green apples. Facts: We SHUT DOWN the Capitol Hill switchboard with an overwhelming and immediate response to the emergency appeals of CAMR, PAN, and other health advocacy orgs. As Rodgers said, the days of snail mail action alerts are over. Immediate coordinated electronic alerts will become the new modus operandi for pulling the troops into battle. We can be justly proud that the Parkinson's community specifically, and the CAMR network of the chronically ill generally, responded in a way that we have seldom seen in the last few years. Just thought you'd like to know, but keep that mail and those phone calls coming in - the strength and vehemence of the response apparently caught the administration off-guard, as they hoped to make a late announcement Friday and have the weekend to allow things to blow over. Well, things blew over all right - on top of the administration, at least for now. Now President Bush knows there will be a heavy and unexpected political price to pay for an anti-funding decision. Time is on our side, as public awareness builds and the Administration is increasingly unable to slip one past the citizenry. It ain't over 'til it's over, Greg janet paterson: an akinetic rigid subtype, albeit perky, parky . pd: 54/41/37 cd: 54/44/43 tel: 613 256 8340 email: [log in to unmask] . snail mail: 375 Country Street, Apt 301, Almonte, Ontario, Canada, K0A 1A0 . a new voice: the nnnewsletter: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/janet313/ . a new voice: the wwweb site: http://www.geocities.com/janet313/ . ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn