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*This year, 2006, marked the third year in a row that I was invited to speak at the State Democratic Unity Dinner. This dinner is a tradition started by **US Representative Lane** Evans. It has been held for the three years that I have been involved with it, at the **Crown** **Plaza** in **Springfield**. This event consists of a cocktail hour followed by dinner, during which the state Democratic leaders & other invited dignitaries are invited to speak. (I surely do not consider myself a dignitary, so they must think that I’m much more connected than I really am!!) This year the speakers* *Included Senator Dick Durbin, Congressman Lane Evans (who managed a few almost indecipherable words before he had to leave), Judge Vickie Wright, the female president of the state AFL-CIO, Congresswoman Jan Schakowski, Congressman Jerry Costello…...and me. Thank you to my friends Karen, Robert & Heather and Dr. & Dr. Craig and Mary Cady for being there with me. Here is a copy of my speech:* * * Good evening ladies and gentlemen. /It is a fact: /I don’t know Phil Hare as well as I know Lane Evans. Lane & I share a common disease that lends itself to a somewhat “cosmic consciousness” of knowing what the other is thinking without speaking. But over the years that I have known Lane, I have had the opportunity to watch Phil in his dealings with Lane. That relationship tells me all I need to know about Phil Hare and to support him in his run for the House of Representatives. I understand the almost unbearable strain that comes with seeing someone you love being stolen away by a disease that you are /powerless/ to deal with. Phil never treated Lane with anything but the utmost respect. It is easy for a person with Parkinson’s Disease to fall into the role of victim; or take up the /“poor pitiful me”/ routine and allow the caregiver/employee/friend to assume a more vigorous role in this complicated alliance. /_It becomes easy to assume that just because a person’s body goes to hell that his mind isn’t also out to pasture. Andrea Lane Zigna has yet to figure this out._/ /_ _/ In all the times that I saw Lane with Phil, Phil never once talked down to Lane, never got cross because it took Lane perhaps more time to get up and get moving, never indicated irritation with Lane’s soft voice and */_never spoke to him in that annoyingly cloying way that people reserve for idiot savants._/* This tells me that Phil has many of the qualities that I wish to see in my elected official:_compassion,_ _integrity, commitment, the ability to empathize, devotion and a humanness in his heart._ _ _ I have never met anyone so willing to take the pitches, the swings, the misses, the outs, the home runs and the grand slams, the wins and the losses as Phil Hare.__ He realizes that this is an awesome task for anyone to attempt…to fill the shoes of a bona-fied hero but yet he has the/_ gumption_/, /_the good ideas, and the brains_/ to know that in this country, *_we can do better_*. *We can do better* than to let our children and our brothers and sisters go to die in a country that spurns our desire to help them and mutilates our soldiers. *We can do better* in treating our seniors on fixed incomes who must decide to buy either home heating fuel or prescribed meds. *We can do better* in our attempts to bridge the gap between church & state to find some common ground for the majority of the people rather than to be _held hostage by one group and one faith._ *We can and we must do a better job* of what is a cause near and dear to my heart: stem cell research*.* * * *I am a Roman Catholic; proud to call myself pro-life and I am also a firm believer in embryonic stem cell research.* * * We cannot continue to tie our scientists hands behind their backs and expect to remain a leading contributor to world health. We do this when we keep our researchers even the opportunity to go down certain paths towards that elusive CURE. *_We cannot continue to equate stem cell research with abortion. The two are not the same. _* *_ _* Which seems to you as the more pro-life position: to protect the divided cells which have been frozen from eggs which were fertilized in a petrie dish rather than from an act of love? These frozen cells were created in order to help childless couples conceive in-vitro. These leftover cells, _which will never become implanted in a woman’s womb and will never become a baby, are destined for incineration as medical waste. _ Or could we use these undifferentiated cells to help, say a man like my friend Allen in Texas? Allen is a 50 year old, married father of three, who always lead a productive life. He worked as the sound director at his local public broadcast TV station, paid taxes and would _never think of accepting a handout…until pd entered his life._ Now Allen sits in an apartment alone because his wife took the kids and split-which is a common fact of life for People with Parkinson’s. She was overwhelmed by the far-reaching consequences of this damn disease. Now Allen spends his days reaching out to people on his computer, trying to help others in his situation not to loose hope. He hasn’t worked in 5 years and collects social security disability. _Allen never complains-most parkies don’t-they know that others have heavier crosses to carry._ /I don’t see a moral dilemma here./ What I see is is yet another wasted chance to find a cure for parkinson’s disease and a myriad of other neurological disorders. *_I, for one, think that Bush’s veto of the stem cell legislation passed by both houses of Congress, was a crime against humanity._* *_ _* Having said this and hoping that there are no FBI-types nor homrland security guys hanging around, I would like to introduce to you a gentlemen sitting with me at my table. Dr. Craig Cady who is a professor and a stem-cell researcher at Bradley University and has given me and many others in the PD community hope that we will see a cure in our lifetime? Each week, it seems he is finding more & more reasons why he needs to add embryonic stem cells to their work with adult stem cells and rat stem cells and umbilical cord blood stem cells. This is a fact that even his students recognize. The following is a quote from a second year medical student at SIU, who is interning in Dr. Cady’s lab this summer and who has decieded to specialize in Parkinson’s Disease and Stem Cells. Adree Venatta says: “The primitive nature of embryonic stem cells makes their use in research an absolute necessity to understanding the potential of all stem cells for the treatment of all varieties of diseases.” /_ _/ /_I believe that a cure is out there._/ /_I believe that Phil Hare is the man that we need in the _//_United States_//_ House of Representatives to help us get the legislation passed that will override a president’s veto._/ /_ _/ *_I believe in you and the rest of the district _* *_ _* *_to vote for the man whom you know in your hearts will carry on the great work of Lane Evans._* */_I believe in Phil Hare for the House of Representatives!!!_/* */_ _/* * * -- Joan Blessington Snyder 54/16 [log in to unmask] www.calipso-pd.org “Hang tough……..no way through it but to do it.” Chris in the Morning Northern Exposure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn