# 287 Monday January 29, 2007 - THE GREAT STEM CELL EMERGENCY LETTER WRITING
CLUB; OR, THE LOANS OF SUN LUTANG
FREE! Join the Great Stem Cell Emergency Letter Writing Club!
("Free", by the way, is the number one attention-getting word in the
dictionary. I would have thought it would be "sex" or "pizza" or something
important like that, but no, it is "Free!")
In a moment (or two) I want to invite you to join the Great Stem Cell
Emergency Letter Writing Club. But first--
Have you ever noticed, that whenever a speaker says," I will be brief", you
know they are lying?
It is like the old line from the Monty Python comedy crew, when the
long-winded speaker says "To make a long story short.", and the audience
shouts out, Too late!"
People are always telling me, skip my little stories, get to the important
stuff!
I understand their point; they are absolutely right.
We are fighting in a serious war; a win could quite literally save the lives
of millions.
Senate Bill 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, could get the NIH
billions involved in funding new stem cell research lines-we absolutely have
to win in the Senate, we have 66 YES votes, we just need to get that one
more Senator to vote correctly-and we will have enough votes to override the
President's expected veto!
What I should be saying is:
The Swingable Six:
Please call the following senators and ask them to vote yes on S. 5, the
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act. A secretary will tally your call-- so
all you need to say is:
"I strongly support Senate Bill 5, the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act.
Please ask the Senator to vote Yes on S. 5. It is our family's most
important issue."
If you want to say more, that is fine too.
Here are the Senator's phone numbers:
Lindsey Graham 1-202-224-5972
Bob Casey: 1-202-224-6324
Norm Coleman: 1-202-224-5641
John Sununu: 1-202-224-2841
Bob Corker: 1-202-224-3344
Richard Shelby: 1-202-224-5744
The trouble is, I get bored being serious all the time. I can only listen to
myself ranting and raving for so long, and then I won't pay attention to me
any more.
For instance: today I have something really important to say about a stem
cell emergency letter writing club. It is free, meaning you get to do extra
work for no pay.
I know you are eager to learn how you can do more labor for no money, so I
really will get to the point.
Eventually.
But first.
China, 1861: in Hebei Province, the county of Wan, not far from the City of
Bao Ding, a very poor family had a son, their first child.
The mother and father were determined that their boy would have the
education they never had. But they had little money: just the patch of
ground they worked as a farm.
They paid a tutor in food, giving him meals in exchange for teaching little
Sun Lutang the art of writing Chinese characters: calligraphy. (This love
of education persists today; one Chinese mother told me, "we may not have
enough money to put food on the table, but we will afford schoolbooks.")
This happy state of affairs continued until the boy was nine years old.
Then the oppressive taxes of the cruel and corrupt Qing government became
too much. The family could not afford to pay the tutor his meals.
The farm went to pay the taxes.
The father died of exhaustion and hunger.
The mother, with no farm to work and no way to feed herself or her
nine-year-old son, asked a rich man to take him as a servant, in exchange
for his food.
The rich man was cruel. He and his fat son often beat Sun Lutang, who was
frail and thin.
But one day the boy saw an old man practicing martial arts.
They became friends, and Sun began practicing: simple stuff, like walking in
a circle (Ba Gua) and standing in one spot with the legs bent for long
periods of time, after dark when the chores were done.
This went on three years.
The rich man's son heard about Sun's martial arts practice, and mocked it,
gave Sun still more chores to do. But the practice continued.
On New Year's Day, when Sun was twelve years old, the servants were supposed
to be given half a day off. Instead, the rich man's son brought in his
twenty-year-old friend, and suggested he fight with Sun Lutang.
The grown man grabbed the small boy by the shirt, lifted him high, flung him
like a rag.
Sun twisted in the air, and landed on his feet. Then he looked down.
Pain he was used to; that he could have accepted. But he only had one good
shirt, which he had worn to celebrate New Year's Day-and it was ripped.
That was too much. Sun Lutang pivoted swiftly, and punched the other in the
gut.
The big guy went down, and vomited up the New Year's Day meal he had just
eaten.
The owner was told, and became furious at this humiliation of a guest. He
grabbed a big stick, announcing his intention to beat Sun to death. He was
held back by the servants, and was persuaded finally to only dismiss the
boy, saying it was better for him to starve.
The mother was now working as a seamstress, just making enough to feed
herself.
Sun would not take her food, but lived however he could, eating wild-growing
vegetables when he could find them.
One day, he felt the shame of failure too keenly, and hung himself.
But he was so thin and light his neck did not break, and he was twisting in
the air, slowly strangling, when two kindly passersby found him, and cut him
down.
One man gave Sun enough money to travel to the next village (he and his
mother) and promised them work.
As Sun Lutang left his village, someone shouted that he had better go and be
a bandit, because he never would amount to anything.
Embarrassed in the presence of his mother, Sun Lutang shouted, "I will
become a famous martial artist, and someday help my village--" which
occasioned much laughter.
Time passed. The boy became a man. His calligraphy skills earned a living
for both him and his mother (whom he always honored), and he did become a
great martial artist.
He fought many times, and generally won.
He wrote five martial arts books, which survive to this day. (I have one, "A
Study of Taijijuan", translated by Tim Cartmell: fascinating stuff.)
But there came a year when drought parched the fields, and the crops did not
come in, and the poor were starving.
Sun and his mother were safe-he was the rich man now-and he came back to the
village of his youth.
He summoned everyone to the square, and announced he would loan money to any
villager who would accept his terms.
But the contract stipulated high rates of interest: cruelly high.
Those who had anything refused to borrow, saying this was no bargain.
The poor, having no choice, accepted the small loans of money, selling
themselves into bondage, debt-slaves for the rest of their lives.
Three years passed, and the village survived on the strength of Sun Lutang's
loans. There was no money, nothing extra, but they did not die.
At last the rains came, and the fields, painstakingly tended so long, gave
back in plenty.
But the loans. This mountain of debt they could never pay back completely,
the interest rising higher and higher-the loans...
Once more, Sun Lutang came back to the village of his birth: which he now
essentially owned.
He summoned everyone to the village square.
They came.
And Sun Lutang took out the sheaf of contracts indebting the villagers, and
held them high.
Then he made a little fire, and burned the loans.
He knew, he told his daughter Sun Jian Yun years later, that the rich would
refuse the loans, and the poor would take them, and would work very hard,
knowing they would need every effort to stay alive.
He had kept his promise.
What does this story have to do with stem cell research?
.(pause)
. (another pause)
Oh, I almost forgot.
How would you like to join our new Stem Cell Emergency Letter-Writing Club?
All you have to do is write Karen and me at this website, (ADDRESS???) and
we will hook you up.
Here's how it works.
As you know, the only power of a patient advocate is our voice and our vote.
When we speak, our leaders hear.
If we don't, they won't.
So.consider joining the great Stem Cell Emergency Letter Writing Club.
Since it's you, I will even waive the entry fee.
See? Already we are saving you money!
Here's how it works.
We need a rapid response team to write letters (which we would help with,
providing a sample letter, plus address info) to whomever needs guidance.
It would never be much, one letter a week at the most, (maybe sometimes we
would ask that you send the same letter to more than one person) but it
would be important.
For instance, right now, we need a letter or fax to (one or more) of the
following:
Lindsey Graham: South Carolina. Phone: (202) 224-5972 FAX: (202) 224-3808
Address: 290 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
His religion is Southern Baptist, so if you are of that faith, be sure to
say so.
Bob Casey: Pennsylvania Phone: (202) 224-6324. FAX: (202) 228-0604
Address: B-40 Dirksen Senate Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
Roman Catholic
Norm Coleman: Minnesota (202) 224-5641 FAX: (202) 224-1152
Address: 320 Senate Hart Office Building, Washington, D. C. 20510
Jewish
John Sununu: New Hampshire Phone: (202) 224-2841 FAX: (202) 228-4131
Address: 111 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
Roman Catholic
Bob Corker: Tennessee Phone: (202) 224-3344 FAX: (202) 228-1264
Address: B-40A Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
Presbyterian
Richard Shelby: Alabama. Phone: (202) 224-5744 FAX: (202) 224-3416
Address: 110 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
Presbyterian
Would you like to join our Rapid Response team? If so, just email Karen and
me at [log in to unmask] .
To be continued..
By Don Reed, Californians for Cure www.stemcellbattles.com
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