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Greetings Parkinson's Disease - Information Exchange Network Member, =20 Please take a few moments to read and reply to this message. Please send your reply to: [log in to unmask] =20 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 =20 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. =20 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. =20 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 = =20 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. =20 =20 =20 =20 Margaret Tuchman(55yrs,dx1980) --NJ-DISTRICT 12 [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************* SIT POTENTIA TECUM - MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU