If you could end paralysis for the cost of a stamp and five minutes of your time, would you do it?
END PARALYSIS FOR THE COST OF A STAMP?
Dear Friend of Research:
If you could end paralysis for the cost of a stamp and five minutes of your time, would you do it?
If your answer was yes, please write a one-sentence letter to the Governor of California.
Because there is a chance we can end paralysis in our lifetime.
Here is the sentence, add more if you like: Dear Governor Brown: Please sign Assembly Bill 1657 (D-Wieckowski) which would add a dollar to traffic tickets, money to go to California’s spinal cord injury research fund.
The address: Governor Jerry Brown, c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814
Or FAX him at: (916) 558-3160 Or, call and leave a phone message for him at: (916) 445-2841
If Assembly Bill 1657 (Wieckowski, D-Fremont) becomes law, every traffic ticket in California will bring in one extra dollar. That money will go to toward finding a cure for paralysis, through the UC system and the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act.
(You can find the complete bill itself at: http://legiscan.com/....)
Why should traffic tickets help find a cure for paralysis? Car crash causes paralysis; it is reasonable that bad drivers should help to find its cure—as do programs in eight other states: Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, and Alabama.
The California State Assembly has passed AB 1657; so has the Senate: all we need is for the Governor to sign it.
A dollar is not much to a person paying a traffic ticket fine; but it could mean everything to the five and a half million paralyzed Americans.
These are not empty statistics (5.6 million Americans with paralysis; 1.275 million with a spinal cord injury)—these are our loved ones, members of your family, and mine.
People like my son, Roman Reed, who broke his neck in a college football game, and became paralyzed at age 19, on September 10th, 1994.
And people like Gwendolyn Strong, 4 and a half years old, and fighting for her life against the paralyzing condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Her father Bill says:
“I support AB 1657, the one dollar traffic ticket add-on to fund the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury research Act. …The groundbreaking research that will be funded is critical to continue unlocking pieces of the puzzle for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), Parkinson’s, SMA and other related conditions…”
AB 1657 has been endorsed by such outstanding individuals as: Gavin Newsom, lieutenant Governor of California; Steve Westly, California State Controller (Ret.); Bob Klein, Chair Emeritus, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine; Sherry Lansing, former President of Paramount Motion Pictures and cancer advocate; Leeza Gibbons, former host, Entertainment Tonight and Alzheimer’s advocate; Brock Reeve, Executive Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and Christopher Reeve’s brother, and many more.
Easing suffering is the main reason for AB 1657 to be supported. But even judged on financial terms alone, the program has already been a huge success. Over its ten year history, the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act has spent roughly fifteen million dollars of the taxpayer’s money ($15,126,100) but it attracted nearly eighty four million ($83,895,799) in add-on grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other sources-- $15 million became $99 million in actual research funded—new money and jobs for California.
Small but mighty, “Roman’s Law” has already accomplished much:
• Funded pioneering stem cell research leading to the world’s first clinical trials;
• Developed robotic equipment to facilitate vital rehabilitation for paralytics;
• Published 175 scientific papers, a small library of research guidance;
• Invented a new Petri dish (patent pending) to replace an expensive machine;
• Adapted a brain/computer interface, so paralytics could work a keyboard by thought.
Areas of concern: pressure sores which can rot to the bone; blood pressure irregularities that can kill; bowel, bladder and sexual dysfunction; severe chronic pain, and much more.
Christopher Reeve supported the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act. He dictated a letter to the Reed family, saying:
“One day, Roman and I will stand up from our wheelchairs, and walk away from them forever.”
Cure did not come in time for the paralyzed Superman, but the flame of his faith still lights our way. With your help, we will “go forward”, and we will prevail.
Please write Jerry Brown today. He will be deciding the fate of AB 1657 by the end of this month. Let him hear from you, before he makes up his mind.
As Roman Reed always says, “Take a stand with us, in favor of research for cure. Take a stand—so one day, everybody can.”