Making a petition for MS funding.

[Fluffysmom]

We mentioned in another post that it would be a good idea to ask Michelle Obama's help with getting the new administraton to fund more and better research and education regarding Multiple Sclerosis.  

As my brain is a little fuzzy, I'm asking for some bright person to help develop a petition.  I can at least provide the link to where we can get the petition started;

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/create-online-petition

I think it's worth a try, don't you?

Kathy

[doublevision1]

I am interested in helping out with this and hope we can interest a few others too.

There is some excellent info on the National MS Society (U.S) website on how to become an MS activist:

www. nationalmssociety. org/get-involved/taking-action/activist-toolkit/index.aspx

If you have a U.S. mailing address, you can sign up for their "Action E-list" to receive an MS Action Alert when an important issue or piece of legislation calls for your immediate attention; and to receive a monthly Federal Focus on Advocacy e-newsletter—an update on activism successes, timely legislation, and emerging issues.

Unfortunately, the site only permits those with a US mailing address to sign up to receive informtion, even just to get emails.  A while ago I sent them an email requesting they permit those living outside the U.S. to be able to sign up.  I will write them again.  Even though non US citizens obviously don't have state officials to lobby, the information is still good to have and we can possibly support similar efforts in our own place of residence.

An example of how activism efforts can pay off is the recent $5 million govt grant to fund MS research.  The society says: "This is a tremendous victory for the MS movement as it is the first time that multiple sclerosis has ever received its own line item allocation under CDMRP, a program funded through the Defense Department."


I encourage everyone to read more about it:

www. nationalmssociety. org/research/research-news/news-detail/index.aspx?nid=396

This story motivates me to DO something.


So with regards to appealing to Michelle Obama, let's think more about what exactly we would be wanting her to do on the MS front, that would be most helpful to the cause.  You know it would be awesome if the MS Society pursued her to be a spokeswoman for them.

I''ll only be on sporadically over the next few weeks as I'll be out of town quite a bit.  But I'll use that time to do some thinking about this.  Also, I have a good friend who has long been involved in political activism.  Her current project is assisting women and children in Brazil who are living in poverty.  She always has tons of ideas on how to advance a cause.

Let's try to keep this post on the first page for a while and hopefully interest a few more to help out.

[Fluffysmom]

Thanks for your help, db.  I'm now officially and MS activist!  

My vision is giving me fits today, so I'm having difficulty reading, but will come back and read more about the research and funding.  I agree that we need to know just what we want to ask for before we start a petition.

I think this is a great project; I hope we get mored interested people to add their input.  I hope db's friend will be able to give us some great ideas on how to get more accomplished.

My eyes want to close now.  Hey, I typed that last sentence with my eyes closed!  I think I do better typing with my eyes closed; interesting.

Kathy