Four more days to sign the Rick Hansen appeal

Thanks to all the great work you all have done, almost 700 people world wide have added their names to our appeal to Rick Hansen. As the leader of one of the biggest organizations dealing with spinal cord injury in the world, we all want to know his plans to CURE chronic spinal cord injury.


Just getting 700 people to add their names to something like this is a victory in itself, but we don't want to stop here. If you have a few seconds, I'd like to give you three options to spread the word further. On Wednesday, Japan time, which is Tuesday for most of you, I will wrap this up and send it to Mr. Hansen and to the Canadian press.


Let's keep up the good work and see how many more we can get in the last three days.


Email is the best way to get your message across to your friends.
Launch your email and copy and past this short message.


I know you're busy and so am I so I just want to write a really short message. Paralyzed people and their supporters throughout the world have some very important questions to ask about a cure for chronic spinal cord injury. In one minute you'll be able to read the information and add your name at www.bit.ly/RickHansen. I already have and I hope you do, too. www.bit.ly/RickHansen.

launch www.twitter.com 

Another great way for you to get your message across is on Twitter. Many people value this as a reliable place to get news and your followers would love to get your news about signing our appeal.
Just click the icon to launch twitter and copy and paste this short message.


700 have added their name to Rick Hansen to stand up for a cure for chronic spinal cord injuries. Add your name. http://www.bit.ly/RickHansen

launch www.facebook.com

Finally, everybody's favourite, FaceBook. Go to your status update and urge all of your friends to add their names to our appeal. Click the icon to launch FaceBook and copy and paste this message to your status updates.


Almost 700 paralyzed folks and their supporters have signed our appeal to Rick Hansen to stand firmly behind a cure for chronic spinal cord injury. How about you. www.bit.ly/RickHansen

Appeal to Rick Hansen - 5 days left - please sign

The Rick Hansen Foundation (RHF) and Rick Hansen Institute (RHI) is one of the largest and well financed organizationdealing with spinal cord injury (SCI) in the WHOLE WORLD.

but…

There is a concern in the paralysis community about the RHF and RHI’s spending on a cure for paralysis.

In 2011 these concerns led to over 300emails being sent to RHF’s CEO, Mr. Art Reitmayer, asking for clarification.

SO WE ASKED A VERY SIMPLE QUESTION,

“Please outline your spending on translational research for central nervous system regeneration, i.e., a cure for spinal cord injury.”

We were shocked to find the answer void of any content. He answered,

“81% of funds raised by RHF have been directed towards the search for a cure for SCI and quality of life initiatives.”

You can imagine the red flags that were raised by an answer like this.

So this time we want to forget about the past and ask Rick directly about RHF/I’s plans to get people out of wheelchairs and walking and we want an announcement made at the May Interdependence 2012 conference in Vancouver.

Help Rick strengthen CURE’s side by adding your name, along with over 600 people worldwide, to the following questions.

********************************************* 

To: Mr. Rick Hansen

Re: Getting us up and walking

We want to be with you in your fight to cure paralysis so naturally we want to know if you’re really with us.

Please answer the following clearly in writing and publicly at the Interdependence 2012 conference.

A.    How much are you planning to spend in the next 5 years to find a cure for chronic SCI?

B.    Which research projects (basic and clinical research) will be funded by Rick Hansen organizations to get people with chronic SCI out of wheelchairs?

C.    What is RHF/I’s ability and/or willingness to fund promising science to cure chronic spinal cord injury both domestically and internationally.

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This campaign has now ended. Thank you for your support.

The May Day spirit to cure paralysis

Add your name to our appeal

I know many of you in the paralysis world don't think about May Day like I do. In fact, some of you probably think that mixing May Day and cure is not such a good idea.

But from where I sit, I don't see a really big difference.

May Day was started by those who refused to accept the status quo. Just like us in the cure movement who don't buy into the position that we'll never walk again.

May Day is about people working together to improve their lot in life. How different is this from all our campaigns? We know that one voice will not get us out of our chairs. We believe in many voices singing in unison.

May Day is international. And on the left you can see all the people from different countries who have supported our campaign to the Rick Hansen Foundation and to the California State Assembly.

So now I leave you with the words of Frederick Douglass who was born a slave, escaped to freedom, and campaigned again slavery his whole life.

The next time someone tells you that sitting and waiting for a cure for paralysis is the answer, and that we should not raise our voice too loudly or boldly, please tell them what Frederick Douglass said.

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle." 


So please remember to add your name to our campaigns!

Click to Cure - Roman Reed Cure Paralysis act

Hit the send button below to help a cure for paralysis.

In March I told you about the Roman Reed Cure Paralysis act in California. This truly extraordinary act to fund cure research had lost it's funding and California cure activits were leading a campaign to resurrect the money. 

A very simple idea to add one dollar to moving violating traffic offences is being proposed.


You can find out even more about this amazing act by clicking here.

We needed your support to get this truly neccessary act to get the through the public safety committee. You responded wonderfully by sending 230 emails in a few days and it passed the committee.

Now it's at the appropriations committee and if it fails, the green light to add the one dollar will fail. We need cure laws with money, not flowery words.

I urge you to send an email to Assembleymember and Appropriations Committee Chair Mr. Felipe Fuentes and ask him to vote YES.

We only have a few more days on this one so I want you to act immediately.


This campaign has now ended. Thanks to everyone for signing.

Another reason for adding your name to our Declaration of INterDEPENDENCE

We're still adding names to our appeal to Rick Hansen and his foundation for a cure for chronic spinal cord injury, and we want you to add your name, too.


You can sign and never leave this page, just by looking at the end of this post.

Today, we have Barb from Canada who tells us why she signed and wants you to sign. It's not too late for you to listen to Barb and sign the appeal at www.bit.ly/RickHansen or at the bottom of this page.

So what does Barb say?

"As a C-1 vent-dependent quad, slogans about independence or wheelchair sports do not offer me much consolation, while a "research" budget almost void of actual cure efforts offers me no hope whatsoever. Where is the urgency? Where is the prioritization of clinical trials that will repair spinal cord injury rather than perpetuate it as a cottage industry? Anyone in my situation would be very foolish to question the value of sci quality of life and care research, but there must be a greater balance in resource allocation. The Rick Hansen Institute cannot claim to be a world-leading cure institute when it devotes so little of its considerable funding and support to the only type of research that will make "a world without paralysis after spinal cord injury" a reality rather than an empty catch-phrase. Please sign this petition if you agree."

This campaign has now ended. thank you for your support.   

Thank you for signing our Declaration of INterDEPENDENCE

Thank you to all those who have signed our appeal to Rick Hansen to ask about a cure for chronic spinal cord injury at www.bit.ly/RickHansen.

It's because of people like you that we are about to surpass the 500 person mark making this one of our best campaigns ever. So now I want to appeal to you to take just one more step to get more people to sign so that our appeal cannot be ignored.

Doing just one of the following will do a lot for the future of CURE.

Copy and paste this very short message and paste it on your Facebook page.

"I signed an appeal to the Rick Hansen Foundation asking them for a commitment to a CURE for chronic spinal cord injury. Now I'm appealing to my facebook friends to sign, too, at www.bit.ly/RickHansen."

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Send an email to your friends. Studies have shown that direct appeals by email work much better than a simple post on Facebook.

"I'm just sending you a quick email to let you know about a campaign to CURE chronic spinal cord injury. I've added my name to the appeal and I hope you will do the same. You can sign it at www.bit.ly/RickHansen."

Declaration of INterDEPENDENCE - Sign it!

Add your name to our appeal at www.bit.ly/RickHansen

To: Mr. Rick Hansen
Re: Getting us up and walking

1. How much are you planning to spend in the next five years to find a cure for chronic spinal cord injury?
2. Which research projects (basic and clinical research) will be funded by Rick Hansen organizations to get people with chronic sci out of wheelchairs?
3. What is the Rick Hansen Foundation/Rick Hansen Institute's ability/willingness to fund promising science to cure chronic spinal cord injury both domestically and internationally?

These are the questions. Now we want an answer.
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The Rick Hansen Foundation (one of the world's largest and most well financed spinal cord injury organizations) is hosting the Interdependence global conference on spinal research starting 15 May in Vancouver, Canada.

This is a very good time for us to shout the cure message loud and clear so that it's not missed.

Many of you have already sent emails to the Rick Hansen Foundation demanding answers and your emails have already had a tremendous impact ( http://stemcellsandatombombs.blogspot.jp/2012/02/you-yours-and-rick-hansen.html ).

Now it's time to ask for more. We have put together a very good set of questions that we need answered and we're going to let the world know that we WANT answered and that's about Rick Hansen's plan to cure chronic spinal cord injury.

You can add your name to the appeal at www.bit.ly/RickHansen

But more than this, we need you to get this in the hands of your friends, family, coworkers, and even enemies to get them to sign. You can download a PDF of our flyer and send it on to your supporters, or just send them the link, www.bit.ly/RickHansen.

We've already done a lot with the Rick Hansen Foundation and now we need a little more push and success or failure lies in our hands.

This is NOT a campaign AGAINST Rick Hansen.
This is AN APPEAL TO Rick Hansen to strengthen cure's side.

This is our long march from INTERdependence to INdependence.

Today is when we declare to all the old paralysis orgs that they must march to the drum of cure regardless of how thankful we are for their past work.

Today is when we stand up.

This is not an appeal by the weak to the strong.
This is not an appeal that we make with bowed heads in hope that someone will help us.
This is an appeal made by those who are standing up and marching together towards cure.

It's up to us, my friends. So let's do it.
www.bit.ly/RickHansen



This campaign has now ended. Thank you for your support.