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3/Day 3
Senate Bill 5 Campaign
Letters to Editors/Press Coverage
Hi,
Thank you for your work so far on S5. We will continue our campaign, but we
have learned that S 30, the bill from Isakson and Coleman that will be heard
along with S 5, is NOT harmless as we have been led to believe. We at Americans
for Stem Cell Therapies and Cures are joining many well respected organizations
and individuals in vehemently opposing this bill. Among other things, it would
prohibit federal funding to creating patient specific and disease specific stem
cell lines. Please include NO on S 30 in all of your communications where you
urge YES on S 5.
We continue our coordinated campaign with tasks for DAY THREE:
Write and submit letters to the editors of your local newspapers.
Change the letters and send to your closest major metropolitan newspaper
and/or your statewide newspapers.
Contact your local newspapers and ask them to write a human interest story
about your efforts to pass S 5. See How to Get Press Coverage for more
information on how to do this.
Letters-to-the-editor and opinion pieces (op-eds) are widely read by elected
officials and the general public. Hugely important, letters to the editor at
the very least educate the editors--and, if published, they reach not only the
newspaper's audience, but also the governmental officials of that area. A
letter in a representative or senator's home paper is guaranteed to be
carefully noted and considered by the key aides to that leader.
The editorial pages are an excellent way to advocate and reach your
community. To successfully place a letter to the editor or an op-ed, consider
the following tips: (Credit for some of these tips belongs to the Federation of
American Societies for Experimental Biology. The full document, "Writing
Letters-to-the-Editor and Op-Eds", can be accessed online here. The rest are
courtesy of Don Reed.)
Reach Local Publications: These newspapers may have more impact on your
community and are more likely to be published than those sent to national
papers.
Do Not Duplicate: Do not send the same letter or op-ed to multiple papers
and do not send more than one piece to the same paper in a short period of
time--editors will not print them.
Make it Relevant: To increase your chance of getting published, relate your
letter to a recent story covered by that paper. Make sure to reference the
story by its publication date, title, and author's name.
Check Submission Guidelines: Make sure that your letters and op-eds conform
to the paper's submission guidelines and that you have included all of the
necessary information.
Use different angles: If you want to write several papers, it is always best
to go at the subject from different angles. If each letter is unique and
exclusive to that paper, your chances of bing published are higher.
Think of the letter as a private conversation: Think of this letter as a
private conversation between you and the readers, during which you get to say
your side and not be interrupted.
Some papers require electronic submission: If that is the case, try and
remember to copy your letter before you send it off, because the language you
settle on may turn out to be re-usable later on.
Below are two sample letters written by patient advocate and Americans for
Stem Cell Therapies & Cures Board member, Don Reed. I have edited them to apply
to the S 5 debate. Notice how each one of the letters comes at the subject in a
different way. One of these letters was published in an Illinois newspaper.
As always, please don't hesitate to email us if you have questions, comments
or if you would like help with these tasks. And please continue to keep us
updated on your efforts. Thank you!
---------------------------------
Dear Editors:
As the father of a paralyzed young man, (Roman Reed, who inspired
California's first embryonic stem cell research funding, under the Roman Reed
Spinal Cord Injury Research Act of 1999) I am so glad to hear of Illinois'
tremendous strides toward stem cell research.
I cannot help but think that Abraham Lincoln, the only President to ever own
a patent (I believe it was a way to move boats up canals) would have been
overjoyed with this great leap forward.
Christopher Reeve sent my family a letter saying, "One day, Roman and I will
stand up from our wheelchairs and walk away from them forever." I believe in
that great dream.
And when it happens, when my son stands up from his wheelchair, it will be
due to the efforts of scientists, freed and funded by legislation like S 5, the
Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007.
Thank you,
---------------------------------
A Father's Request
Dear Editors:
As the father of a paralyzed young man, I would ask that the citizens of this
great country support your legislators as they struggle to pass positive stem
cell legislation.
The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007, S 5, will allow this
lifesaving research to move forward.
If you know anybody paralyzed, you will understand why this is important to
me, and to them, and to every family which suffers from incurable illness or
injury.
It is estimated that 100 million Americans have chronic (incurable) disease
or disability. All in their family share the suffering.
Some legislation affects only a few people; but research support is for
everyone.
We all pay the price of maintaining our loved ones; it is right and proper we
should do this. But the cost increasingly is more than we can bear. An
estimated 75% of all medical expenditures go to paying the medical expenses of
the chronically ill. This mountain of money, approaching two trillion dollars a
year, cannot be afforded by any nation.
If we have cures, not only will the suffering be eased, but the costs will go
down as well.
With all my heart, I appreciate our leaders' efforts to advance stem cell
research.
Thank you,
---------------------------------
550 S. California Avenue | Suite 330 | Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 812-9304 | (650) 833-0105 (fax)
www.americansforcures.org
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