Insulin Pump Demystified

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

In the news

I don't pay as close attention to the daily news as I should. I don't want to be a stereotypical mom of young children who can only talk about diapers and feeding, but some days, that's mostly what's going on in my world. I do try to watch the news at least once a day and listen to NPR when I'm driving, but some days I fall asleep with the TV on and some days there's fussing or whining from the back seat that makes it kind of hard to pay attention to NPR.

But in the last week or so, I've been paying very close attention to the crisis unfolding in the Middle East...so much so, that I barely have had a chance to process Bush's veto last week of the bill that would give more funding to embryonic stem cell research. I'm just now catching up on the news item. And reading about the veto, and the politics leading up to it, just makes me compelety pissed.

You might like the President. You might respect him, think he's doing a decent job. I don't, and not only because I disagree with his foreign policy. I can not tolerate his stance on this stem cell issue. It is just mind-blowing to me, as someone living with Type 1 diabetes, that any human being is standing in the way of supporting research that will ultimately save millions, millions, millions of lives.

I don't know about you, but I want the Type 1 cure to come soon, and I know that researchers are really close, and I know that those stem cells could help them out. And this is all selfish, yes, for my own benefit--but I also speak this way because as someone living with Type 1, I feel like I have a sense of empathy and urgency for anyone living with a chronic illness.

I understand the President's perspective that the 5-day-old embryos have the potential to become human lives (or maybe he considers that they are lives); but a recent poll by USA Today shows that 61% of American disagree with this idea. Who is representing us? The majority of Americans want to save the lives of people suffering from chronic illnesses. Which, by the way, will help people all over the world. Woudln't it be awesome for an American scienetist to cure alzheimers or diabetes?

Sigh.
**********

On a more uplifting note, here's a news item that hasn't gotten much press:

World-class aviator and diabetes patient advocate Douglas Cairns has recently flown his plane to Orlando as part of a national tour to help raise awareness of diabetes and to inspire the 20 million Americans living with diabetes to take control of their condition.

In 1989, Douglas, then a Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot in the UK, was no longer permitted to fly fast-jets after being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. But now his determination and love for flying has inspired him to prove that diabetes need not limit the scope of people's dreams and ambitions.

Learn more about his flight at http://www.diabetesworldflight.com/index.html

In peace,
Gabrielle

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