Paralysis and Climate Change

Hello all,

It occurred to me the other day that Spinal Cord Injury is a lot like Climate Change. No, not that SCI portends the end of civilization as we know it but rather the gravity of proximity. We whose lives have been up ended by paralysis must be something like the President of the Maldives who serves the lowest lying country on the planet. The immediacy of his fight to garner the attention of the world is driven by rising sea levels that will disappear his country, just like we (and those we care about) are driven by the every day reality of a disappeared and unresponsive body.

So, when I send out these messages asking you to sign a petition, call a public official or even simply care about this reality where we live, I get it. Proximity is king and even further our ask is not a one to one effort to solution proposition. If you make a call it doesn’t end paralysis, it just moves a small tick in a big dial towards the end game.

I’m not offering some novel solution to this little conundrum, just letting you know that I get what we’re asking. And to thank you, especially those of you who are not directly affected by paralysis, for caring enough to make a call, send an email, mail a letter, or even just keep reading. I’m convinced we are going to get there and further convinced that more of you taking up the cause will speed up the ‘getting there’.

In an effort to offer you a little bit of proximity, please watch this short video we made: ‘A Conversation about Paralysis’ so you know who is going to the Capitol every week and why.

And then, here’s the ask for this week, Please call/email/write:

Our authors: just to say Thank you for authoring (which means they are our champions who will fight for this effort) our Bill

Sen. John Hoffman 651-296-4154, sen.john.hoffman@senate.mn

Representative Rod Hamilton 651-296-5373, rep.rod.hamilton@house.mn

These are the legislators we are meeting with this week, highlighted are those on critical committees:

Rep Nick Zerwas 651-296-4237 rep.nick.zerwas@house.mn

Rep Kathy Lohmer 651-296-4244 rep.kathy.lohmer@house.mn

Rep Deb Kiel 651-296-5091 rep.deb.kiel@house.mn

Rep Erin Murphy 651-296-8799 rep.erin.murphy@house.mn

Rep Gene Pelowski 651-296-8637 rep.gene.pelowski@house.mn

Senator Karin Housley 651-296-4351 sen.karin.housley@senate.mn

Rep Tina Liebling 651-296-0573 rep.tina.liebling@house.mn

Rep Jerry Hertaus 651-296-9188 rep.jerry.hertaus@house.mn

Rep Joe Hoppe 651-296-5066 rep.joe.hoppe@house.mn

Rep Lien 651-296-5515 rep.ben.lien@house.mn

Rep Joe Schomaker 651-296-5505 rep.joe.schomaker@house.mn

Rep Dan Schoen 651-296-4342 rep.dan.schoen@house.mn

Thanks







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Matthew Rodreick