Three More For Patrick

These two letters to the editor appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times today...

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick’s recent flip-flop on Iraq and subsequent refusal to offer a new strategy is offensive. Intelligent people can certainly disagree as to what we should be doing in Iraq, but it is indefensible for a sitting congressman to have no position at all.

While Fitzpatrick is engaging in desperate ploys to save his political hide, Americans are dying in Iraq. Fitzpatrick accuses his opponent, Iraq War vet Patrick Murphy, of “cutting and running.” But anyone who has read Murphy’s detailed plan for Iraq knows that these swift boat-like charges are ludicrous. The only candidate who is cutting and running is Mike Fitzpatrick, who is attempting to run as far away from his close friend George W. Bush as possible.

Fitzpatrick has walked lockstep (sic) with Bush on Iraq for too long for voters to fall for this charade.

Luvon Griffin
Bristol, PA

The Republicans’ handling of the war with Iraq has been the equivalent of driving the family car into a brick wall, then jumping out and demanding to know what the Democrats are going to do to fix it. Well, we can continue to do it the Republican way, put the car back in drive, hit the gas, and hope we can eventually punch our way through the thing.

We could do it the Mike Fitzpatrick way, sit on the ground outside the car and, like Mike, belittle every suggestion for a remedy that we ourselves did not think of with a clichéd phrase “No to cut and run” or “No to stay the course.”

Or we could do it the Democrats’ way – take away the car keys.

Mike Fitzpatrick thinks that finding a solution for the war is someone else’s job. Rick Santorum still believes there are WMDs over there.

The Republicans always have a lot to say about patriotism like they invented it. The most patriotic thing you can do this year is to vote for Democratic congressional candidate Patrick Murphy over incumbent Republican Mike Fitzpatrick and for Democratic senatorial candidate Bob Casey over incumbent Republican Rick Santorum.

The most patriotic thing you can do this year is to take away the car keys. It’s our car and they have, without a doubt, proven themselves unfit to drive.

Daniel Deagler
Plumstead, PA

Also, this Guest Opinion appeared from John Abbott, a U.S. Air Force veteran and a resident of Newtown Township, PA.

I am a disabled American veteran who enlisted in the Air Force in 1962 and I currently suffer from Parkinson’s disease. My days serving my country were the proudest days of my life. However, I never thought the government I fought so hard to protect would let me down in the face of death. I feel betrayed by George Bush, Mike Fitzpatrick and the other Republicans who are blocking federal funding for research that could save my life.

That’s why this November’s election is so important to me – because the future of my life could very well rest on its outcome. I will be voting for Patrick Murphy, a fellow veteran who I hope can help push federal funding for embryonic stem cell research forward despite Bush’s ill-advised policy. You see, Fitzpatrick is one of the Republicans who helped Bush sustain a veto on funding for this research despite the objections of scientists and patients like me. I can’t in good conscience vote for a man who let me down when I most needed his support.

Last month, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the nervous system. My symptoms began with shaking and occasional loss of movement. The disease is continuing to spread through my nerves and muscles, slowly crippling my ability to live life normally. It will eventually take all voluntary muscle control away from me, leaving me trapped in my own body.

Scientists and Parkinson’s disease advocates like Michael J. Fox are working hard to find a cure for the disease, but the federal government has thrown a massive roadblock in the way. A few months ago, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have allowed for federal funding of research on embryonic stem cells. These stem cells have a unique ability to help repair the nerve damage caused by Parkinson’s disease.

By the way, it should be pointed out that this remains the only veto by Dubya of legislation throughout this nightmare of a presidency.

Embryonic stem cell research offers great hope for me and those like me who suffer from Parkinson’s. In fact, it is believed that Parkinson’s disease could be the first disease to be made treatable by stem cell transplantation.

That is why I become so offended when Mike Fitzpatrick and George Bush blatantly distort the facts by claiming that their support for adult stem cell research justifies their opposition to the more promising embryonic stem cell research.

The truth is that adult stem cell research alone will do nothing to help me withstand the disease. A few years ago, dozens of Nobel Laureates sent a letter to Bush saying “Current evidence suggests that adult stem cells have markedly restricted differentiation potential. Therefore, for disorders that prove not to be treatable with adult stem cells, impeding human pluripotent stem cell research risks unnecessary delays for millions of patients who may die or endure needless suffering.”

If Fitzpatrick and Bush continue to block funding for embryonic stem cell research, I am old I will have one to four years before I end up confined to bed and unable to control my body. This is what is at stake when we talk about stem cell research: my right to live life. To claim that this right is somehow less important than playing election year politics is simply hurtful. These embryos are currently discarded as medical waste. Bush and Mike Fitzpatrick don’t complain about that – this is just election-year grandstanding at its worst.

Patrick Murphy has been an outspoken champion of embryonic stem cell research. The prospect of him fighting to federally fund this research beings me great hope.

This fall’s election may be about politics for some, but for me it is about my future and my life. I need embryonic stem cell research and I need Patrick Murphy to be elected to Congress.

We all need Patrick to be elected on November 7th, Mr. Abbott (you have our gratitude for your service and our prayers).

And to help make that happen, click here.