A few weeks ago I was inspired by a social media victory when a fellow DOC member had written a letter to their representative and eventually they were granted a meeting with him. After that, I decided to send an e-mail to every single one of my reps. Whether it was on a national level (to discuss FDA and the artificial pancreas) State reps, and even the most local reps. I received quick responses from most of the local reps within 48-72 hours. I did not hear anything back from the two Senators….until today. And let’s just say, I wasn’t very happy with the response.
First, I could tell that it was an automated response, and most likely not even from him. The first two sentences mentioned my concerns about the FDA and the artificial pancreas and funding for diabetes research. After those two sentences, it went straight into campaign rhetoric. It was mentioned that he will take this into consideration, but his main focus is working on a budget that will help reduce the national debt and work on funding for public education. So, basically you’re saying that theres no room or no time left of yours to deal with the diabetes issue?
That is why you, as a Senator, have a lot of aides. Because you may not have the time personally to deal with this issue directly, but one of your aides can speak with people about diabetes, and some of the major issues that are out there and then during one of your meetings, it can be discussed.
I was not a fan of Senator Nelson to begin with, but as the one with power, I had to reach out to him. I always said that, it doesn’t matter on a Federal level, your voice is never heard. Unfortunately, this is another example of that happening. When you are ready to discuss the importance of diabetes Mr. Senator, I will be hear with an open mind wanting to discuss what you can do to better the lives of the millions of diabetics out there.
Thanks.