They Did It

The Senate has approved the radical Reid/Kennedy amendment known as "hate crimes" legislation. President Bush has pledged to veto the legislation. Let's pray he does.

Hey Cloning Coaltion, Welcome to the Grassroots!

At the risk of turning my blog into commentary on Missouri’s cloning battle, I feel the need to highlight at least one recent event.

Here’s the latest propaganda from the Stowers Institute’s mouthpiece. Well, ok, I can’t link to it because it’s not yet posted as of this writing (I’ll get back to that in a moment). But for now, you can read it below:

For Immediate Release: September 5, 2007
Contact: Connie Farrow (314) 808-1158

3 strikes, you're out? Refiling of Amendment to Change Constitution to Criminalize Stem Cell Cures Shows Trouble with Anti-Cures Cause

“They’ve gotten the science wrong. They’ve gotten the law wrong. Why should we trust them to get cures right?”

Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures responded today as opponents of stem cell cures refiled their measure yet again, the third time in less than two weeks. Said Donn Rubin, chairman of Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, “In their zeal to repeal access to stem cell research and criminalize doctors who pursue desperately needed cures, opponents of stem cell research have trampled both basic science and basic law.

First their deceptive and far-reaching initiative would have excluded Missourians with common chromosomal abnormalities like Downs, Klinefelter and Turner syndromes from their definition of “human.” Then their “improved” initiative would have made their supporters’ e-mail addresses part of the public record, opening them up to spammers and scammers. They simply can’t get their act together. We shouldn’t trust anything they put on the ballot.”Added Rubin, "Whether it’s little errors or big ones, this initiatives supporters can’t get anything right. But no matter how many times they rewrite and refile their initiative, their intent is the same: to repeal the stem cell measure passed by voters 10 months ago.”

Thanks to Missouri’s passage of the Stem Cell Amendment last year, our constitution now guarantees equal access to stem cell research, treatment and cures allowed under federal law and available to other Americans. It also makes any attempt to clone a human being a felony crime, punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The proposed initiative’s plan to redefine stem cell research as “cloning” is really a disguised attempt to repeal the stem cell guarantees established by voters.Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures promotes cures for diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes in Missouri. It is a grassroots coalition which includes more than 100 leading patient and medical organizations and more than 60,000 Missouri citizens.

### Paid for by Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, Lindsay Holwick, Treasurer

Well, Mr. Rubin, Ms. Farrow and Daddy-Warbucks-Stowers, welcome to Missouri’s pro-life grassroots movement. We do have trouble with starts, but we’re pretty great on finishes. Of course you know that, having spent $30 million on an advertising campaign to convince (deceive) Missourians that Amendment 2 was a good thing, only to almost lose the ballot measure.

Sure enough, we sometimes look foolish and are pretty unprofessional in a lot of ways. We’re folks who do our business around our children’s crayons and cookie crumbs. Our desks are usually our kitchen tables where we eat our meals and teach our values. Our suits are often sweats and a t-shirt. We can barely fund our grocery budgets.

We’re pro-life Missourians. We don’t produce 2,100 words of gobbledygook for a constitutional amendment. We’re direct, honest and to the point. That's why we've only used around 200 words. We can’t afford a cadre of national lawyers to ruminate over every nuance of every word of every sentence. We'll even listen to our opponents.

But in the end, we get things right. It may take some doing, but we get things right. And we’ll get this right. We’re not afraid of failing and we’re not afraid of losing.

In fact, in over 30 years of pro-life activism, we’ve lost more times than we’ve won. That’s why we’ll keep filing corrections with the Secretary of State. And that’s why we'll keep filing amendments, even if we lose this election. We’ll be back again and again and again. So keep up your provocative rhetoric. Your sarcasm and taunts highlighting our mistakes is predictable.

But for us pro-life Missourians, we’ll stay focused on the issue, if you don’t mind. Amendment 2 gave our state an entirely new and inaccurate definition of cloning. We’re telling our neighbors and our friends and our community acquaintances the truth. Cloning is now legal in Missouri. You really should see their faces when they hear that.

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PS. Why wasn't your press release from yesterday posted on your website today, nearly 24 hours later? I like posting links. I'd think a $30 million organization would be a bit more professional...talk about not getting things right!