Sign a petition to Congress asking them to improve US dialysis program this year

[Bill Peckham]

I have a blog post up http://www.billpeckham.com/from_the_sharp_end_of_the/2008/04/kidney-care-p-1.html about a petition you can sign. It asks Congress to pass legislation this year to improve the US dialysis program.

[stauffenberg]

If the suggestions are going to cost the billionaires who own the United States an extra penny for these reforms, then their agents who run the country for them (better known as 'politicians'), will never act on these proposals, no matter how many signatures you get from the non-corporation, non-business leaders, non-rich people 'citizens' who now and then act as if they were the real ones who owned the country.

I just gave up on the United States when I was 28 and spent the rest of my life in Europe and Canada where the people are taken care of by a generous and humane public healthcare system.  I don't think anything in America can ever be improved.

[Bill Peckham]

It's always tempting to give into cynicism. However, the truth is we can change our ways and improve situations.

To take a simple example here in Seattle - in the '50s Lake Washington (a large lake that forms Seattle's eastern border) was so polluted it was unsafe to swim. Long story short a lot of people worked hard and improved the situation. Today swimming in Lake Washington is one of my favorite things to do in the summer. Air quality has improved in my life time. Crime is a small fraction of what it was just twenty years ago. The elderly have a much higher standard of living today then they did when I was born. These things happened because people worked to make the situation better.

In dialysis if we, those who have been on dialysis or continue to be on dialysis, don't care about this stuff who do we think is going to care for us?? No one should care more about the provision of dialysis than you and I. It is when we withdraw from the process that things go sideways. We have the dialysis program we deserve; if we want a better program we have to work to make it better.

The heavy lifting is being done by the KCP and its member organizations such as the Renal Support Network and Northwest Kidney Centers.  Signing a petition is pretty light duty.

[Chris]

How do we find out who to send this too?
All the petitions I have done on behald of the American Diabetes association have been electronic and I do not remember the names of the congress person on the letters sent on my behalf..

[Bill Peckham]

How do we find out who to send this too?
All the petitions I have done on behald of the American Diabetes association have been electronic and I do not remember the names of the congress person on the letters sent on my behalf..

The system they're using is you print out a one page PDF document, fill in your particular information and then fax the filled out page. the fax number os on the sheet.

I think the idea is to have more than a electronically generated list of names, there will be a bushel stack of paper.

As far as whether this tactic will work or amount to much, who knows but I do know not trying has a guaranteed result.