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Junior Member
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 14
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Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 14
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Paula, What about the Right to Recover as the New Civil Rights movement?
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She has lobbied lawmakers from Tallahassee to Washington, sometimes making unannounced visits. Recently, she dropped by the Palm Coast office of her representative, John Mica, R-Winter Park, hoping to share an article about the "political straitjacket" Bush and Congress have put researchers in.
Mica, a staunch opponent of federal funding for embryonic-stem-cell research, was not there, and she gave it to his aide.
But she spends most of her time behind the computer at her cluttered home south of Jacksonville, trying to reframe the language of the debate. She's a prolific letter writer, blogger, editor and major contributor to several pro-embryonic-stem-cell-research Web sites.
"I think it's controversial to oppose it. I actually think it's criminal," she said. "I have been called a baby killer many times, but to me the opponents are the ones killing the babies -- real babies with real diseases in need of real treatments -- not fertilized egg cells that are going to be thrown away. To me . . . we're recycling medical waste."
Armitage's passion and devotion to her son has landed her in jail twice -- once in 1998 for scuffling with a school resource officer over Jason's care in Kissimmee; the other in 2004 for yanking campaign signs for Bush and other GOP candidates from a busy intersection near her home. The charges were eventually dismissed, and she wears the arrests as badges of honor.
"Lots of good people have been arrested -- Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, to name a few," she said. "Obviously, I am not in their league, but this is the next civil-rights movement: the right to recover."
With his one clearly intelligible word -- "Mom!" -- Jason interrupts and indicates he's ready to wheel to his room and PlayStation, his great escape from his life of isolation. He plays it the same way he eats and drives his wheelchair: by gingerly maneuvering the only two movable fingers on his right hand. He also listens to rap music, watches Comedy Central and clearly interacts with a visitor.
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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/orl-m...ge=2&track=rss
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