Posted by Sandy Donchess on October 31, 1998 at 21:41:27:
In Reply to: Re: ADA Advocate Alert Received Today posted by Steve Santen on October 31, 1998 at 20:27:07:
I called and spoke to Joe LaMountain after I posted the ADA Advocate Alert. I asked him to explain the numbers to me, and he went into a tirade about the NIH not funding diabetes appropriately, how diabetes research funds had diminished over time because the percentage had not increased, etc. I asked him what should be done about this and he said that people needed to be made upset enough to contact their Congress folks about it. I asked about the ADA motto - which has the word "cure" first - although I heard statistics regarding ADA's very low funding of any research, much less cure research. I also said I was disgusted by the behavioral studies going on. I brought up the cookbook and educational materials thing, and said I and my son have Type 1 - not Type 2 - and need a cure, not cookbooks. He said, "That's our market." I asked what the ADA budget per year was, and he said about $100 million. I said JDF spends 80+% of their bucks on research, and that the ADA "bucket" was much bigger; shouldn't they be doing this also? He just said that many things needed a lot of money. As he did during our conversation last summer, he said they had to get the money first and then decide what to do with it.
I know that educational materials and cookbooks are used, and I think the ADA does do some good with policy and legislative stuff. But what I basically heard was that my son and I, who have Type 1 and want a cure, are not their "market." We are a tiny minority of the diabetics ADA sells to, and they are not at all into cure research.
It is hypocritical for them to use the word "cure" in their motto at all; to list it first is virtually blasphemous because it is so blatantly untrue. I'm really, really disgusted. I'm a minority, but I'm a big-mouth minority, and I will make sure that whenever I am close to someone with diabetes I will make it a point to tell them that if they want cookbooks, send money to the ADA. If they want their diabetes cured, send it to JDF and (possibly) other organizations that are focused on research.