As a 3rd District congressional candidate, I view my future constituents as though they are already my responsibility to represent. I had made that offer during the two town hall meetings I organized in Fort Smith and Van Buren. My messaging is that customer service is an important part of the job. Recently a man asked me for help.
The man had learned this year that his adult child was diagnosed with a disease that will kill him prematurely. It is one of those mysterious progressive neurodegenerative diseases. The cause is unknown. The prognosis and its speed are unknown, but it always ends with premature death. There is no known cure. It isn't particularly rare, affecting about 30,000 Americans, with about 5,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
With this many Americans affected, it is worthwhile for our National Institutes of Health to focus research on it, and the good news is they have. Scientific breakthroughs in one disease frequently lead to breakthroughs for other diseases. And AI has the potential to accelerate the speed of research, benefiting all Americans, and indeed all people.
The bad news is the Trump Administration has arbitrarily ended the research into this and many other diseases. Scientists have been fired. Experiments destroyed. Results lost. Even if funding could be restored, it would be hard to recover from the damage. Our money has been invested and wasted with the destruction. And, the lives of people, like the son of my constituent, are put at risk, and the hope of a cure is shattered.
My new constituent and his entire family are distressed. Potentially life-saving research terminated for a political purpose. This father is also a constituent of current Congressman Steve Womack. This father has written to Womack. This father has visited with Womack. Letters elicited form letter replies. The personal visit elicited an equally useless reply, not much different than the "thoughts and prayers" often offered by elected officials after a mass-shooting event. Womack is a strong supporter and rubber-stamp for Trump, and he has not objected to this, either.
My new constituent was getting nowhere with his elected representative. So he asked me. My husband and I drove the 178-mile round trip between my home in Van Buren and his office in Bentonville because his congressman does not care.
I learned about the younger man, married, father of two, and his hobbies and short life experiences. And I saw, through occasional tears in the older man, the extreme frustration and despair he feels.
I believe we need to restart the research as soon as possible. America used to be great. Now, if researchers are to find cures, it will not come from the United States. Another country must lead.
If you or someone you know has a similar situation, I would like to hear from you.
Diana Lawrence
