{"id":47768,"date":"2017-10-19T11:06:57","date_gmt":"2017-10-19T15:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=47768"},"modified":"2017-10-19T11:47:18","modified_gmt":"2017-10-19T15:47:18","slug":"dear-president-trump-you-diabetes-comments-not-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asweetlife.org\/?p=47768","title":{"rendered":"Dear President Trump: You. Diabetes Comments. Not good."},"content":{"rendered":"

To: President Donald Trump<\/strong><\/p>\n

From: \u201cD-Mom\u201d Moira, on behalf of all who live with diabetes<\/strong><\/p>\n

Re: \u201cHer health. No good. Diabetes.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

According to multiple reliable news sources, you, while pondering how many Supreme Court Justice positions you will get to fill in your tenure, remarked that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor\u2019s position would be one because, as you said,\u00a0\u201cHer health. No good. Diabetes.\u201d <\/a>\u00a0With all due respect to you, Mr. President, you are misinformed and speaking off antiquated \u2013 at best \u2013 information. How do I know? Allow me to introduce you to some amazing people, one of whom is my daughter.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with her. Lauren is 26 and as of this very week has been living with Type 1 diabetes (just like Justice Sotomayor) since she was 6 years old. Lauren lives right around the corner from you in DC and you very well may have crossed paths with her. Usually she\u2019s walking to her job helping shape policy for people with ALS \u2013 she likes to walk rather than take the Metro because she\u2019s healthy and fit, and because she savors every day of her what-will-be-long life. Or, she might have ridden her bike past your office while doing long training rides for her annual one-day, 100-mile Ride to Cure Diabetes event. That\u2019s right \u2013 she can ride her bike 100 miles in one day \u2013 and so can and do so many of her diabetes world friends.<\/p>\n

You may have flown over GWU medical center the other day when she was there for her endocrinology check up; the day the doctor looked over her labs and said she has the labs of a \u201cnon diabetic person,\u201d despite 20 years of living with the disease.<\/p>\n

You may have been sitting on your couch in the White House while, down the road a bit, she was dancing at a night club and laughing with her huge circle of friends, living and loving life no differently than those without diabetes. She\u2019s normal. Healthy, happy, and normal. And she will be for decades to come.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, she lives in the 21st<\/sup> century, a time when women are treated as equals in every way. Okay, I\u2019m kidding there. But it is a century when diabetes is no longer a death sentence and when, for those living in a strong first-world country with affordable and accessible health care (ahem), a person with diabetes will live the same average life span as their contemporaries without.<\/p>\n

Sure, it\u2019s extra work, but people like Justice Sotomayor and my daughter \u2013 and millions of others with diabetes from small children to \u2013 gasp! \u2013 senior citizens who have now had it for decades, do that work without letting it stop them from doing amazing things in the world \u2013 like serving as a Supreme Court Justice, or working as a young and rising policy professional in DC.<\/p>\n

And consider this: your word choices matter<\/a>. \u00a0What you said about Justice Sotomayor can\u2014and probably will \u2013 impact how people perceive folks like my daughter for years to come. She already fights discrimination daily. (She\u2019s not strong enough. Diabetes makes her weak. She might not be able to do the job someone without diabetes can do\u2026 All untrue).\u00a0 Now, your comment, writ large, will bolster that ignorant and completely wrong assumption.<\/p>\n

People with diabetes compete in the Olympics (the regular Olympics. I know what you thought for a second there). They are CEO\u2019s of huge companies. They are \u2013 imagine this? \u2013 leaders of nations. They are collegiate swim champions. They are stay at home moms and dads. They are superheroes and yet they are everyday folks.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m still hoping you just don\u2019t know the diabetes of today. So here\u2019s an offer: take a walk with Lauren. Get to know what she does and how well she does and why diabetes will not take her life early.<\/p>\n

Maybe, just maybe: instead of bumming you out that Justice Sotomayor probably has decades more to live, it will instead open you up to a true understanding of how crucial good health insurance and medical care are, and how they’ve changed lives here in our great nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":47773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1429,1541],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDear President Trump: You. Diabetes Comments. Not good.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"While pondering how many Supreme Court Justice positions you will get to fill in your tenure, remarked that Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor\u2019s position would be one because, as you said, \u201cHer health. No good. 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