When I was a little baby my Mom found out she had Parkinson's Disease. I was with my Mom, but I don't really remember when the doctor told her she had a bad disease that gets worse and worse and doesn't have a cure. I know that now there are lots of things I can't do with my Mom and sometimes feel like I have to take care her instead of her taking care of me.

I learned that Parkinson's Disease is when your brain doesn't produce enough dopamine. Dopamine is important because it tells your body how to move. My Mom's body tremors and she can't write things down or if she does no on can read it, not even her. She gets disabled to walk so she rides my scooter around the house (I'm not allowed to ride in the house though). And sometimes she can't even walk until her medicine starts working so my Dad and I get things for her.

She takes tons of pills every day but the medicine or the disease causes more problems for her so my Mom tries new medicines and different things a lot to try to get better.

Our whole family works hard to help find a cure for Parkinson's. My mom talks about Parkinson's to the newspapers or on the news whenever she can and sometimes my name or picture is shown too! We had a charity art show at our house and Uncle Dan's art raised a lot of money. I even sold a painting and all the money went to Parkinson's research. My mom said that if researchers got enough money from Congress and from regular people that scientists could find a cure in 5 or 10 years. That would be good because I won't be a grown-up yet and my Mom will get better and we could go iceskating together.

But now we have a big problem. I heard President Bush say that all cloning research has to stop. My Mom was really upset because she said the President and some people in Congress want to stop researchers from finding a cure for Parkinson's and lots of other diseases that make millions of people sick. I don't get it.

One part of the Pledge of Allegiance says "Liberty and Justice for all". I don't think the government is giving us much liberty or justice--at all!

People are scared of the kind of cloning that would make new people (reproductive cloning). But what's so scary about finding a cure for my Mom? That kind of cloning is called therapeutic cloning and doesn't make people or kittens or anything like that--it would just help my Mom's brain work again like it is supposed to.

I think that the people who make the laws should make rules so scientists won't do bad things with research. But can't they still be allowed to do the good research? My mom said the Brownback bill that is being voted on Congress soon wouldn't allow scientists to do the good kind of research that would help her. She also said that this law wants to put people like her in jail if they try to get cured. That's just dumb! My Mom isn't doing anything wrong by just trying to get well.

I thought I might want to be a scientist when I grow up but I don't think so any more. I just want to find a cure for my Mom. I guess I'll become the President of the United States so that I can make good laws that help people and cure diseases. I'll let scientists do their work and make all kinds of new discoveries.

I know that this isn't the most important thing for everyone. But I think that if someone in your family was sick and you were worried, that you would do everything you could to help them get better. You wouldn't make laws so that a cure would not be found and you wouldn't put them in jail.

Please help find a cure for my Mom and everyone else that needs one instead of making it harder. I'm doing as much as I can do to help my Mom and other people too (when I'm not in school or doing sports or playing violin, but Mommy says that helps her too). This is really important to a lot of people.

Thank you.