Democrats.com will host an online chat on Thursday March 14 with Nick Dupree, the extraordinary young man who is fighting for his life by trying to persuade the Alabama legislature to extend Medicaid home care coverage beyond age 21. Nick, who is a member of Democrats.com, will turn 21 in less than a year - 2-23-03 - and needs everyone's help to get Senate Bill 113 enacted into law. YOU can make a difference, and Nick will tell you how. The chat will be at 8 pm EST. To participate, first register as a member of Democrats.community.

"Nineteen-year-old quadriplegic Nick Dupree of Mobile traveled to Montgomery on Wednesday to tell legislators why Medicaid in Alabama should still pay for in-home nursing care after he turns 21. But state Medicaid officials said the proposed bill to continue benefits for Dupree and others won't work, and there's no money for it. 'You're in between a rock and a hard place,' said Dupree, who will turn 21 in a year and two weeks. 'You can either stay at home without any care, hoping you don't die, or you go to a nursing home, where the care you get will probably ensure that you don't live.'... Dupree's motorized wheelchair, with a rear mounted ventilator connected to him by translucent tubing, dominated the small meeting room inside the Alabama State House on Wednesday, as senators intently listened to his testimony." So reports the Mobile Register - and you can read Nick's own report here in Democrats.community, where you can give Nick your personal support and encouragement.

Thanks for all of your letters supporting Tom Daschle! Here is one by Lucille Arneson in SF Chronicle. "Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has a sensible approach to getting the nation's economy moving again. He's learned that the Republican method - irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthiest of corporations and individuals - is no solution. The last time Republicans tried that in the '80s, we wound up with huge budget deficits, which we are building up again. The Democrats' plan of the '90s - investments in job training and education - helped create prosperity in a time of peace, as well as budget surpluses. We need to address health care for all, including those who have recently lost their jobs. It's obscene the way that Republicans don't care about the average person's health concerns. Also obscene is the way they are trying to scrub Social Security and replace it with individual private investments. Think how lucky Enron's employees were with their stock holdings."

Congratulations to Democrats.com Advisory Board member Stan Greenberg, whose op-ed about his participation in the ongoing battle against the remnants of European fascism appeared in the New York Times. An expert in public opinion research and political strategy, Stan was in Vienna, Austria advising the Social Democrats in their battle for control of City Hall. Jorg Haider, the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, launched an anti-Semitic appeal targeted directly at Stan. In an inspiring piece of writing, Stan relates how he realized that, unlike Jews forced to hide in generations past, he now had the tools in his hands to battle the anti-Semites - and win.