Dr. Cedric Edwards Speaks out: April 08

[tomcamp]

Hello everyone,

As you may have seen, the bill has passed the Florida's House of Representatives. It is weird how on 4/18/08 at 2:58 PM, there were 72 votes against it and 41 for it. Then at 3:01 PM, again on the same day, (essentially 3 minutes later) the votes were 107 against it and 3 for it. What happened in 3 minutes to make so many change their vote?

I have done an interview with a Florida reporter and an article will be published about this bill next week. This reporter talked with some of the people who are passing this bill and their reason for passing it is because they feel that the medical education in Cuba is inferior. Please note that the bill only prohibits US citizens who study medicine in Cuba from practicing in Florida; Cubans and students from other countries who study medicine in Cuba can practice medicine in Florida.

Also, since Congressman Bennie Thompson was the person who asked Fidel about extending the scholarships to US students and since members of the Black Caucus were responsible for giving us the license to exempt us from possible fines/jail for studying in Cuba in 2004, I will be writing them to inform them about this law which Florida is trying to pass.

Finally, at first I was a little reluctant to be interviewed in the NY Times regarding this bill (because I thought that it would not move forward), but now I will be doing such an interview in order to bring more attention to this bill.

If you have any other suggestion, please let me know.

For those of you who have lost the website where you can follow the bill as it moves through the State Congress and want to keep track of it, it is:

flhouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=38087

Cedric: [e-mail]

[tomcamp]

Tom,

I made a huge mistake in the email that I sent out, which many people have pointed out to me. On 4/18/08 at 2:58 PM the vote was 72 against the bill and 41 for it. Then 3 minutes later at 3:01 PM the vote was 107 for the bill and 3 against it. So the bill has passed.

Thanks for your support and I will keep you posted on how everything is going. I have not had an opportunity to keep up with your brother Bill. I know that he is very busy, but unfortunately he is not an email person. Please tell him that I said hello and that everything is going well with me.

Cedric