Presidential Elections

My name is Alicia Murie.

I am an active Traumatic Brain Injury advocate and a seventeen year survivor of a left-right traumatic brain injury. I've been working hard to help others like me by going to college, communicating with the state and congressional leaders for Oklahoma, researching my disability, learning to write legislation, and creating an organization to help see that students and young adults succeed at their dreams in both school and life. Seventeen years ago I was broadsided at sixty miles per hour on the driver's side of the '94 Ford Chevy I was driving. I was hit by a pickup pulling a trailer. This resulted in the driver's door being slammed half way into the middle of the driver's wheel which broke the bottom left three ribs and slammed my brain against both sides of the wheel at sixty miles per hour. I would end up sustaining a left-right traumatic brain injury and would end up in a coma that my ICU doctors not only thought I wouldn't come out of but didn't think I would survive either. I got out of the hospital on the day I said I would and would end up graduating with my high school class in 1999. That following fall I attended Rose State College and after four and a half years would receive an Assoc. in Science.

It was also while I was attending there that I created TBI Raiders. You can go to http://tbiraiders.yolasite.com/article.php to read about the history of it. One of the biggest area of help I received was from the State and Congressional law makers for Oklahoma. I have been in touch with Sen. Inhofe, Rep. Lucas, and Rep. Cole since I was a student at Rose State College. Please feel free to ask them questions if you would like to know more about who I am. Besides the fact nobody really pays attention to the issues of those living with disabilities, even less is paid to those living with a traumatic brain injury. I'm not speaking of the immediate attention given to those who sustain the disability. I would be speaking of once we re-enter the community and are around others. The biggest thing that could have helped me was if I had gotten diagnosed with PTSD sooner than I did. Because early on and depending on the day, if I started to have episodes, my brain would start shutting down on me. That would mean that feeling in my left side would go away or I could barely stay awake or something just as bad if not worse. TBI Raiders is my way of helping bring together students (with and without disabilities) as well as young adults living with a TBI. So that way they can see back the misconceptions they have about one another.

I remembered the misconceptions I had about disabilities but began to see what misconceptions that youth with disabilities had about those without disabilities when I came to Washington DC to represent Oklahoma youth living with disabilities at the National Youth with disabilities Leadership Conference in 2004. I would serve a year on the governing board as well as serving a few years on the pubic outreach and advocacy committees. I have some questions for you that are important for me in helping those with TBI become more politically active.

1. Do you know someone with a traumatic brain injury?

2. Are you aware of any of the issues affecting those living with disabilities or TBI?

3. Are you aware that Social Security Income dictates how much those with disabilities can make a month? Ex: when I was on it I was only allowed to make $80 a month before money started to get cut back.

4. What have you done to help those with a Disability or TBI?

5. What will you do to help those living with a Disability and a TBI if you are elected?

6. Would you be someone who would want to categorize TBI in the 'disability' category or make it a separate category of its own?

7. Would you want to help create a unified approach in helping those with a TBI?

8. Would you have the Dept. of Education create better trainings for teachers in public education that were on TBI?

9. Do you presently serve on or are you aware of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force?

10. Will you work on creating a better atmosphere in the job market for those living with disabilities? Thank you for taking the time to read my email. I hope you have a wonderful day!