Last week, a Congressional Resolution for IBS awareness and research was introduced in the US House of Representatives. It currently has 3 sponsors from both major parties and needs a majority vote to pass. If it does, it has the potential for major impact on national awareness that hopefully will pave the way for proposed IBS legislation in the future.As an individual IBSer and member of this BB posting this here on my own initiative, I encourage all IBSers who are U.S citizens to contact your Representative and to ask your supportive family, friends, colleagues, classmates, acquaintances, Facebook friends, etc. to forward the information on and/or also write their own Representatives. If you are an IBSer, telling your personal experiences helps, but if you are reluctant to get too detailed or identify yourself specifically as an IBSer, just ask your Representative to support HRes 1309 on behalf of those with IBS. Personally, I was surprised when a couple of acquaintances of mine, who, as far as I know, have *no* connection to IBS other than knowing me a bit, immediately emailed their own Representatives and told me so. One does *not* have to be an IBSer to support this resolution, but there is no shame in being an IBSer either, so please do not be shy. Advocacy is how things get changed in this country, and we all know that many of us with IBS need a lot of change for the better. To me, as an IBSer whose needs are not adequately met by existing resources, this is not an issue with which to debate philosophical or political differences within or outside of the IBS community. This is a huge and real opportunity for many IBSers and our non-IBSer supporters to make ourselves heard across the country.To find your Representative's contact information go to http://www.congress.orgFor more information, go to Dr. Bolen's IBS blog at http://ibs.about.com orIFFGD's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/iffgd You should be able to view it (though not comment) even if you do not have a Facebook account.