Dear Tim,

Our Put Kids First campaign is drawing national attention to the needs of the 11 million American children living without health insurance. This week, we take it to another level.

In less than 36 hours, President Bush will use his State of the Union speech to stampede the country into a false sense of crisis on Social Security, while ignoring the real and immediate crisis of 11 million American children waking up this morning without health insurance.

But, we won't accept the President's refusal to act as the final word on meeting the needs of our children. Not a chance. Last week, our Senate introduction of the Kids First Act of 2005 added even more energy to our drive for citizen co-sponsors for this vital legislation. Nearly 500,000 people have now signed on to our efforts.

When I laid out our plans in a national speech to Families USA last week, it stood in sharp contrast to the President's "no real answer" photo op on health care the same day in Ohio. And, this past Sunday, I continued carrying our message about covering every child to the national media on Meet the Press.

Here's what's next:

This week, I'm calling on the johnkerry.com community to "Give Voice to Our Values" by providing vocal support for our effort to provide every child in America with health care coverage. I need you to be a part of this effort.

Make Your Personal Call Right Now.

Call our "Give Voice to Your Values" project at 1-866-876-4490. At this toll-free number, you can record a message describing, in your own words, why it is so critical for America to Put Kids First.

If you have a personal story about a child living without health insurance, I hope you'll see it in your heart to share it. But, whatever your individual circumstance, it is essential that Americans from all walks of life give vocal support to our Put Kids First initiative.

All through the week, we'll be compiling recorded messages from across America. We'll put them on johnkerry.com, share them with local and national media outlets, and I will be delivering a copy of selected messages from across the nation to my colleagues in the Senate.

If we want to give full expression to the strong grassroots support for putting Kids First, we've got to create new tools for making our voices heard. That's exactly why we are today launching our "Give Voice to Our Values" advocacy line.

I urge you to use it. America's children are counting on us.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. We need to make voices all across America heard. Please call right now - and take a moment to forward this message to a friend.