[act-ma] 5/15 ACTION ALERT: The Baucus 13 have ignited a spark and now it is up to us [and every Friday till 'done' ]

[pf soto]

[i'll be there; have had plenty ENUF myself]
*4:30 to 5:30 this Friday and every Friday*
*Kerry's Boston office just two blocks from MGH on Cambridge St.
*[One Bowdoin Square]
see you in the street...
-------- Original Message --------

Please circulate widely.
jw

I have had enough. (See below.)  Kevin Zeese, author of the piece below, 
and the rest of the Baucus 13 have provided a spark for single payer at 
the Baucus hearings (designed to keep the people out and to peddle 
Obama's health care "reform" ) . Now it is up to us everywhere.  Or else 
we  can simply give up and squander this opportunity..

The best target in MA seems to be Kerry who has not signed onto the 
single payer bill that Sanders has put before the Senate.*  *
I plan to demonstrate at Kerry's Boston office just two blcoks from the 
MGH on Cambridge St. - alone if need be - from 4:30 to 5:30 this Friday 
and every Friday* - until that despicable narcissist signs onto the 
Sanders Senate single payer bill.  After the demonstration we can  have 
coffee and plan our next steps if people wish.  SPREAD THE WORD.

If other organizations and people do not want to come, then let them 
propose something better or simply admit that they do not care enough to 
take action.
Obama and Kerry - two peas in a pod, a crowded pod indeed, since the 
insurers are also bedded down in there.
jw
p.s. Neal and Lynch should also be targetted since they have not signed 
onto HR 676.

We’ve Lit a Fire, Now We Need to Fan It

*A Populist Health Care Rebellion is Brewing*

*By Kevin Zeese*

Last week when I was one of the Baucus Eight, so-named because eight of 
us were arrested before Sen. Baucus urging single payer health care,  I 
hopped others would join us.  Yesterday, they did.  And, the single 
payer movement grew stronger.

Before the hearing I joined nearly 50 people in a spirited protest 
outside the U.S. senate letting all who entered know we wanted a single 
payer national health care plan. 

And, inside there were a series of protests. 

As the hearing began, and Sen. Baucus was speaking a group of about 30 
nurses, dressed in their red hospital uniforms, stood up and turned 
their backs on Baucus.  They had pinned to their backs: “Nurses Say: 
Stop AHIP.  Pass Single Payer.” (AHIP is America’s Health Insurance 
Plans – the health insurance industry lobby.)

The nurses left the room to applause.

Then doctors, nurses and advocates stood up and one by one and spoke 
directly to Senator Baucus.

DeAnn McEwen, a registered nurse from California said: “Today is 
Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Florence Nightingale said  'if there 
were none to hope for any better, there would never be any better.'  
This country needs a single payer health care system.”

Then, another RN from California, Sue Cannon, stood up: “People at the 
table have failed Americans for 30 years. We want single payer at the 
table. We want guaranteed health care so we can give the care we need, 
when we need to give it.”

She was followed by Dr. Judy Dasovich of Springfield, Missouri, who said 
“We request that single payer advocates be allowed at the table. Health 
care should be for patients not for profits.”

Dr. Steven Fenichel of Ocean City, NJ followed adding: “It’s a sense of 
outrage that brings me to your Senate chambers today. These people were 
entrusted by the American people to serve the American people’s 
interests. And they are just serving the interests of the insurance 
companies and drug companies – the people be damned.”

Jerry Call, a member of Physicians for a National Health Program from 
South Thomaston, Maine was the final advocate from the audience, 
speaking for the majority of Americans shut out from the discussion, and 
saying: “Sixty percent of Americans and sixty percent of physicians want 
single payer.  Why aren’t sixty percent of the people up front not 
single payer representatives?”

All five were arrested and taken away for booking. They were charged 
with Disruption of Congress, the same offense I will go to court for on 
May 26^th .

Now, 13 have been arrested – the Baucus 8 have morphed into the Baucus 
13 – demanding a seat at the table; merely urging that the most popular 
health reform among the people as well as among doctors, nurses and 
economists be part of the conversation.

Outside as each new Baucus criminal was walked before the crowd, now 
approximately 75 people -- they were all cheered. 

These are the democracy heroes.  These are the types of people that 
change the equation from money and profits to people and human rights.

Tomorrow, there will be a march to the senate, a rally and an afternoon 
of nearly 1,000 people lobbying for real health care reform. An end to 
corporate insurance profiting from illness and not allowing doctors to 
practice medicine and nurses to care for patients.

We have lit a fire, now we must fan the flame into a populist movement 
that breaks the corporate stranglehold in Washington, DC.   The people 
need to be organized, persistent and insistent.   We need to grow the 
single payer movement so it cannot be ignored.

More:

Visit ProsperityAgenda.US and join in efforts for single payer.

For a series of photos showing nurses and doctors being arrested in 
protest for single payer health care click the link below:  
http://www.flickr.com/photos/16992253@N06/3526172446/

Kevin Zeese is Executive Director of the Campaign for Fresh Air and 
Clean Politics (www.FreshAirCleanPolitics.net 
<http://www.freshaircleanpolitics.net/>) whose projects include Voters 
for Peace (www.VotersForPeace.US <http://www.votersforpeace.us/>., 
Prosperity Agenda (www.ProsperityAgenda.US 
<http://www.prosperityagenda.us/>), True Vote and Climate Security 
(www.GlobalClimateSecurity.org <http://www.globalclimatesecurity.org/>)



-- 

/"I have to tell you something. I cannot help being happy. I've 
struggled against it but to no good. Apart from an odd five minutes here 
and there, I have been happy all my life. There is, I am well aware, no 
virtue whatever in this. It results from a combination of heredity, 
health, good fortune, and shallow intellect." /~Arthur Marshall

/I have guarded myself more carefully against contented people than 
against contagious diseases." ~/Victoria Wolff

pf soto 
rule19.org <http://rule19.org>  
UPandOUT.org <http://upandout.org>  
AZAPOI.org <http://azapoi.org>





-- 

/"I have to tell you something. I cannot help being happy. I've 
struggled against it but to no good. Apart from an odd five minutes here 
and there, I have been happy all my life. There is, I am well aware, no 
virtue whatever in this. It results from a combination of heredity, 
health, good fortune, and shallow intellect." /~Arthur Marshall

/I have guarded myself more carefully against contented people than 
against contagious diseases." ~/Victoria Wolff

pf soto 
rule19.org <http://rule19.org>  
UPandOUT.org <http://upandout.org>  
AZAPOI.org <http://azapoi.org>

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