Laura
04-01-2009, 02:47 AM
Dear Friends and Supporters,
2009 is THE year for national health care reform, and the effort is heating up in Congress. Here's how things are shaping up so far:
The various entities that currently profit from our dysfunctional status quo are working hard to stop, slow down, or shape the outcome to their benefit, while simultaneously declaring their support for reform. The rest of us, who are not the vested special interests, are also working hard, but our job is to make REAL health care reform happen, and move away from treating health care as a market commodity and toward treating it as a public and social good for all members of our society. Factored into the mix are the political opponents of Congressional leaders and President Obama -- they are trying to stop the effort altogether simply to gain political advantage, for reasons that have nothing necessarily to do with health care, per se, but everything to do with short-circuiting the "change" Americans voted for last fall, in ALL that such a term means on many fronts.
The current battlefield centers around the President's budget proposals for health care reform, and we wrote you about that last week. Thank you for all the phone calls you are making to Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, and your own Congressional Representative about it -- keep it up! The toll-free number to reach the Capitol switchboard is 888-436-8427.
This coming Saturday afternoon April 4th, hundreds of people are gathering in Harlem to rally for "health care for all", outside the State Office Building at W. 125th St. and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd., from 2-4 p.m. Rep. Charles Rangel, who chairs the powerful and influential House Ways and Means Committee, has his district office in this building, and we'll be calling on him and the entire New York Congressional delegation to do the right thing and lead the fight for what we the people need, not what the special interests want. (See also full details at www.nycforchange.org.)
This rally is being organized by a new grouping on the scene: "New Yorkers for Change," a network of various grassroots groupings who sprung up and worked together last fall to register and motivate thousands of new voters and get them to the polls. As a result, last fall was a watershed election for America, and voter turnout increased for the first time in years.
This rally will help send a loud and powerful message to New York's Senators and Congressional delegation that health care reform MUST happen this year, and that it must be REAL reform that meets the needs of everyday New Yorkers and Americans, not the defenders of the status quo.
Please join us to help amplify that message ...and bring your friends and family!
Spread the word --- see you there!
Mark Hannay
Director
Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign
One Hudson Square, 75 Varick St (1404)
DC 1707 AFSCME
New York, NY 10013
212-925-1829
212-925-0806 (fax)
metrohealth@igc.org
www.metrohealthcare.org
2009 is THE year for national health care reform, and the effort is heating up in Congress. Here's how things are shaping up so far:
The various entities that currently profit from our dysfunctional status quo are working hard to stop, slow down, or shape the outcome to their benefit, while simultaneously declaring their support for reform. The rest of us, who are not the vested special interests, are also working hard, but our job is to make REAL health care reform happen, and move away from treating health care as a market commodity and toward treating it as a public and social good for all members of our society. Factored into the mix are the political opponents of Congressional leaders and President Obama -- they are trying to stop the effort altogether simply to gain political advantage, for reasons that have nothing necessarily to do with health care, per se, but everything to do with short-circuiting the "change" Americans voted for last fall, in ALL that such a term means on many fronts.
The current battlefield centers around the President's budget proposals for health care reform, and we wrote you about that last week. Thank you for all the phone calls you are making to Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, and your own Congressional Representative about it -- keep it up! The toll-free number to reach the Capitol switchboard is 888-436-8427.
This coming Saturday afternoon April 4th, hundreds of people are gathering in Harlem to rally for "health care for all", outside the State Office Building at W. 125th St. and Adam Clayton Powell Blvd., from 2-4 p.m. Rep. Charles Rangel, who chairs the powerful and influential House Ways and Means Committee, has his district office in this building, and we'll be calling on him and the entire New York Congressional delegation to do the right thing and lead the fight for what we the people need, not what the special interests want. (See also full details at www.nycforchange.org.)
This rally is being organized by a new grouping on the scene: "New Yorkers for Change," a network of various grassroots groupings who sprung up and worked together last fall to register and motivate thousands of new voters and get them to the polls. As a result, last fall was a watershed election for America, and voter turnout increased for the first time in years.
This rally will help send a loud and powerful message to New York's Senators and Congressional delegation that health care reform MUST happen this year, and that it must be REAL reform that meets the needs of everyday New Yorkers and Americans, not the defenders of the status quo.
Please join us to help amplify that message ...and bring your friends and family!
Spread the word --- see you there!
Mark Hannay
Director
Metro New York Health Care for All Campaign
One Hudson Square, 75 Varick St (1404)
DC 1707 AFSCME
New York, NY 10013
212-925-1829
212-925-0806 (fax)
metrohealth@igc.org
www.metrohealthcare.org