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On March 6, a crowd of more than 150 people flocked to hear a dynamite line-up of experts on the national healthcare crisis; most stayed to sign up for PDA and take action to make universal single-payer healthcare a reality in California and in the nation.
The speakers included: PDA's Advisory Board member and "Healthcare NOT Warfare" co-chair Norman Solomon; Andrew McGuire, the executive director of OneCareNow, grassroots campaign for CA SB 840-single payer plan for CA; Sara Rogers, the senior legislative consultant on health care for CA State Senator Sheila Kuehl, author of SB 840; Stan Gold, local PDA healthcare activist; Mervis Reissig, speaking about PDA and the Progressive Challenge; and PDA's advisory board chair Mimi Kennedy.
Music was provided by Will Fudeman, New York State PDA activist, singer-songwriter. The crowd was also entertained by Swami Beyondananda, and the program was emcee'd by the Swami's alter ego Steve Bhaermann.
In the run-up to the event, PDA advisory board chair Mimi Kennedy and Lynn Hamilton, Chair of the Sonoma County chapter of PDA, were interviewed for an hour by Caroline Casey on her Visionary Activist show on Pacifica's station KPFA. In addition to discussing the health-care crisis in America and how the occupation of Iraq exacerbates that crisis, Mimi and Lynn discussed election defense and grass-roots activism. You can hear that dynamic interview here.
Progressive Democrats Sonoma County, the local PDA chapter, sponsored the action tables at the March 6 event and were joined by Don Bechler for HealthCare-NOW and David Anderson for One Care Now.
PDA action items available included the “Healthcare NOT Warfare” petition, copies of a sample resolution in support of single-payer healthcare that can be adopted for use by many different organizations and groups, including City Councils and County Democratic Committees, and the opportunity to sign up for Healthcare not Warfare House parties. Also available was a letter-writing table and a great list of talking points, available from the Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Health Care.
Stan Gold, PDSonoma County chapter activist, advocated for lobbying local jurisdictions to use a very simple formula for calculating budget savings under a California single-payer plan-the savings are huge! The good news is that the Lake County California Board of Supervisors has done the calculations and has sent a letter urging passage of SB 840 to the area's elected state representatives and to the governor. PDSonoma County plans to keep that action moving through many more jurisdictions!
The audience expressed its delight at hearing such an informative and inspiring group of speakers, and many were motivated to take action-the community spirit engendered that night was one of 'We can do this!' and 'We will'!
We were sorry to say goodbye to Mimi and Norman at the end of the night, but we knew they had to hit the road early the next morning for Sacramento and the next leg of the PDA Healthcare Not Warfare Campaign in Northern CA.
The entire two-hour event was taped by local NPR affiliate KRCB. Stay tuned to http://pdsonoma.org/ for announcement of expected broadcast time.
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