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WALKING ON THIN ICE

A Real Letter from Me to You

July 20, 2011 1 Comment

I attended a moveon.org meeting last weekend about the “American Dream” movement they are building. Although associated with Democrats, I think this movement also encompasses progressive ideals. Everyone in the room was concerned about sustainability, the environment, peace, universal health care, good work, etc. Several people were very discouraged with some of the things President Obama has done, so there was a lot of conscientiousness and self-examination in the room.

Here’s some bit of news about the Gang of Six in the Senate: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/20-4

They are trying to raise taxes on us and cut taxes on the rich, and cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. But we aren’t going to let them.

For young people reading this, these things might seem like things that don’t immediately matter or that it is useless, but they do, and there is hope that we can change things. I’ve seen the standard of living deteriorate and expectations deteriorate significantly over the past ten years. It is not unreasonable to see this turn around and become healthier. We have the resources and talent to turn things around. I had the pleasure of seeing a Democrat in Wisconsin get reelected last night after having made phone calls to do this; I’ve seen us raise over a million signatures for putting Ohio’s anti-collective bargaining SB-5 bill on the ballot so we can overturn it when we only needed to raise 230,000… I have been involved in these campaigns and it does help and it does matter.

One of the action items of last week’s meeting moveon.org is to find five friends who will also participate in the movement to a small or large extent. As we are in such a time of flux, I think this is an important opportunity for people to engage and thus am providing this information with the thought that you’ll consider this and participate if you can. You can sign up for some information here: http://ourfuture.org/blog (newsletter signup on the right column of the screen.)

I understand that we live in a fast-paced society, but I think in this time of flux it is especially important to help ensure programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

I think also we’d seen a kind of deterioration in community life over the past twenty years, and now people are rebuilding community with local food movements, poetry, music… and activism is another way to rebuild and heal and socialize. I think that many have felt apathetic, estranged and horrified by the insanity of some of the stuff going on in the political realm. A way through this is to step into it and be part of healing via activism.

Lady

Letter opposing the Ryan Budget Proposal

April 28, 2011 No Comments

Sent this letter to Representative Marcia Fudge, Senator Brown and President Obama:

I am writing because it appears that the Democrats are actually supportive of cutting back Medicare and Medicaid, and I strongly, emphatically disagree with this position.

Cut defense spending instead. Our defense budget is larger than the rest of the world’s nations, combined.

When it comes to absolutely critical services, especially health care, which affects the mortality of people, I emphatically think that these services need to be nationalized.

Privatization is a means of extracting wealth from people and putting it in the pockets of the few, and it is not more efficient or less costly than nationalized health care.

Please do not support the Ryan budget proposal. It would move to a voucher system in 2022, forcing all seniors to purchase private insurance.

I cannot emphasize my feelings on this issue enough, having parents who are soon going to need to rely on Medicare and an older husband who uses it now, and for the first time in his life is able to obtain treatment for critical conditions. (He couldn’t afford health insurance before and was too “rich” to qualify for Medicaid.)

We paid for his cancer treatment out of pocket and it cost us most of our savings.

He has been in pain the past five years, severe pain, and now that he is finally on Medicare, he is able to get the hip replacement surgery he needs.

Thank you!

For more information, please read “Republican and Democratic Plans for Medicare and Medicaid Misguided: Push for Privatization Will Accelerate Costs and Deaths”