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Health Care Alert

August 17, 2009

Hey friends,

Just a short note today to urge you to write or call President Obama and urge him to hold strong on health care. An article this morning I found in Truthout suggests he is about to bow to Republican pressure and drop the public option. Of course, most of us would strongly prefer a single payer system, like the rest of the civilized world, but at minimum we need that public option. I for one cannot wait to drop my incredibly overpriced private insurance-which, as an aging woman who has been self-employed all my life, I now spend more on than I do for mortgage payments or food each month. And I'm one of the lucky ones-I have insurance, (thanks to my mother nagging and nagging me to get it back when I was in my twenties) and I'm basically pretty healthy.

I know so many people who don't have health insurance at all-and because of it, don't get health care. They don't get regular checkups or preventive care. They put off getting needed things done, and when they can't put something off any longer, they end up either getting substandard care or going to the emergency room where care is far more expensive for everyone (and that's why you often have to wait hours to get seen there!)

I hear a lot of people complaining that Obama is not progressive enough. Damn right-he's not. But the only way he can move in that direction is if we mount enough public pressure to counter the virulent right-wing shock troops. So stop complaining to me and send a letter to him. Go online and leave a comment. Call the comments line (It's hard to get through, which I hope is a good sign!) Show up at the town meetings in your area.

Some of you might say-why bother with the system, isn't it broken beyond repair? Doesn't this prove it? But this battle isn't just about the health care issue, or whether electoral politics can work. It's about whether a small group of well funded thugs can hijack the system against the will of the vast majority, stick a knife into the back tire of that old clunker, democracy, and force it to pull to the right. If they succeed, they'll be back for more on other crucial issues-like climate change, probably the biggest issue any of us will face in our lives. If they succeed, we're taking that sharp turn back toward Thugville U.S.A., sister city of Fascism, The World.

Here's the contact info: Stay on the line until you hear that calm voice, more soothing than your personal therapist, who wants to hear your story!

White House -

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Then, cheer yourself up by checking out the inspiring solar solutions and water landscape I visited at Tamera ecovillage:

www.starhawksblog.org

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