American 'SiCKO,' Donna Smith Starts Her Own Organization

[marmar]

from MichaelMoore.com:


July 21st, 2007 3:45 pm
American 'SiCKO,' Donna Smith Starts Her Own Organization

For Immediate Release:

APUHC -- American Patients for Universal Health Care

Formed: July 17, 2007, in Washington, D.C., United States of America

Organization membership: Health care patients -- and their families and friends --united in support for guaranteed universal health care for every American.

Organizational goals: To see the passage of national legislation providing guaranteed universal health care to every American. To this end, APUHC will actively support those Congressional leaders who pursue this goal and also actively support candidates who favor guaranteed, universal health care.

We will reach out to all patients who have been disenfranchised from our democracy due to health care crisis and help them reclaim their voices in the democratic process.

We will educate those who do not yet understand the need for reform, and we will operate for the purpose of non-violent opposition to the private, profit-based health care system currently entrenched in America.

Strategy: To take patient and family stories to Washington in overwhelming numbers until Congress and the President take concrete action on health care reform.

To hold educational meetings and events in towns and states throughout the land, and when necessary to demonstrate or protest for the express purpose of keeping patients and their families front and center in the news and in the hearts and minds of those who can make change happen.

For more information, contact:

Donna Smith
American SiCKO
Email: [email protected] (Send your stories, please)
Phone: [phone] or 720-232-4009

*** Smith appears in Michael Moore’s new film, SiCKO, and she also testified before Congress on July 17, 2007 (video and written testimony available on House Judiciary website, click on July 17 and then on hearing about American families in financial crisis and bankruptcy due to medical costs). Smith resides in Aurora, Colorado, with her husband, Larry, and her faithful dog, Shiner.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10057

[bobbolink]

1. "Prom Video" -- great resource for helping people to understand Single Payer health care

http://www.grahamazon.com/sp/whatissinglepayer.php

Please share this with your email list, your friends and neighbors, and all your relatives.

And, of course, your Christmas card list.

:hi:

[Unreconstructed Lib]

2. Kicked and recommended

[area51]

3. k&r (n/t)

[demodonkey]

4. How does she afford to do this?

Not meaning to belittle Ms. Smith, just a simple question. It costs a fortune to start one of these and do it right, with the funding and structure to make such an organization viable. I simply don't know how someone who is bankrupt and in such a state as Ms. Smith could start this.

For two and a half years I have been fighting to get fair and accurate elections. I started an organization and I can't get more than a few hundred dollars in donations to keep going, with a lot of people saying 'yeah, yeah, yeah we support you, this is great', but they won't help raise more than 50 bucks. I have no money to hire consultants or fundraisers and I am too busy doing the actual work of the organization (informing others and lobbying for change) that I can't even begin to learn how do everything myself in terms of fund raising etc (nor do I believe that is possible.)

My own mother has taken a stroke, I'm driving around in an old car with the wheels falling off and the gas lines leaking, eating off the McDonalds Dollar Menu. I need help.

In the meantime the Dems in Congress (Steny Hoyer) are caving in to special interest groups when they were an inch away from reform that would have gotten 35 million unprotected votes (now voting on paperless electronic machines) onto durable and recountable paper ballots for 2008. THEY DO THIS AT THE PERIL OF OUR PARTY.

If we can't count our votes accurately, IF ANOTHER ELECTION IS STOLEN, we will never get healthcare or out of Iraq or any of the reforms our country needs. Unelected dictators simply don't respond to the voices of the people and the ballot box is our voice.

Anyway, I wish Ms. Smith luck, but Moore or somebody must be behind her (and I sure wish whoever it is would help us who are trying to save our elections!)