Today's email from Health-justice.org

[drm604]

I received this email today from health-justice.org. Since they encourage us to forward it I'm assuming there's no issue with posting it here. I can't describe how angry this makes me. :grr:
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Have You Been Ignored Long Enough?

Are You Mad Enough About It Yet?

Memorial Day Weekend, 2009
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Dear drm604,
Here's the story so far. On Friday, many of you sent a fax from our website telling the House Energy & Commerce (E&C), Ways & Means(W&M) and Education & Labor(E&L) committees that you did not want to keep the insurance you have and you did not want forced purchase of health insurance. Because the combined membership of those committees is about 150 congresspersons, your faxes were sent directly to the fax numbers of the committees themselves. The expectation was that your faxes would be delivered to committee members by the committee staff as part of the government employee's duty.
Instead, by mid-afternoon, the E&C staff was faxing back to our fax vendor all the faxes they received. By late afternoon, they were faxing them directly to our Salt Lake office. In late afternoon, I called to inquire why and was told (rudely) by an employee that they were not supposed to give these faxes to Congresspersons and we were not supposed to send them faxes. Moreover, I was told, the employee knew that some or all of the faxes were coming from fake email addresses because they (the employees) had phoned the persons on the email signature and confirmed that these persons had not sent any fax.
A short while later, I received a call from "Max" at the E&C committee who rebuked me for sending faxes, told me they had to unplug their fax machine, said he had investigated me and I was a "radical" and asked whether I knew it was a Federal offense to "break" government fax machines (he is wrong.) He assured me that he would not prosecute me but that maybe Nancy Pelosi would, except that she had "bigger fish to fry."
What really concerned me was this: Max said the E&C staff were throwing all the faxes into the trash, except for one copy that they would show the chairman, Mr. Waxman. He suggested that the only way to contact the congresspersons on the committee was to have individuals from their district send individual faxes to their individual congressperson.
Recognizing that if faxes were going into the trash, nothing was being accomplished, I diverted all faxes being sent to the committees (E&C, W&M, E&L and Senate committees) to our email (for future use), while maintaining the fax flow to Pelosi, Baucus and the White House.
I then immediately sent an email to you suggesting that the chairs of the subject committees (Waxman, Miller and Rangel) would like to hear your opinion of their committee staff. I gave you the relevant office phone numbers.
Within minutes of that email to you, I received multiple phone calls from you asking why you were unable to contact the named committee chairmen. It seems that you all had the same experience and I confirmed this with my own calls. Waxman's voicemail was full and there was no way to leave a message. You could and did leave messages with Miller's voicemail. Rangel's phone just rang and rang without answering.
Of course, those of you that called me were frustrated and angry. Many of you expressed a feeling of impotent rage; others felt that if this is how our government treated us, we should simply withdraw and protect ourselves, essentially becoming gun-toting enclave-building isolationists. Still others expressed despair at their personal situation and the unbelievable arrogance that has destroyed the hope we expected with Obama.
Obviously, Washington insiders, including our elected and unelected employees, are doing their very best to ignore what we are saying. We have known that for months. Now we know it is taking a direct and threatening form of actively trashing our message.
The question now is: What do we do? How angry are we? What can we do? I am setting out some options below. I really want your thoughts. I would do this by way of a poll, but this feedback seems more important. There are about 4900 people who directly receive this email. If you send me 4900 responses, I will read every one of them. I want your help in deciding what to do and how to do it.
i don't want to give up, but i am just one person and cannot effect change alone. I need your ideas and your help. Send them to me by email here.
Sincerely
Clark Newhall MD JD
[email protected]

P.S. HealthJustice also very much needs your donations. This is not primarily a fund-raising letter, but donations are always needed and appreciated. Please click here to donate ten dollars or whatever you can afford today.



The Three Options I See
Be Polite
Give Up
Get In Their Faces

Option 1: Be Polite and Follow the Rules Congressmen Want Us To Follow
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We can continue our campaign of faxes and phone calls but we can make a 'pick list' for each fax so you can pick which congresspersons or senators your fax should go to. That way, you can send faxes only to your own elected representatives. This is the method that has been and continues to be used by all other organizations attempting to influence Congress. Call it the "grass roots" method.
The obvious drawback is that the impact of several hundred faxes on one message is eliminated. The supposed advantage is that Congresspersons pay attention mainly to those missives (phone calls, faxes, etc.) that come from their own constituents. Supposedly, fifty faxes to Congressman X from only his constituents is more effective than 5000 faxes from voters all around the country. What do you think?

.

Option 2: Give Up
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Given that we are ignored -- given that Obama is not going to lead us to real health reform -- given that Baucus and most other legislators are owned by the insurance industry -- given that you and I do not have unlimited money and time--
Given all these givens, why keep trying? Face it, we are screwed. Whatever we do is futile. Let's give up.


Option 3: Get Louder and Closer
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I don't mean louder telephone calls or more faxes. i mean travel to Washington. All of us. Everyone else we know that can and will come. 1 thousand, 100 thousand or 1 million. Whatever we can muster. Gather on one day. Make a loud noise.
I have been told that it costs $12 per person to organize a mass event. I have been told that organizing a mass event in Washington will require at least two months and ten organizers.
I don't have the money or the employees to do this. You and I would have to do it together. You would be the organizers. You would be the fund-raisers. You would be the people gathering and you would be the people getting 1000 other people to gather. All on the same day. All in Washington. All with one purpose. Get Congress and the White House to listen to the demand for real health care for all.
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Our Website

phone: [phone] Email: [email protected]

[Cleita]

1. Our Democratically dominated government considers them radicals?

I guess we have no voice in government anymore and our elected Congressional Representatives and Senators really don't feel that they have to listen to us.

[drm604]

2. This kind of reaction almost makes you feel impotent to do anything.

They've already made up their minds, and the hell with what the people want.

Seriously, what do we do about this?

[Cleita]

3. I don't know. I watched the protests and demonstrations by nurses and doctors

for health care reform on Bill Moyers Journal that they have been doing before Congress. None of it was shown on the MSM. It was totally ignored. They have completely shut out the people in this so called democracy. Now I don't think you can call the professionals demonstrating for this a bunch of "hippies". If these professionals can't gain attention and admission, where do we stand?

[dgibby]

4. Too bad all these health care professionals are too ethical to

call for a nationwide strike. That's about the only thing I can think of that would finally get their attention, and I'm not even sure that would work.

I don't know if it's me or what, but I can't remember ever feeling this sad and hopeless. When Bush was in, I was angry, but hopeful. Now, I just have this sinking feeling that this is the beginning of the dream dying, and it sure doesn't feel good.

I didn't ask for a pony, but I didn't ask for a pile of manure, either!

[Wednesdays]

5. K&R

:kick:

[Wednesdays]

6. Evening kick

:kick:

[drm604]

7. Maybe we need to get Doctor Newhall on TV.

Maybe we can bring this to the attention of Rachel, or Keith, or Ed and they could interview him on their MSNBC shows and have him tell his story about how he's been trying to give a voice to the people and the mistreatment he's received for doing so.

[Kansas Wyatt]

8. Perhaps MILLIONS from We The People....

Gathering at Washington D.C. and marching right into the Capital demanding their voices be heard, would force the corporate whores, who claim to represent us, to acknowledge the obvious about what their constituents are demanding from health care reform. Represent us or get bull rushed and backed into a corner.

Buckets of tar and bags of feathers for props would be a nice touch as well.

So here is a question: With all the alleged wealthy "progressives" out there, who claim to give a shit about noble causes... Where the hell are your generous donations to help fund a march on Washington D.C. for this noble cause?

I do not believe there are wealthy people out there, who are REALLY "progressive," because they will only donate money for little Chic Special Interests, but they are NOWHERE in sight when it comes to progressive issues that would help millions more people. No, you cannot tell me that wealthy people in a position to really make a difference, cannot charter buses and provide necessities, to make a march on the Capital possible. Nor can you tell me that wealthy people cannot fund tv commercials calling out those politicians, who are in the pocket of insurance, pharmaceutical, and health industries, for the good of this very big progressive issue. 'Wealthy Progressives,' where the hell are you? :shrug:

[drm604]

9. Good question.

Where are the wealthy progressives?

[Dragonfli]

10. @ DLC meetings