hello labor friends, i met a terrific person today

[dcsmart]

at my DSA meeting, Democratic Socialist of America..anyway, her name is sister Mary Ellen Howard and she is

director of Detroit's St. Francis Cabrini Clinic, the oldest standing free clinic in the country. here is her bio

How it all started

I was an education major but worked weekends at Mt. Caramel Hospital and I got hooked on hospitals. I loved the people, the atmosphere, the life-and-death situations. Those are sacred moments in families' lives and it is a wonderful opportunity to be able to share that.
Career highlights

Establishing Riverside Domestic Violence Shelter 20 years ago when the community lacked such a facility and also creating Jordan Health Center, which is a school-based health center in Detroit. are making a big difference in the lives of the kids and the families in their poor neighborhoods.
As we speak

At Cabrini Clinic, I'm using my nursing and administrative skills to provide health care to people who would not otherwise have access. There are 270,000 uninsured people in Detroit. We do some good, but more needs to be done. We basically put Band-Aids on bullet wounds.
Text

http://www.hhnmag.com/hhnmag_app/hospitalconnect/search/article.jsp?dcrpath=AHA/PubsNewsArticle/data/0407HHN_InBox_CareerPath&domain=HHNMAG

so, she was the speaker for today. and, she is on youtube. you might remember from the news about the uproar at the health care summit here in Michigan, pres. Obama's traveling health care town meeting, when sister Mary Ellen interrupted Governor Granholm' speech and demanded assistance for a young woman with cancer.

here is the video (listen to what the woman speaking about her cancer says. (this is why we need single-payer health care.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcI1bm8h9Yo

listen to how the Governor blows the young woman off.

the woman who stood up and took the mike is sr. Mary Ellen and the guys in front of her she asked--actually demanded-- to help are the heads of two major hospitals in detriot.

Today at the meeting we found out that the bald guy from DMC (Detriot Medical Center) who said he would help, never did. the woman did get help from Henry Ford Hospital and is doing well.

Sr Mary Ellen is a funny, energetic, person who is a leader for health care and really works on the front lines of this problem.
i thought it was great to meet someone like her.
http://www.cabriniclinic.org/index.html
St. Francis Cabrini Clinic












DSA's HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYONE:
HEALTHIER FOR EVERYONE
http://www.dsausa.org/pdf/HealthCare_flyer.pdf

TOWARD AN
ECONOMIC JUSTICE
AGENDA
http://www.dsausa.org/pdf/economic_justice_agenda.pdf

[Omaha Steve]

1. K&R!

Thanks.

[Fire1]

2. K&R.

[amyrose2712]

3. K'ed even if a little late. nt

[dcsmart]

4. thanks

liked your video of Father Roy Bourgeois

[amyrose2712]

5. Infuriating...

Ya know, This is going to sound a bit naive but, I never thought to learn about labor history and socialism. But the 2 are pretty inseparable. Hey, I'm still learning and becoming.

[dcsmart]

6. hello again

no it is not naive, the link between the american socialist movement and labor is very strong, but you never really learn enough about that in the history books. I think the life of Eugene Debs (obvious from my posts about him and the pictures) is a terrific example. His biography, "The Bending Cross", is a great book about him and the link between the socialist and the labor movement. i would recommend that book and "Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-Class Radicalism in the United States." to everyone interested in the topic.

http://www.haymarketbooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1598


i posted a couple of her videos in the Socialist Progressives Group


http://www.haymarketbooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1599



:headbang:


forgot this
Socialist Worker columnist SHARON SMITH is the author of a new book that tells the hidden history of working-class radicalism in the United States. Here, we reprint excerpts from the introduction to Subterranean Fire.

THE UNITED States ranks not only as the richest society in the world today but also as the most unequal among advanced industrialized nations.

The scale of poverty among the poorest Americans, according to the United Nation's 2005 Human Development Report, is comparable to that in parts of the Third World. The U.S. infant mortality rate matches that of Malaysia. African Americans living in Washington, D.C., have a higher infant mortality rate than residents of the Indian state of Kerala. Across the United States, Black mothers are twice as likely as whites to bear low-birth-weight babies, and Black children are twice as likely to die before their first birthday.

Child poverty rates in the United States have been rising steadily since 2000, following 20 years of decline, and, mirroring Mexico, surged past 20 percent in 2005. On average, a male child born into the wealthiest 5 percent of the U.S. population will live 25 percent longer than a male child born into the poorest 5 percent.

From its earliest years, U.S. capitalism has relied upon massive social and class inequality, despite all rhetoric to the contrary. Even during periods of economic boom and rising median incomes, a significant portion of the working class has consistently lived in extreme poverty.

http://socialistworker.org/2006-1/589/589_08_Subterranean.shtml