Our Doctor Friend and Activist In PA Gets It!
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Categories: Affordable Healthcare, Consumer and Worker Protection, Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights, Economic Fairness and Security, Media Accountability, Social Justice, Reproductive Rights, Faith and Religion, GLBT Issues, Women's Issues, Workers' Rights
Categories: Affordable Healthcare, Consumer and Worker Protection, Corporate Accountability / Workers' Rights, Economic Fairness and Security, Media Accountability, Social Justice, Reproductive Rights, Faith and Religion, GLBT Issues, Women's Issues, Workers' Rights
This from the front page of the PDA website at www.pdamerica.org
NY Media Covers Single-Payer Rally; PA Media Ignores Single-Payer Legislative and Political Gains
By Chuck Pennacchio, Ph.D.
May 15, 2008, Harrisburg, PA
Did you hear? On Monday, May 12th, 2008, fewer than fifty paces from the Capitol Media Center, in Harrisburg's Capitol Rotunda, more than two hundred citizen lobbyists--members of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Medical Student Association (our future physicians, IF we pass Single-Payer), the League of Women Voters, the Council of Churches, the Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, organized labor, and the business community--held a news conference and rally in support of Single-Payer universal healthcare's House Bill 1660 and Senate BIll 300.
Like a tree falling in a distant forest, with no mainstream media (MSM) present to record the event, you probably hadn't heard.
If you depend on the Pennsylvania Capitol Media Corps to inform you of such significant advances in our Commonwealth's democracy, you may be forgiven for not knowing. Again. But please don't repeat the mistake. Again.
This isn't the first time Pennsylvania's MSM has ignored the compelling economic ($10B+ in savings), moral (millions of lives saved and improved), and democratic (65% in poll after poll) arguments of its diverse citizen voices in support of the Single-Payer Solution. The MSM must be forgiven; they don't deal well with rationality -- you know, argument, evidence, and analysis.
Pennsylvania's finest reporters--those who cover state politics--also skipped the formal introduction of the citizen-crafted "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act" (twice, in 2005 and 2007); ducked a public hearing before the Democratic House Policy Committee (February 2007); avoided the first-ever single-payer hearing in front of a standing committee, the House Health and Human Services Committee, on March 19, 2008; and drop-kicked the public endorsements of the 900,000-member AFL-CIO, the 35-chapter League of Women Voters, the 20-denomination Council of Churches, numerous business leaders, and many, many more.
Fortunate for our democracy, news editors and editorial board members across the state assure us that their non-coverage is "not systematic." Whew! Had us worried there.
Just to prove that missing historic healthcare legislative milestones has nothing to do with institutional biases, advertising revenues from 'you-know-who,' lack of professionalism, laziness, cynicism, fatalism, and/or fear, we hear--time and again--that information gathering papers, TV networks, and radio stations are simply "short-staffed." "We can't be everywhere," reporters and editors repeatedly cry.
We shouldn't be so harsh on the MSM failing to note our broad-based coalition's critical events related to a paultry ninety-eight percent (98%) of Pennsylvanians directly threatened with personal bankruptcy should they/we endure a debilitating illness, accident, or other catastrophic medical condition. Poor media... Or is it rich media, poor democracy?
So there you have it, folks.
As I've written repeatedly over the last few months, the Single-Payer Solution that tackles the economics, morality, and democracy of healthcare delivery through common wealth, common sense, and common purpose, will pass the State House and State Senate, and be signed into law by Governor Rendell in 2009. But you won't hear about it or see it in the so-called Fourth Estate. No, you'll find out about it through e-mail, blogs, paper pamphlets, and word-of-mouth...
We are democracy--you and me.
Civilized Healthcare is ours to win, person by person, legislator by legislator. 2008 is the year to educate and organize, research and lobby, campaign and elect Single-Payer candidates. 2009 is the year Pennsylvania delivers a 1776-like earthquake: passing and enacting the Single-Payer Solution (HB 1660/SB 300)--the state-level model for saving the United States economy, American lives, and American-style democracy.
Mark my words. Mark this message. Share it with your fellow citizens. Crank up your efforts. Educate and organize, research and lobby, campaign and elect. Single-Payer. Civilized Healthcare.
Chuck Pennacchio is the executive director of Health Care for All Pennsylvania. Visit the website: www.healthcare4allpa.org
NY Media Covers Single-Payer Rally; PA Media Ignores Single-Payer Legislative and Political Gains
By Chuck Pennacchio, Ph.D.
May 15, 2008, Harrisburg, PA
Did you hear? On Monday, May 12th, 2008, fewer than fifty paces from the Capitol Media Center, in Harrisburg's Capitol Rotunda, more than two hundred citizen lobbyists--members of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Medical Student Association (our future physicians, IF we pass Single-Payer), the League of Women Voters, the Council of Churches, the Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, organized labor, and the business community--held a news conference and rally in support of Single-Payer universal healthcare's House Bill 1660 and Senate BIll 300.
Like a tree falling in a distant forest, with no mainstream media (MSM) present to record the event, you probably hadn't heard.
If you depend on the Pennsylvania Capitol Media Corps to inform you of such significant advances in our Commonwealth's democracy, you may be forgiven for not knowing. Again. But please don't repeat the mistake. Again.
This isn't the first time Pennsylvania's MSM has ignored the compelling economic ($10B+ in savings), moral (millions of lives saved and improved), and democratic (65% in poll after poll) arguments of its diverse citizen voices in support of the Single-Payer Solution. The MSM must be forgiven; they don't deal well with rationality -- you know, argument, evidence, and analysis.
Pennsylvania's finest reporters--those who cover state politics--also skipped the formal introduction of the citizen-crafted "Family and Business Healthcare Security Act" (twice, in 2005 and 2007); ducked a public hearing before the Democratic House Policy Committee (February 2007); avoided the first-ever single-payer hearing in front of a standing committee, the House Health and Human Services Committee, on March 19, 2008; and drop-kicked the public endorsements of the 900,000-member AFL-CIO, the 35-chapter League of Women Voters, the 20-denomination Council of Churches, numerous business leaders, and many, many more.
Fortunate for our democracy, news editors and editorial board members across the state assure us that their non-coverage is "not systematic." Whew! Had us worried there.
Just to prove that missing historic healthcare legislative milestones has nothing to do with institutional biases, advertising revenues from 'you-know-who,' lack of professionalism, laziness, cynicism, fatalism, and/or fear, we hear--time and again--that information gathering papers, TV networks, and radio stations are simply "short-staffed." "We can't be everywhere," reporters and editors repeatedly cry.
We shouldn't be so harsh on the MSM failing to note our broad-based coalition's critical events related to a paultry ninety-eight percent (98%) of Pennsylvanians directly threatened with personal bankruptcy should they/we endure a debilitating illness, accident, or other catastrophic medical condition. Poor media... Or is it rich media, poor democracy?
So there you have it, folks.
As I've written repeatedly over the last few months, the Single-Payer Solution that tackles the economics, morality, and democracy of healthcare delivery through common wealth, common sense, and common purpose, will pass the State House and State Senate, and be signed into law by Governor Rendell in 2009. But you won't hear about it or see it in the so-called Fourth Estate. No, you'll find out about it through e-mail, blogs, paper pamphlets, and word-of-mouth...
We are democracy--you and me.
Civilized Healthcare is ours to win, person by person, legislator by legislator. 2008 is the year to educate and organize, research and lobby, campaign and elect Single-Payer candidates. 2009 is the year Pennsylvania delivers a 1776-like earthquake: passing and enacting the Single-Payer Solution (HB 1660/SB 300)--the state-level model for saving the United States economy, American lives, and American-style democracy.
Mark my words. Mark this message. Share it with your fellow citizens. Crank up your efforts. Educate and organize, research and lobby, campaign and elect. Single-Payer. Civilized Healthcare.
Chuck Pennacchio is the executive director of Health Care for All Pennsylvania. Visit the website: www.healthcare4allpa.org
