The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:43:37 -0500
From: moderator@PORTSIDE.ORG
To: PORTSIDE@LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: More Than One Million Join Virtual March for Health Care

Marching on Washington DC For Health Reform -
Time To Get It Done Now and Get It Done Right

February 24th, 2010
by Jason Rosenbaum in News Clips
http://blog.healthcareforamericanow.org/2010/02/24/marching-on-washington-dc-for-health-reform-time-to-get-it-done-now-and-get-it-done-right/

Today, over a million people marched on Washington.

Five hundred people were physically in DC. They met
Melanie's March - a group of health insurance company
abuse survivors who walked for eight days and 135 miles
from Philadelphia, PA to the nation's capitol in honor
of Melanie Shouse, an Obama volunteer and health care
activist who died because she didn't have affordable
health care - at Union Station and walked the last leg
together to Capitol Hill.

We arrived at Dirksen Senate Office Building for a
rally with Majority Leader Reid, among others:

And we laid carnations symbolizing every life lost
because we don't have health reform over the course of
the eight day march - one thousand in all.

Inside the halls of power, we heard from Senators Reid,
Dodd, Harkin, Casey, and Sherrod Brown, Representative
Andrews, SEIU President Andy Stern, Families USA head
Ron Pollack, and more.

These Senators and Representatives also heard directly
from insurance company abuse survivors. People like
Regina Holliday, who's husband, dying of cancer, was
kicked out of hospital after hospital because their
insurance company wouldn't cover his care. Or Marcus
Grimes, who's blind because he couldn't pay the $3,000
it would have taken to save his eyesight and he didn't
have coverage. And they heard from Steve Hart, Melanie
Shouse's life partner, who said, "The worst part about
losing Melanie was that she would be here today if
health care in this country was fixed."

These people sent the message Senator Reid directly:
It's time to listen to the people and not the insurance
companies. It's time to get health reform done right.

Senator Reid, accepting 30,000 condolences collected
upon Melanie Shouse's death, said he would take the
names and messages with him to the White House summit
on health reform tomorrow. And he told the crowd that
we're going to get reform done.

While we were marching, one million people were backing
us up. Led by MoveOn.org, the virtual march on DC has
succeeded in sending over 1 million messages to
Congress since 8 am this morning, tying up phone lines
and fax machines all over Capitol Hill. And the calls
and faxes keep coming in!

Today, the people marched. It's time for the leadership
and Congress to deliver.

_____________________________________________

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