Americans are outraged. Common sense tells you if there's 700 billion to bailout the crooks on Wall Street, surely there's enough to guarantee healthcare to every man woman and child in the United States.
Well huge numbers of Americans are saying God damnit, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Yesterday on a picture perfect day in San Francisco, thousands of activists headed across an iconic American structure taking our collective outrage to the streets Golden Gate Bridge. We were led by the heroic California Nurses Association gathered for their annual Staff Nurse Assembly.
I was there. Here are photos of a day I'll remember for the rest of my life. And if you read to the end of the diary a treat awaits you.
That's me in the middle and Hilda Sarkisyan (the mother of the late Nataline, on my right).
DIGG Link. Let the politicians see our outrage.
Funny how the other crooks, the Washington D.C. politician crooks can come up with $$$ in a matter of days for their pals and campaign contributors on Wall Street, but the American people have been waiting for healthcare for what, fifty years?
The other day, Barack Obama said, "they must think you're stupid". Well, we know the they, Barack was speaking of. They Repuglicans and their allies in the insurance industry, defenders of the malignantly corrupt status quo, should know, we're not stupid. Not for a nanosecond.
Yesterday, the pedal met the metal. Thousands of fed up American citizens joined the California Nurses Association in a show of fury against the bailout of Wall Street. We swarmed across the Golden Gate Bridge demanding money for healthcare not money for Wall Street.
Before you look at these photos, I hope everyone will renew a commitment to take action between now and November 4th. Just get out of your chair-- register voters, sign up for Election Day election protection, canvass, just make some contribution.
Between now and November 4th, do whatever you can to help get Barack Obama and Joe Biden elected. It feels so good to stand up and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Let them know, we mean business, boy do we mean business.
What a day. We assembled on the Marin County side of the bridge.
Check this out! I'm telling you we stretched the entire two mile length of the gorgeous mist engulfed span. Thousands of outraged Americans. And the cars--they were honking, they loved us, everyone but the politicians and the special interests support guaranteed and affordable healthcare.
And it was a beautiful day, so there were tons of startled and baffled tourists--quite bewildered that in the richest country on the planet, healthcare remains a privilege not a right . Yeah, people from countries where healthcare is a right, looked on in amazement. One woman with a heavy German accent said to me in disbelief. "you have to do this, to get healthcare in America?"
Some stragglers.
One more of nyceve.
After we crossed the bridge, we held a rally in a lovely park on the San Francisco side of the bridge.
That's Rose Ann DeMoro, the courageous leader of the California Nurses Association addressing her tired warriors.
This woman is a three time cancer survivor. She's battling a recurrence and her fu*cking for-profit insurance company refuses to pay for treatment it already authorized. So she's got a huge bill, which will likely necessitate that she file for bankruptcy. And she's insured! Why in the world are insurance industry clerks approving and disapproving care? Why do we tolerate such crap?
But the day was just beginning. After some refreshments, and one final glance at the Golden Gate Bridge, we were gently herded back on the buses and headed for a protest against California Pacific Medical Center - Sutter Health. Sutter health is a bad, bad company, this is what Kossack DWG wrote about them a while back.
Here we are surrounding the Sutter owned hospital (California Pacific Medical Center), which refuses to sign a contract with the nurses who work there.
We got right up to the front door and the Sutter Health execs weren't happy. The police came, evidently called by some Sutter Health person, but you know, police don't like to mess with nurses. Nurses are on the side of the angels and hospital executives aren't. The police know this, so they just watched. Thank you SFPD.
Don't fuck mess with angry nurses. Nurses are committed to helping people who are sufferring. Nurses advocate for their patients. So when loathsome corporations masquerading as healthcare institutions refuse to give them a contract they get angry and rightfully so. Don't you think?
After a long and magnificent day, when we got back to our base--the San Francisco Marriott, the great California Nurses had one final treat for us.
Obama Cake! Bet this is the first Obama Cake you've seen.
Yummy. Yummy. Yummy.
And another treat!
Obama cookies!
And the best treat of all, the 44th President of the United States.
DIGG Link. Let the politicians see our outrage.