I usually leave this sort of thing to my husband, James, but since his diary scrolled off this morning without quite hitting the big board, I'm reposting this call for action:
National strike for health reform
Monday, July 6, 2009
Here's what James wrote:
Maybe you're like me. An average guy or a gal sitting somewhere in America doing all you can to help shape public policy and get good people elected. And maybe, like me, you're really worried right now about how things are going in the health care debate. And maybe, just maybe, you're ready to send a serious message to Congress that business as usual isn't going to cut it.
I've written more emails and made more phone calls than I'd ever imagined possible, and I'm not letting up. But my voice seems mostly to be falling on deaf ears. It seems we need to turn up the volume. That's why I'm asking you to recommend this diary calling for a nationwide strike for health care reform on Monday, July 6th.
The idea is simple: Don't go to work and don't buy stuff. Stay home and spend the day contacting members of Congress. Show our fearless leaders what people power looks like in action.
Everybody has their own view of what reform looks like. That's cool. My preference is for a single-payer public plan for universal coverage.
July 6th is the Monday after July 4. It is not a federal holiday. (July 3 is the holiday.) To those who will say we need to wait and plan something later, I say the time is now. A good idea tomorrow is a better idea today.
I've never called for a national strike before, but I know we can do this. The first step is easy. Just recommend this diary. We'll figure out the rest.