lifeomike.org | 2009 August

Archive for August, 2009

National rally on Sept. 13

Check out the details at http://americansunitedhcr.wordpress.com/. The woman behind the rally has insurance, but she can’t bear the thought that good people are dying because they don’t have access to care.
Julie Paulson remembers before she was receiving disability, when she had to ask doctors to give her the diabetes medications and supplies she needs to survive.
“I’m over-insured [...]

Rally in Asheville

We had 300 people at the rally today. They came from all over Western North Carolina.

It was a great day. The signs were clever, the crowd friendly. No one called anyone names, no one shouted over anyone, and we heard some compelling stories.
One man had a friend who was hit by lightning and he was [...]

Big day tomorrow

I’ve been working feverishly all week to put together this health care rally and tomorrow’s the day. I hope we get a huge crowd to let our leaders know we really want health care now.
I’m as ready as I can be. Now we’ll just have to see how many people come out.
I had an op-ed [...]

Stories, the congressman and the approaching rally

Our story circle tonight was small, but it was a start. We want to do this again next month and hear more stories from more people. I believe this is the best place for us to start learning what we can do in the community to make people’s health care experience better.
I listened to Rep. [...]

Rushing around and remembering Ted

I’ve had calls all day long from people who want to be at the rally, including one from the local NAACP, which is exciting to me. The more the merrier. But I said on two radio interviews today that there will be no name-calling and no trying to drown out other people.
Mike asked me to [...]

Spreading the word

I have a busy week ahead, spreading the word about the health care rally next Saturday (10 a.m.-noon, Pritchard Park, downtown Asheville). There seems to be a lot more interest than when we held a rally here last October. I think people know they have to be heard, and if we who want meaningful reform [...]

Busier than ever

I was on the Ed Shultz Radio Show again today. I called in yesterday, but he called me today. I’m so excited to get Mike’s story out there. We need to put some human faces on this issue so people will see the immorality of our current system.
I got a call this morning from the [...]

‘We won’t settle …’

The Rev. Jim Wallis, president of Sojourners, was host to President Obama today on a conference call that included tens of thousands of Americans. I tried to get on but couldn’t because it was at capacity.
Later, Wallis was on The Ed Show on MSNBC to talk about health care as a moral issue. He refused [...]

‘He Leadeth Me’

The old hymn keeps coming to mind, even as Rep. Michelle Bachman says she will run for president if God tells her to.
It was one of my favorites as a child, and it fostered the belief that God will take you where you need to go if you leave yourself open to being led.
The hard [...]

A little common sense talk

Columnist Paul Krugman of the New York Times had a great column today, clarifying the options for getting health care to all or most Americans. Any one of the three works for me.
He also called out the lies and name-calling. You can read the entire column here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/opinion/17krugman.html?_r=1&src=twt&twt=nytimesopinion

Patient Pals & Family Friends volunteer training

Our Feb. 27 training had to be postponed, but we have rescheduled. Join us 10 days, as we train our next group of volunteers for Patient Pals & Family Friends. The four-hour training will run 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and will include lunch. Patient Pals are people who have experience with an illness or disability. After training, they will be paired with someone who is newly diagnosed or disabled. Family Friends will be volunteers who are paired with family members of people who are ill or disabled, and will have been through the expeience of having a loved one with illness or disability.

In Loving Memory

Life o' Mike has participated two memorial services to remember those who have died from our broken health care system, one in Asheville and one in Raleigh. If you would like to organize more of these services, please contact lifeomike@gmail.com and we will help put it together. The services include stories, prayers and information on how people of faith can make a difference. About 45,000 people die each year because they don’t have health insurance, according to a recent study by Harvard Medical School and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That breaks down to one American every 12 minutes. Those people can be honored in the service by a bell chime and a moment of silence every 12 minutes in the service. For more information, call Leslie Boyd at 828-243-6712.