This is an email sent to the Facebook group for the Walk. Click here to join the group.
Greetings from Chicago! While the Walk was a great success—I arrived in DC in one piece, met hundreds of people and gathered their stories, and have already met with several Congressional staffers—the journey has only begun. The special interests are fighting healthcare reform to the death (literally) and you can see the results (or more precisely non-results) in Congress. I met with Dennis Kucinich personally on Tuesday and he immediately recognized the value of the Walk and its message of the “Voice of the People.” He will be publishing an official notice in the Congressional Record urging all his fellow members of Congress to read the stories being posted up on the blog http://walk4healthcare.org/.
But the fight has just begun. I am driving (not walking) back to DC early Thursday morning where I will be speaking later that afternoon at the large Healthcare-Now! rally (http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/single-payer-rally/) along with dozens of other distinguished speakers.
If you can, please attend the rally! This is too important an issue—an issue that crosses both human rights and economic security—to sit in the comfort of one’s home. Please invite everyone you know to the event (and this Facebook group). Please support the Walk For Healthcare which now continues its trek in a multitude of ways to bring the voice of the people back into our government.
Here are some words that kept me going through the Walk leading up to its conclusion on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, as I listened to Aaron Copeland’s Lincoln Portrait on the iPod.
“That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
That says it all.
Thank you again for all your continued support,
Ogan
Hi Ogan,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your successful walk to D.C. You're clearly a man of courage and conviction! Few physicians these days are willing to be as vocal as you. Thanks for speaking out.
Healthnut