Call for a "Patient's March" across the country

[Ken Burch]

Let's send people on stretchers, on gurneys, in wheelchairs, with IV's, in (decommissioned)ambulances, across this country in a great national procession. They can go to the town meetings and we can get footage of "freepers" screaming at the sick and injured, or possibly throwing punches at them.

We need to shut this country down and SHAME the government into doing what's right on healthcare.

Nothing else is going to work.

Let's make it happened. Check in here if you agree and want to brainstorm. There needs to be organizers and people with the time to make this happen.

[TexasObserver]

1. Recommend

[Cleita]

2. I agree however someone is going to have to organize something like this.

Your brainstorm is not the only one around here, however, there is going to have to be an effort made to do it by some organization or charismatic individual that can pull it together. We need a MLK or even a Cindy Sheehan who can make it happen.

[Ken Burch]

3. We do need organizers. No question there.

Something big has to happen here and we have to get together and MAKE that happen. We're on the verge of having the Town Hall Freikorps overturn the election, for G-d's sake.

We also need fundraising and friendraising events at all local levels to put the logistical necessities of this together.

If done right, this can be an illustration of how we can(and must)create change from below. We have to put the Beltway on notice and scare the hell out of them.

[Cleita]

4. The freeptards are already organizing a protest in Washington DC on 912 or Sept. 12.

Some suggestions for us. We need to figure out how to get people there. Who can afford their own transportation and whom might volunteer to buy a ticket for someone who can't afford to get there. Could car pools be formed with expenses shared? We need to find a place to stay for those who can't afford hotels or who can't get a hotel room. Does Washington DC have campgrounds for people with RVs and tents? I probably would be pitching a tent myself and looking to car pool from California.

I believe there should be three groups, patients who are not getting the health care they need, families of people who have died because of insurance company denials or lack of health insurance and those of us who care about this issue and have decent health care like myself who has Medicare or any Canadians and others from countries with decent NHC who want to support universal health care for those who don't get decent coverage.

There are some organizations who might be willing to coordinate something. Maybe we need to get a sympathetic celebrity or two as well to rally the troop.

[Ken Burch]

5. Having the survivors of insurance victims there would be good, too

We need a visual representation of the "denial dead" as well, something like the Iraq War dead boots or the "AIDS QUILT" that can be laid out on the mall. Perhaps hospital gowns arranged in a pattern, or something like that.

And we need people tweeting the procession as it passes through the country, with constant video added to YouTube.

[Ken Burch]

6. Get actors who have played doctors on tv to show up

Mike Farrell and Alan Alda in their "M*A*S*H*" combat fatigues and bathrobes. George Clooney in his "ER" scrubs. People from "Grey's Anatomy" as well. There are other possibilities for celebrity appearances on this.

[Lifelong Protester]

8. I thought I had been following this pretty closely, but what is 912?

[Ken Burch]

9. The day after 911, but I'm not sure what point the Freepers are trying to make protesting then.

n/t.

[Cleita]

10. If you go to the teabagger websites, they are organizing protests on

Sept. 12 and calling it 912. I don't know the significance unless it's because it's the day after 911. Since it's against the rules to put up links to these conservo-wacko websites you can probably find links to them from the conservative news websites.

[Lifelong Protester]

12. Well, that is what I thought, but it made no sense, I mean,

on 9/12, everyone was pretty shell-shocked, immobilized, and wondering WTF just happened? I don't see it as any day the "America came roaring back" or whatever the teabaggers in their widdle, widdle, brains are thinking.

[Ken Burch]

13. Perhaps they think the Town Hall Freikorps have left US shell-shocked and immobilized

Also, perhaps they think that if there's been no healthcare bill BY September that that means there won't be one and thus that they've "won".

There's been a lot of comments on rw websites(and some of it's been linked to from here)in which they've said "we've got until September". Perhaps this is what that's about.

[Lifelong Protester]

7. what is needed is as group that already had infrastructure

for contacting and organizing, and I think union is the way to go. Any word on what the unions are doing anyone?

[Ken Burch]

11. Unions and the main antiwar groups(especially UFPJ)would be a good start there

Any parts of the civil rights infrastructure or the Rainbow would also be worthwhile.

And this is EXACTLY the kind of thing "Organizing For America" should join in on.

[defendandprotect]

17. Yes . .. they should be calling out Democrats -- !!!

[DCKit]

14. How would those who died because a claim was denied be represented?

The Ins. corporations need to answer for their "death panels".

Seriously, have NONE of these poutraged Republicans ever had a claim denied, had their insurance canceled, or lost a family member while wrangling over a claim? IMO, I think THAT group all became Democrats or Independents.

[Critters2]

18. By marchers carrying signs with their names, birth and death dates.

And, if you could squeeze it onto the signs, the insurance company responsible.

[Cleita]

20. By testimony from their families.

I've heard a few on the radio over the past weeks, sad stuff.

[Ken Burch]

23. That's it. Embroider their stories on hospital bedsheets!

It's the natural successor to "The Quilt".

[Ken Burch]

22. As I was suggesting above, you could do something like "the Quilt" or the Iraq War boots

Maybe fill the Mall with empty hospital beds, or with death certificates.

[defendandprotect]

15. k i c k

[defendandprotect]

16. Absolutely . . . the GOP are out there, why not Dems??????

We are not going to get MEDICARE FOR ALL by sitting at home typing or e-mailing,

or telephoning . . .

In fact, where are women's groups calling out Dems to fight for health care?

Where are Democrats, themselves, calling out Dems to fitght for health care?

Where are the unions?

Where is anyone?????

Let's go, folks!!

[Critters2]

19. I'd take a weekend off for this. Quick, someone, set a date! nt

[Cleita]

21. Why not the same weekend the tea baggers are doing that of Sept. 12? n/t

[Ken Burch]

25. that sounds good to me.

Is it possible to get something together that quickly?

[Wednesdays]

24. K&R

:kick:

[leftstreet]

26. The AFL-CIO convention starts Sept 13

:shrug: