PDA National Team Visits Ohio
October 25, 2008
Greg Gagnon, Terry McElane, Mo Bryant, Tim Carpenter.
With just ten days until the election, PDA national director Tim Carpenter led a team of PDA activists from Washington, Maryland, Ireland, Liberia, and Massachusetts into Ohio yesterday. There the team joined with Ohio PDA state coordinators Mary Nichols-Rhodes and Michael Carano, and PDA allies from the California Nurses Association/National Nurses' Organizing Committee (
CNA/NNOC) and the Ohio Nurses Association to get out the vote and to advance their joint support for HR 676, the Single Payer Healthcare initiative.
The group met with progressive Democratic candidate for Congress Bill O'Neill, who warmly welcomed them and articulated his support for single-payer healthcare for all. Bill, who is a registered nurse as well as a decorated Vietnam era veteran, made clear that Healthcare NOT Warfare was one of the pillars upon which his campaign is founded.
Following the meeting with O'Neill, the nurses and PDA team drove to Akron to attend and leaflet at a local high school rally where Michelle Obama spoke to an overflow crowd of supporters. The Obama campaign, she said, and an Obama presidency would be committed to ending the war in Iraq, redirecting spending, promoting healthcare for all, and to literally changing the world into a safer, saner place. Even the cynical appeared to be moved. Following the rally, PDA and the nurses passed out PDA Healthcare NOT Warfare materials and a scorecard drafted by the nurses, which rates the presidential candidates' positions on healthcare. (McCain an F; Obama a B+.) The HR 676 Petition was also tremendously well received, and within a half hour hundreds of Obama supporters were also walking around with Healthcare NOT Warfare stickers on their shirts and jackets.
Ohio is still a swing state. PDAers from “safe” states are encouraged to call Obama headquarters in Ohio and ask to help with phone banking of voter lists. Any PDAer who can travel to Ohio for a few days is encouraged to contact
Michael or
Mary, who will be happy to get volunteers assigned to meaningful positions.
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