Join the " Brown Bag Lunch Vigils!
Join the "Healthcare NOT Warfare" campaign!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) organized "brown bag" lunch vigils against war funding at noon on Wednesday, January 20th, at the district offices of 22 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. On February 17th, PDA will be joined by CODEPINK, AfterDowningStreet, Democrats.com, the California Nurses Association / National Nurses Organizing Committee, and United for Peace and Justice in holding brown bag vigils outside (or inside) at least 6O congress members' district offices around the country.
Brownbaggers are asking members of the House to publicly commit to voting No on any bills that fund wars, and to publicly urge their colleagues and the House leadership to make the same commitment. As lesser steps in the same direction, PDA is encouraging congress members to cosponsor HR 2454, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and HR 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan. Congress members' commitments are tracked at http://defundwar.org.
Vigil participants are also asking their representatives to join the growing movement calling for "Medicare for All" by demanding passage of the Kucinich amendment facilitating state-level single-payer healthcare and by offering their support to single-payer efforts moving forward in state legislatures, including in California, Massachusetts, Maine, and Pennsylvania.
While brownbaggers hold vigil at congressional district offices on Wednesday, February 17th, their allies in Washington, D.C., will visit the Capitol Hill offices of the same congress members. Brownbaggers will gather at 10 a.m. at the Independence Avenue entrance to the Rayburn House Office Building.
Donna Smith, Co-Chair of PDA's Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, said "We plan to speak with the offices of every congress member whose constituents are holding vigil that day. We will confront them not only with the direct financial and human costs of war, but also with the trade-offs. We have 45,000 preventable deaths due to lack of healthcare access every year in this country. That's a choice our representatives make. Right now they are choosing war."
Vigils have been planned in the following districts. These are almost all at noon on Wednesday, February 17th, but a few are at odd times, so check the details: http://tinyurl.com/brownbagvigil.
AZ-05 Rep. Harry Mitchell
CA-05 Rep. Doris Matsui
CA-06 Rep. Lynn Woolsey
CA-09 Rep. Barbara Lee
CA-10 Rep. John Garamendi
CA-18 Rep. Dennis Cardoza
CA-22 Rep. Kevin McCarthy
CA-23 Rep. Lois Capps
CA-24 Rep. Darrell Issa
CA-31 Rep. Xavier Becerra
CA-33 Rep. Diane Watson
CA-34 Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard
CA-37 Rep. Laura Richardson
CA-40 Rep. Ed Royce
CA-42 Rep. Gary Miller
CA-45 Rep. Mary Bono-Mack
CA-46 Rep. Dana Rohrabacher
CA-48 Rep. John Campbell
CA-50 Rep. Brian Bilbray
CA-53 Rep. Susan Davis
CO-04 Rep. Betsy Markey
FL-07 Rep. John Mica
FL-09 Rep. Gus Bilirakis
FL-10 Rep. Bill Young
FL-17 Rep. Kendrick Meek
ID-01 Rep. Walt Minnick
IN-09 Rep. Baron Hill
KY-01 Sen. Mitch McConnell
MA-01 Rep. John Olver
MA-02 Rep. Richard Neal
MA-03 Rep. Jim McGovern
MA-08 & 09 Sen. John Kerry
MA-10 Rep. Bill Delahunt
MD-04 Rep. Donna Edwards
ME-01 Rep. Chellie Pingree
ME-02 Rep. Mike Michaud
MI-09 Rep. Gary Peters
MS-01 Rep. Travis Childers
MS-04 Rep. Gene Taylor
NJ-04 Rep. Chris Smith
NJ-06 Rep. Frank Pallone
NY-18 Rep. Nita Lowey
NY-28 & 29 Rep. Louise M. Slaughter
OH-13 Rep. Betty Sutton
OH-17 Rep. Tim Ryan
OR-04 Rep. Peter DeFazio
OR-05 Rep. Kurt Schrader
PA-02 Rep. Chaka Fattah
PA-07 Rep. Joe Sestak
PA-15 Rep. Charlie Dent
UT-03 Rep. Jason Chaffetz
WA-02 Rep. Rick Larsen
WA-03 Rep. Brian Baird
WA-06 Rep. Norman Dicks
WI-03 Rep. Ron Kind
WI-07 Rep. David Obey
==end==
In Washington, contact:
Donna Smith, Healthcare NOT Warfare Co-chair
donnas@calnurses.org, 773-617-4493
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Laura Bonham, PDA Communications Coordinator
Phone: 435-336-2123
Tim Carpenter, Executive Director
Toll Free: 877-239-2093
