April, 29 2010, 12:10pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Laura Bonham, PDA Communications Coordinator
Laura@pdamerica.org, (435) 336-2123
Tim Carpenter, PDA National Director
Tim@pdamerica.org, (413)-320-2015
Citizens in 18 States Push for State-Level Single-Payer Healthcare
WASHINGTON
In Wayne, Pennsylvania, on April 10, 2010,
in conjunction with a regional conference of the Progressive Democrats
of America, citizen representatives of fourteen states gathered and
decided to begin a more coordinated collaboration aimed at passage of
state-based, single-payer healthcare legislation. Groups in four
additional states are also involved.
On April 23rd the Vermont House followed that
state's Senate in passing single-payer legislation. Bills are moving
forward in several other states.
At the Wayne meeting, those assembled drafted
a "Declaration of Health Independence and Security," which citizens
plan to present in each state on July 4th of this year. Signatures are
being collected on the declaration here: https://tinyurl.com/2bd468k
Donna Smith, Co-Chair of PDA's "Healthcare
Not Warfare" campaign, said: "Our new resolve to work in a coordinated
campaign for state single-payer in all of these states, does not mean we
will stop advocating for national single-payer healthcare. In fact, we
hope that successes in the first few states will energize the national
campaign and persuade by demonstration."
The text of the declaration follows:
Declaration of Health Independence
and Security
When in the course of human events, it
becomes necessary for citizens of this nation and its separate but equal
states to transform conditions related to the common good within our
control and necessary in order to assure the basic human rights of all,
recognition of our common humanity and a decent respect to the opinions
of humankind compel us to declare those conditions for which we demand
such a transformation.
Healthcare is a basic human right. To this
end, we the undersigned citizen representatives of these assembled
states, declare our dedication to the transformation of the
profit-driven healthcare system into one of our shared humanity under a
social insurance model-a publicly funded, privately and publicly
delivered system, equally available to all. Current expenditures on
healthcare can and must fund this systemic transformation.
Working in our individual and several states,
we will educate our fellow residents, petition our legislators for our
collective redress of grievances under the current system, and pursue
passage of citizen-driven healthcare policy legislation.
We hold these truths still to be
self-evident, that all men and women are created equal and have certain
unalienable rights. Among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, and that in order to enjoy these rights, access to
healthcare without regard to financial or any other barriers must be
secured.
Signed this 10th day of April, 2010, at
Central Baptist Church in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Donna Smith, Healthcare NOT Warfare Co-chair,
Laurel, Maryland
Norman Solomon, Healthcare NOT Warfare
Co-chair,
Point Reyes, California
Chuck Pennacchio, Healthcare4AllPA, Executive
Director
Pipersville, Pennsylvania
Ben Day, Mass-Care: The Massachusetts
Campaign for Single Payer Health Care Executive Director,
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
States represented: West Virginia, Virginia,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, Ohio,
California, New York, Colorado, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota
Progressive Democrats of America was founded
in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and our country. We seek to
build a party and government controlled by citizens, not corporate
elites--with policies that serve the broad public interest, not just
private interests. PDA is a grassroots PAC operating inside the
Democratic Party, and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our
inside/outside strategy is guided by the belief that a lasting majority
will require a revitalized Democratic Party built on firm progressive
principles.
For over two decades, the party declined as
its leadership listened more to
the voices of corporations than those of Americans. PDA strives to
rebuild the Democratic Party from the bottom up--from every
congressional district to statewide party structures to the corridors of
power in Washington, where we work arm in arm with the Congressional
Progressive Caucus. In just five years, PDA and its allies have shaken
up the political status quo--on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Medicare
for all, voter rights, accountability, and economic and environmental
justice.
Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and U.S. politics by working inside and outside of the party by working to elect empowered progressives and by building the progressive movement in solidarity with with peace, justice, civil rights, environmental, and other reform efforts. For more information about PDA, please see PDAmerica.org.
LATEST NEWS
'Horrifying' Footage Shows IDF Killing Two Gazans, Burying Their Bodies With a Bulldozer
"When the Israeli army can do these things and get away with it, it can only then do more of it knowing that it will not meet any punishment," said one analyst.
Mar 28, 2024
Video footage broadcast Wednesday by Al Jazeera shows Israeli soldiers gunning down two Palestinians on the coast of northern Gaza, even as one of them waves what appears to be a piece of white fabric.
The footage shows one of the men walking in the direction of an Israeli military vehicle with both hands raised. Despite the absence of any clear evidence that the man posed a threat, Israeli forces shot him from a short distance away. Another man is seen on the ground not far behind.
Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said the killings took place near where World Central Kitchen recently dropped off food aid.
The video then shows Israeli soldiers burying the bodies with a bulldozer.
"Probably certain words should be invented for this sort of thing," Marwan Bishara, AI Jazeera's chief political analyst, said in response to the footage. "I am not sure we have the sufficient vocabulary to describe this sort of twilight zone of Israel's fantasy of being the world's most moral army."
"It's a fantasy that meets the reality of a genocide," Bishara added. "An attempt to kill or destroy much of Palestine and Palestinians and hide the evidence and lie about it. When the Israeli army can do these things and get away with it, it can only then do more of it knowing that it will not meet any punishment."
Watch:
مشاهد حصرية للجزيرة لإعدام جنود إسرائيليين مدنيين فلسطينيين أثناء محاولتهم العودة لشمال قطاع غزة#الأخبار #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/QER98mv2n6
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) March 27, 2024
Richard Falk, former United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories, toldAl Jazeera that the footage provides "vivid confirmation of continuing Israeli atrocities" and spotlights the "unambiguous character of Israeli atrocities that are being carried out on a daily basis."
"The eyes and ears of the world have been assaulted in real-time by this form of genocidal behavior," said Falk. "It is a shocking reality that there has been no adverse reaction from the liberal democracies in the West. It is a shameful moment."
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, whose board Falk chairs, has documented numerous examples of Israeli soldiers conducting close-range field executions in Gaza since October 7, when Israel launched its latest assault following a Hamas-led attack.
In less than six months, Israeli forces have killed more than 32,500 people in Gaza and sparked one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in modern history.
The video footage emerged just days after the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. The U.S., Israel's leading arms supplier, abstained from the vote and falsely claimed the measure was "nonbinding."
The Israeli government, for its part, immediately signaled that it would disregard the resolution, just as it has ignored orders from the International Court of Justice.
Sophie McNeill, a human rights campaigner, called the footage released Wednesday "horrifying" and demanded that the International Criminal Court "urgently prioritize investigating and charging all those carrying out war crimes in Gaza."
"There just so happened to be a camera here in this moment. What are we not seeing?" McNeill asked. "This impunity must end."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Joe Lieberman, Iraq War Cheerleader and Killer of Public Option, Dead at 82
"Joe Lieberman's legacy will live on as your medical debt."
Mar 27, 2024
While current and former officials across the U.S. political spectrum shared praise for and fond memories of former Sen. Joe Lieberman in response to news of his death on Wednesday, critics highlighted how some of his key positions led to the deaths of many others.
Lieberman's family said the 82-year-old died at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital after a fall at his home in the Bronx. He served in the Connecticut Senate, as the state's attorney general, and in the U.S. Senate—initially as a Democrat and eventually as an Independent. He was also Democratic former Vice President Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 presidential election.
"Up until the very end, Joe Lieberman enjoyed the high-quality, government-financed healthcare that he worked diligently to deny the rest of us. That's his legacy," said Melanie D'Arrigo, executive director of the Campaign for New York Health, which advocates for universal, single-payer healthcare.
As Warren Gunnels, majority staff director for Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),
explained, "Joe Lieberman led the effort to ensure the Affordable Care Act did not include a public option or a reduction in the Medicare eligibility age to 55."
Noting that Lieberman also lied about the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq—which was used to justify the 2003 U.S. invasion—Gunnels asked, "How many people unnecessarily died as a result?"
He was far from alone in highlighting the two defining positions.
The Lever's David Sirota declared, "RIP Joe Lieberman, Iraq War cheerleader who led the fight to make sure Medicare was not extended to millions of Americans who desperately needed the kind of healthcare coverage he enjoyed in the Senate."
The Debt Collective said on social media that "Joe Lieberman killed so many people when he killed the public option. Not to mention all the people he killed by cheerleading every war and every lie that led to war. A truly horrible person with a shameful legacy."
Journalist Jon Schwarz pointed out that Lieberman continued to lie about the WMDs long after the claims were debunked.
FormerMSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that Lieberman declined an opportunity to apologize for the disastrous war, sharing a clip from his on-camera interview with the ex-senator in 2021.
And please don\u2019t give me this \u2018don\u2019t speak ill of the dead\u2019 stuff - 1) I\u2019m not speaking ill, I\u2019m stating facts, and 2) public figures are public figures, and their obits reflect their legacies and so we should be honest in our accounts of their legacies. Not offensive but honest— (@)
"We lost a giant today. I often disagreed with Joe Lieberman but he was always honorable in the way he called for American troops to murder people abroad so he could get his jollies," said Matt Stoller of the American Economic Liberties Project in a series of sarcastic social media posts.
"Joe Lieberman balanced his love of other people fighting in immoral wars with a commitment to preventing Americans from getting healthcare," Stoller added. "Even after his Senate career, he showed his strong democratic values by lobbying for Chinese telecom firms. We will miss this man."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Enough Is Enough': Ireland Joins ICJ Genocide Case Against Israel
"What we saw on October 7 in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale," said one top Irish official.
Mar 27, 2024
Citing Israel's "blatant" human rights violations in Gaza, Ireland's second-highest-ranking official said Wednesday that the country will join the South Africa-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Irish Tánaiste Micheál Martin—the equivalent of a deputy prime minister in other parliamentary nations—said that Ireland decided to intervene in the case after analyzing the "legal and policy issues" pertaining to the case under review by the United Nations' top court.
"It is for the court to determine whether genocide is being committed," Martin—who also serves as Ireland's foreign and defense minister—said in a statement. "But I want to be clear in reiterating what I have said many times in the last few months; what we saw on October 7 in Israel, and what we are seeing in Gaza now, represents the blatant violation of international humanitarian law on a mass scale."
Martin continued:
The taking of hostages. The purposeful withholding of humanitarian assistance to civilians. The targeting of civilians and of civilian infrastructure. The indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. The use of civilian objects for military purposes. The collective punishment of an entire population.
The list goes on. It has to stop. The view of the international community is clear. Enough is enough. The U.N. Security Council has demanded an immediate cease-fire, the unconditional release of hostages, and the lifting of all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale. The European Council has echoed this call.
South Africa's case—which is supported by over 30 countries, the Arab League, African Union, and others—incisively details Israel's conduct in the war, including the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children; the wounding of tens of thousands more; the forcible displacement of 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people; and the inflicting of conditions leading to widespread starvation and disease. The filing also cited numerous genocidal statements by Israeli officials.
On January 26, the ICJ issued a preliminary ruling that Israel is plausibly committing genocide in Gaza and ordered its government and military to prevent genocidal acts. Palestinian and international human rights defenders say Israel has ignored the order.
A draft report
released this week by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council found "reasonable grounds to believe" that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a move that came on the same day as the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire in the ongoing war.
"The situation could not be more stark; half the population of Gaza face imminent famine and 100% of the population face acute food insecurity," said Martin. "As the U.N. secretary-general said as he inspected long lines of blocked relief trucks waiting to enter Gaza during his visit to Rafah at the weekend: 'It is time to truly flood Gaza with lifesaving aid. The choice is clear: surge or starvation.' I echo his words today."
In a St. Partick's Day White House meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden—a staunch supporter of Israel—Irish Toaiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, who announced earlier this month that he would soon step down, said that "the Irish people are deeply troubled about the catastrophe that's unfolding before our eyes in Gaza."
"And when I travel the world, leaders often ask me why the Irish have such empathy for the Palestinian people," he added. "And the answer is simple: We see our history in their eyes—a story of displacement, of dispossession and national identity questioned and denied, forced emigration, discrimination, and now hunger."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular