SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Tennessee Dads Ask Senators for a Simple Father's Day Gift
A group of Tennessee dads gathered inside a dimly-lit parking garage on a rainy Nashville day to send a message to their senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Their message was simple: this Father's Day, they want their senators to protect Medicaid.
The assembled dads each had letters about the importance of Medicaid for their own children.
One of the dads, John Shouse, had this to say:
Jun 18, 2017
A group of Tennessee dads gathered inside a dimly-lit parking garage on a rainy Nashville day to send a message to their senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Their message was simple: this Father's Day, they want their senators to protect Medicaid.
The assembled dads each had letters about the importance of Medicaid for their own children.
One of the dads, John Shouse, had this to say:
Senator Alexander, Senator Corker, we gather here today as fathers, with Father's Day mere hours away, to share with you our concerns with the course of action currently being set in Washington. We are fathers of children with disabilities. We are imploring you to vote to save Medicaid, and the other 'lifeline programs' that are currently facing unprecedented funding cuts. This is a course that, left unchecked, WILL have dire negative consequences for our sons and daughters.
Whether they are young children, or adults trying to find their way in the world now that their school years are over, our sons and daughters face tremendous challenges because of disability. Challenges that most people ... even fathers such as yourselves ... can hardly imagine.
Shouse spoke of his own experience, having a son with autism who benefits from Medicaid-funded programs.
The Tennessee dads were speaking father to father--imploring Alexander and Corker to think of their own children, and all of Tennessee's children, when they cast votes on the Senate's health bill, which includes deep Medicaid cuts.
As Shouse put it:
Vote to ensure that the Medicaid funded supports and services that our sons and daughters use every day just to survive in the community will NOT have to go away because of funding cuts.
Shouse was joined by Jama Mohamed, Michael Nolan, John Sharp, Mike Franks, and Matt Steinhauer in appealing to Tennessee's U.S. Senators.
All agreed the best Father's Day gift they could receive would be an assurance that Medicaid would continue to be available for all children who need it, especially those with disabilities.
Senators, are you listening?
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.
A group of Tennessee dads gathered inside a dimly-lit parking garage on a rainy Nashville day to send a message to their senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Their message was simple: this Father's Day, they want their senators to protect Medicaid.
The assembled dads each had letters about the importance of Medicaid for their own children.
One of the dads, John Shouse, had this to say:
Senator Alexander, Senator Corker, we gather here today as fathers, with Father's Day mere hours away, to share with you our concerns with the course of action currently being set in Washington. We are fathers of children with disabilities. We are imploring you to vote to save Medicaid, and the other 'lifeline programs' that are currently facing unprecedented funding cuts. This is a course that, left unchecked, WILL have dire negative consequences for our sons and daughters.
Whether they are young children, or adults trying to find their way in the world now that their school years are over, our sons and daughters face tremendous challenges because of disability. Challenges that most people ... even fathers such as yourselves ... can hardly imagine.
Shouse spoke of his own experience, having a son with autism who benefits from Medicaid-funded programs.
The Tennessee dads were speaking father to father--imploring Alexander and Corker to think of their own children, and all of Tennessee's children, when they cast votes on the Senate's health bill, which includes deep Medicaid cuts.
As Shouse put it:
Vote to ensure that the Medicaid funded supports and services that our sons and daughters use every day just to survive in the community will NOT have to go away because of funding cuts.
Shouse was joined by Jama Mohamed, Michael Nolan, John Sharp, Mike Franks, and Matt Steinhauer in appealing to Tennessee's U.S. Senators.
All agreed the best Father's Day gift they could receive would be an assurance that Medicaid would continue to be available for all children who need it, especially those with disabilities.
Senators, are you listening?
A group of Tennessee dads gathered inside a dimly-lit parking garage on a rainy Nashville day to send a message to their senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander. Their message was simple: this Father's Day, they want their senators to protect Medicaid.
The assembled dads each had letters about the importance of Medicaid for their own children.
One of the dads, John Shouse, had this to say:
Senator Alexander, Senator Corker, we gather here today as fathers, with Father's Day mere hours away, to share with you our concerns with the course of action currently being set in Washington. We are fathers of children with disabilities. We are imploring you to vote to save Medicaid, and the other 'lifeline programs' that are currently facing unprecedented funding cuts. This is a course that, left unchecked, WILL have dire negative consequences for our sons and daughters.
Whether they are young children, or adults trying to find their way in the world now that their school years are over, our sons and daughters face tremendous challenges because of disability. Challenges that most people ... even fathers such as yourselves ... can hardly imagine.
Shouse spoke of his own experience, having a son with autism who benefits from Medicaid-funded programs.
The Tennessee dads were speaking father to father--imploring Alexander and Corker to think of their own children, and all of Tennessee's children, when they cast votes on the Senate's health bill, which includes deep Medicaid cuts.
As Shouse put it:
Vote to ensure that the Medicaid funded supports and services that our sons and daughters use every day just to survive in the community will NOT have to go away because of funding cuts.
Shouse was joined by Jama Mohamed, Michael Nolan, John Sharp, Mike Franks, and Matt Steinhauer in appealing to Tennessee's U.S. Senators.
All agreed the best Father's Day gift they could receive would be an assurance that Medicaid would continue to be available for all children who need it, especially those with disabilities.
Senators, are you listening?
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.