Along with over 400 other physicians, nurses and activists, I attended the Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) annual conference in D.C. last week. The meeting was great, with a keynote and award going to Rep. John Conyers, and I will blog further on it later.
For now I want to help spread the word about a longtime PNHP member, Dr. Steve Blythe, who is running as a Democrat (duh) against Dave Weldon (Incumbent R). Weldon was a ringleader in the Terri Schiavo fiasco and of course is opposed to SHCIP expansion. A classic "right to life... until born" type of guy.
Meet Steve Blythe! This is a guy who should be a Netroots supported candidate. Here is his ActBlue site.
Biosketch:
Steve comes from a true working class background, originally from Kansas. He graduated from MIT, working two summers of hard labor at a Texas refinery to help pay his way. He attended Osteopathic medical school on a National Health Service Corps scholarship, completed a Family Medicine residency, and did his payback service (and then some for a total of 6 years) in a rural village in Maine.
He has practiced in Melbourne Florida for the past ten years, and his family is proud to call Florida home. His children attend the great Brevard County public schools, and Steve is a strong supporter of public education.
via YouTube, I give you Dr. Steve Blythe:
Here is what he has to say on some of the issues:
This election will be about protecting the environment, increasing access to health care, and restoring the United States to a position of trust and respect in the world. Hopefully the Iraq war will be resolved before November of 2008, but if not, it certainly will weigh heavily on the candidates such as Dave Weldon who have rubber-stamped President Bush's every request to get us into this terrible folly.
Health Care Access:
Over 47 million Americans - including 9 million children - are without health insurance. These Americans live every day in terror. Not from al Qaeda but from the fear of an illness or injury that would put them into bankruptcy. Medicines are now outrageously expensive - a child with diabetes may need $500 worth of medicines and supplies every month - and that's not counting doctor visits! Those who need transplants but are without insurance are told to go home and die. This is not right. No child should go without needed care in our country, and no father should be given a death sentence because they don't have insurance. Listen to a ten minute talk (.wav file format) Steve recently gave on the need for a national health plan.
The Environment:
America used to lead the way in environmental protection. We set the standard for protecting wild places with our national park system - the model for those now in place around the world. By virtually ignoring the current global crisis with overuse of gasoline and global warming, we have turned our backs on the rest of the world. We need to once again take the lead. And we can move forward without sacrificing our air, our water, and our wild places. Steve Blythe promises to always put our environment first!
Civil and Human Rights:
Torture is never right. Locking citizens up without charges is never right - and has not been right since the Magna Carta of 1215 AD! And kidnapping people in the middle of the night and taking them off to a secret prison is the act of the most vile dictators - not a free society! Steve Blythe believes in the Constitution, and the principle of innocence until proven guilty, and will always vote that way!
Jobs:
The gap between rich and poor and between black and white is increasing in this country. Many Americans work forty hour weeks and still live in poverty. We need a livable wage guaranteed, and we need to make it harder for mega-marts to fight worker organizing. We need to make it harder for companies to take jobs overseas. A strong middle class and the ability for anyone willing to work hard to get ahead is what made this country great in the last century.
NASA:
We need to look at NASA's priorities to strengthen NASA for the future. NASA needs to get back to its' core mission; life science research utilizing the International Space Station and deep space research such as that carried out by the Hubble Telescope (Image 1 and Image 2) and Chandra radio telescope. The goals of a manned station on the moon and manned flights to Mars are distractions and far too expensive given our crumbling bridges and the huge budget deficits the Bush administration is leaving us.
Budget:
Dave Weldon astounded us recently when he sent a newsletter to his constituents listing a "Taxpayer Bill of Rights". His taxpayer rights included the right to a government that didn't grow beyond its' ability to pay for itself and the right to a balanced budget without taxes being raised. This is amazing since Weldon rubber stamped the current administrations' record-breaking budget deficit! This included reducing taxes at the same time the budget was skyrocketing! This has left the budget in such a mess that increased taxes or massive program cuts will be needed. How many bridge collapses will we accept? Anyone who thinks that Republicans are fiscally responsible needs to review the recent history of budget deficits.
The War on Terror:
We have to be smarter, not stronger, in the war on terror. The War in Iraq has generated tens of thousands of new fighters in their jihad against the US. Let's remember, though, that most Muslims want exactly what we want - to live in peace and to raise their families in safety and security with the promise of a good future. We spend more money on our military than the rest of the world combined! Surely spending more will not make us more secure. We need to work with other nations and other people of the world. We can be militarily strong, but we need to sow the seeds of freedom and democracy by example as well. Instead, we have sold our soul by institutionalizing violations of many civil and human rights we have held dear for centuries. We have alienated millions in the middle east, and the current administration, and our current representative, somehow think that more bombs and bullets will end the civil war in Iraq. And even after all these years we have not once sat down and tried to work with the political and religious leaders of the region to try to get them to pressure the Sunni and Shiite leaders of Iraq to work for peace. It's a sad chapter in our great history.
I will be blogging more on Steve, and at least one other PNHP leader who is now running for local office, in the weeks to come.
If you support real universal health care and electing more progressive democrats to office:
- Lets show a little netroots love to Dr. Steve Blythe.
- Spread the word about him.
- and give some bucks to him at
ActBlue.