**Happy Update***
For those of you who have signed my petition trying to get victims of mass shootings or terrorism coverage under Congress' health plan, I am writing to let you know that a Congressional staffer is wiling to research this and implement it if it's feasible. He told me the best thing I can do is to try to get more signatures for my MoveOn petition. So, if you want to help, please sign. http://petitions.moveon.org/...
For those of you who have signed, please try to help me get this idea discussed more broadly. I can't tell you how grateful I am for your help and the support of UniteWomen.org Action, who are also willing to spread the word about this and try to get people who need help this insurance coverage we owe them. Please contact your Congressional staffers, the more support we have, the greater chance we have. If you want more detail, the person willing to help is from my Rep's office, Mike Quigley (IL-5).
Many of you have expressed opposition. In response, I will borrow from the military which says we don't leave anyone on the battlefield. But, we've decided it's OK to unwittingly draft civilians into our violent war against ourselves. I say we strive to care for these fallen civilian combatants. We owe them a higher duty of care because we continue to allow dangerous people easy access to guns.
Or, if you don't like that comparison, I think one of the things that makes us exceptional is our willingness to step up and are for those affected by extreme natural phenomena. So, we have FEMA (however flawed) to help victims of natural disasters rebuild their lives. We shift that risk to the nation. I am pro-FEMA and want them rebuilt. I want better Sandy recovery. I want help for CO flood victims. I want us to respond to help our citizens in these times of crisis. This is a great thing that American government does and can do well. Private dollars cannot accomplish what our combined Federal wealth can achieve, no matter what your Libertarian friends tell you. This is a real common good and I think it needs to be expanded for health coverage for our man made national crises.
We need a response team for these national traumas, especially as we become numb to them and charitable contributions dry up. We all bear the risk of being gunned down now at school, at work, at a movie theater, at a mall, or as a spectator or participant in a sporting event. This is not a normal type of risk, so we need to provide special assistance to those victims.
If you sign, you really can help improve someone's life. Please, help me do so. Please sign.
http://petitions.moveon.org/...