This is the first diary of what will be the saga of two wonderful, loving. committed activists who have been walking New York state since June 10 to raise awareness about the need for universal health care. More beyond the flip.
Rebecca Elgie, a retired school teacher, and Bernie Fetterly, a retired construction foreman and man of many talents, have been tireless and passionate advocates for the rights of all Americans to have health care coverage. They are both walking encyclopedias of knowledge of the health care crisis in this country, and decided to take their walking encyclopedia for a walk -- across New York state. In each town they come to, they have rallies and meet with people. They talk to people along the way.
In Ithaca this past week, they had a rally on Ithaca Commons, with speakers, music and even a swing dance demonstration by Bernie and Rebecca themselves.
Rebecca will be sending me updates from the road. Read these posts to be inspired by teh work of these two people, to enjoy the road trip through Rebecca's words, and perhaps to inspire yourself to take up a march yourself.
I am glad to know these two fine people. Here is Rebecca's beautiful post on the trip out of Ithaca this week:
We headed out of Ithaca under clear, cool skies with Rebecca, Bernie , Jack and Marion but no cart ( it went on ahead by truck thanks to George). We made a quick stop at Enfield school to see friends there and get a cold drink and then continued on at our 3 mile an hour pace toward Mechlenburg. View were outstanding as we went up and down the rolling hills and suddenly a gray car drove up and Cris got out with his video camera and started taping our progress. Soon after Lori drove up with a coffee break snack for us (we had discussed this possibility at the hop the night before but I didn't really think it would happen) we ended up sitting by the side of the road with a gorgeous view and goats behinds us and had coffee in ceramic mugs, bread and orange juice - a very welcome treat at about 10:30 after a 10 miles hike! Lori recommended a short detour ahead and we were soon on our way again - up and down hills - by this time Jack had turned back to attend his granddaughters party at Enfield and we were back to 3 travellers. The temperature rose and became pretty warm by the time we neared Finger Lake Forest area and we were looking forward to arriving in Burdett and a lunch break. We had 2 more angels along our route bringing bananas and encouragement so all in all we felt very supported. Lunch on the back porch of the Grist Mill near a running stream was most enjoyable and we started the long decent in Watkins Glen. We were very happy to arrive at our motel destination (a treat due to contribution of many Ithaca wellwishers - thank you so much - ) our first stop was the pool to ease our aching muscles. We spent a quiet evening and were up and ready for the rally at the park. It was a small gathering but we were very happy to be joined by local speakers Lisa Milspaugh from the Public Health Dept. speaking about the need for preventive care and Bob Dunphy from the Office for Aging who spoke about the history of the health care movement and some statistics about how many people are being hurt by our present system and the needs of the elderly. Mary Wilson spoke about the needs of children and families for health care and that we need to lobby for an adjustment in the guidelines for qualifying for these programs. This provided a nice complement to what we had to add and the legislation we are promoting. We relaxed by the lake over a picnic after an invigorating trip to the whole food store which seems to be the hub of activist activity in Watkins Glen. Cris videotaped both the rally and trip to the food store so we will be able to put together a nice tape for future viewing. Plans are made for walk to Elmira tomorrow ...