This is the intro to the Facebook page for the Mad As Hell Doctors.
There is a time for compromise - this isn't one of them.
You CAN handle the Truth
There's no nice way to say it. The financial cost of health care is killing our citizens, hobbling our economy, crushing small business, and threatening the solvency of our government. In the meantime, the Health Care Industry is spending almost two million dollars a day lobbying Congress and manipulating public opinion to accept "reform" legislation that leaves a vicious, for-profit system intact. The "public option" is a trap. We need real reform that finds immediate savings, controls costs, and accomplishes the moral imperative of true Universal Access.
The story has been told before by jimstaro in his diary. A group of Oregonian doctors, hell bent on telling Congress that the single payer plan is the best plan for America, is taking a Winnebago cross country, holding town hall meetings as they go in places like Idaho Falls, Idaho, Fort Collins, Colorado, (see route here), gathering supporters along the way to form a care-a-van. They leave Oregon on September 8th and plan a rally in Washington, DC on the 1st of October.
This week, the doctors did a 'dry run' to a little town called Sequim, Washington. They met with over 600 townspeople and explained why they think single payer health care is the way to go for America. Here's what they reported about that encounter:
Well Sequim, WA is on the map in the Olympic Peninsula of western Washington state.
And Sequim just put the Mad As Hell Doctors on the map too.
Yesterday we had our only dress rehearsal and our first live performance of our Mad As Hell Doctors Town Halls in the small community of Sequim (pronounced "Squim"), WA.
When 600+ people showed up we were feeling overwhelmed.
When 600 people stood up during the dialogue from the movie "The Network", our jaws dropped.
Exceeding all expectations and giving us a great base to improve our format, Sequim really showed up in support.
There were no boos. There were no "teabaggers" or "brown shirts."
Well actually there were, but it quickly became evident to them that they were welcome and could participate in creating a solution that isn't a bailout of the insurance industry like Obamacare. About a dozen left halfway through. I guess we took the fun out of disagreeing, when you have doctors and facts on your side.
Check back on the website for video of the event in the coming days.
This is really happening.
And it is going to be phenomenal.
Over 20 stops in about just as many days. And if the rest of America is anything like Sequim, WA, we will surely create waves for Single Payer.
So take a moment to find Sequim on a map of Washington. And in a little over a month when we pull into DC with a trail of cars and supporters, you'll know where it all began. In the most unlikely place with a great community.
Thank you Sequim. You gave us the wings we need to fly and there is no stopping us now.
Please continue to help build this group by inviting your friends and family and posting it throughout your internet worlds.
And if you have anything $5, $20, $50, $100. Please donate to the tour. That's the only way we will make it.
You can now follow us on twitter @MadAsHellDocs. This is where the most up to date info on our travels will be.
We kick off officially in about two weeks.
Hope to see some of you on the road.
Until then...Get Mad. Stay Mad. Make History.
Mad As Hell,
Philip K.
I plan on meeting up with them in Washington on the 30th, then joining the rally on the 1st. Others are joining their care-a-van as it drives across country by driving their own vehicles...basically, it's gonna be a convoy! If you can't join them on their drive or in DC, check their route and see if you can find them in a city near you as 'the rubber gloves meet the road' and they take their message to the source...Congress and President Obama.