Afternoon News
From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
[Brian] Conton didn’t expect to become a public advocate in the health care debate.
All the Conyers physical therapist wanted to do was vent his frustration with the current system.
But after writing a letter that appeared in two newspapers, Conton was contacted by Organizing for America, which is trying to build grass-roots support for President Barack Obama’s policy initiatives. It asked whether he would share his views about health care with others.
He recently helped organize a meeting at a home near Emory that included doctors, nurses, activists and educators...
Alise Marshall, a regional field director with OFA, said that during the election “volunteers worked so hard not just to elect a president but to change their communities.”
Now those volunteers are holding community discussions at their homes, attending public events, knocking on doors, contacting lawmakers and calling registered voters.
Earlier this month, retiree Beverly Reese invited a relative and several friends to her Stockbridge home to make calls for Organizing for America.
Before they started calling, the volunteers reviewed the core principles Obama says any legislation should contain — affordability, availability and choice.
Reese said she worries about family members who don’t have adequate insurance or any insurance at all.
Sue Rusche is chief executive officer of the nonprofit National Families in Action. She recently hosted the event for Conton. During the presidential campaign, Rusche, who is not a member of OFA, led a team of Obama volunteers who registered about 2,000 new voters. Now she’s focused on health care.
“I think so many members of Congress need to hear from us so it’s not so one-sided in their minds,” she said. “People [like her] didn’t disappear.”
From the Honolulu Advertiser:
Local organizers for President Obama yesterday delivered 6,000 signatures to the state's congressional delegation from people who declared their support for the president's health care reform plan.
The signature gathering was part of a national effort by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee, to build momentum for health care reform and counter some of the conservative opposition that has surfaced at town hall meetings.
State Sen. Josh Green, D-3rd (Kohala, Kona, Ka'u), a Big Island doctor who favors the reform plan, accused opponents of spreading fear at town hall meetings, including one hosted on Tuesday night by Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou, who is running in the Republican primary for Congress in urban Honolulu's 1st Congressional District.
"As a doctor I see people every day, in the emergency department, and they have real fear," Green said. "Fear that is not this phony town hall fear that's been generated. They have fear that they can't get care for their kids. They have a child with asthma, and they don't know whether they can afford to go to the emergency department.
"That's fear."