Nurses Demand New Agenda To Heal Nation

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Thousands of nurses and health care reform activists from across America brought their fight for a healthier nation to Washington yesterday, holding demonstrations outside the White House, the US Chamber of Commerce and the US Capitol to make sure their message is heard loud and clear. “Hey Chamber you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side,” yelled the activists as they circled outside the Chamber briefly before heading to the Hill at noon, where they rallied in Upper Senate park for over an hour chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Wall Street greed has got to go!” and “This is what democracy looks like!” The nurses are linking enduring economic hardship to broad declines in health and living standards for working families and called for a re-charting of national priorities with a Main Street Contract for the American People. They cited low wages, unemployment, hunger, substandard housing and declining access to education and health care as the source of serious harm to communities across the nation. “What is going on here now is totally obscene,” said Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). “It is a national disgrace that the United States of America is the only country in the industrialized world which does not guarantee health care to all people as a right.” Sanders added, “The American middle class is collapsing, poverty is increasing, the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, yet Republicans say to cut programs for working families and give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to the top two percent. That is insane. Health care must be a right of all people.” Registered Nurses and National Nurses United Co-President Deborah Burger said that people are “working harder than ever, two or even three jobs to make ends meet,” adding that it is often tied to a problem in the household or extended family, such as sickness or unemployment. “Men in their 50s, engineers who were laid off and living in my community, have given up looking for work. There is nothing out there.” The Main Street Contract for the American People calls for good jobs at living wages; guaranteed health care for all; equal access to quality education; good housing; protection from hunger; a secure retirement for everyone; a clean and safe environment; and a fair and just tax system in which “Wall Street and those with the most wealth pay their fair share.” – report/photos by Adam Wright