Trick or Treatment, Oct 30, Meet the Democrats

On Tuesday, Oct. 30, the Democratic presidential candidate forum at Drexel University. Why are the leading candidates not supporting single payer, national health insurance? Because there aren't enough demands. Let's start asking for what we want! Join ACT UP, Spiral Q and us for a demonstration on "Trick or Treatment". 34th and Chestnut Streets, meet around 7 - 7:30 PM.

For more information about the Oct 30 event, read more below.

This Halloween, join ACT UP and activists from across the country to Philadelphia for a rally and march against AIDS and for universal healthcare. We will be gathering at the debate of Democratic presidential candidates. (Location TBD, somewhere in Philadelphia) Demand the candidates commit to ending AIDS and keep United States' pledges to achieve universal access to comprehensive treatment and prevention, in the U.S. and around the world. Our demands:
$50 billion over 5 years to fight global AIDS
REAL universal, free health care in the United States
Evidence-based prevention policies
Sponsored by: ACT UP Philadelphia, ACT UP New York, African Services Committee, American Medical Student Association, Campaign to End AIDS - Youth Caucus, Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project, Health GAP, Housing Works, and the Student Global AIDS Campaign. For more info, to endorse the march, or help plan the action, contact kaytee@healthgap.org or 267 334 6984.

National mobilization for Healthcare not Warfare

National mobilization for Healthcare not Warfare. There will be a march from the VA Hospital (39th and Woodland) to Independence Hall on Sat., October 27. Each group will be asked to fill a block on the parade route. Our health care group has chosen 19th and Market, Independence Blue Cross as a gathering place. There is a wide sidewalk in front or across the street from the building. SO, we can take the 19th & Market block for Philadelphia Area Committee To Defend Health Care. Please plan to participate on Saturday, October 27th, 12:30 to 1:00pm. After that we wait for the March from the VA hospital to reach us and join behind them (or take the bus) to Independance Square for a Rally Celebration(if so inclined.) More updates will come.

Make a movie, support single payer

OK, this is a chance to support national health insurance and put our money where our mouths are. We should send it out widely. I think Mark Webber's mom is Cheri Honkala, KWRU. There is a little blurb on Explicit Ills here. and the Inky below.

Inqlings | Indie role for Rosario Dawson

By Michael Klein
Inquirer Columnist

Rosario Dawson should be in town soon to join the cast of explicit ills., an independent film exploring the effects of drugs and poverty and the choices that people make.
A month of filming starts this week in North Philly under the eye of actor/first-time director Mark Webber (Broken Flowers), who in April won the Philadelphia Film Festival's Rising Star Award; his mother, Cheri Honkala, is an activist with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union.
Dawson, who grew up poor herself in New York, plays a woman with an asthmatic son and no insurance.
Sound like a downer? "It's uplifting," says Mike Lemon, who is handling the casting.
Also cast are Paul Franklin Dano (Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine); Naomie Harris (the voodoo princess in Pirates of the Caribbean); Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker); and Tariq Trotter (a.k.a. Black Thought of The Roots).

Walter
--------------------------

Dear Healthcare Organizers: We have an extraordinary opportunity to make a great impact in Philadelphia this coming Sunday, October 7th. A Hollywood film crew is going to be filming “Explicit Ills,” a new film about a child who is sick, cannot get healthcare coverage and dies. The stars are big, and the media is going to be there. Mark Weber who is a young star in several new films wrote the script.

Mark is asking that we be at Constitution Center at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday to be a part of a demonstration there for H.R. 676, national guaranteed healthcare for all carrying banners, signs, getting petition signatures – and all those things we do.

Mark’s mom will be leading a year-long effort in Minneapolis to create the atmosphere at the Republican Convention that makes clear that we must have a national healthcare system run by us, the people, not the corporate healthcare industrial complex. We’ll be able to use his film for openings and fund-raisers everywhere with all of our people featured in the campaign to get healthcare for everybody.

Please be there if you can. I cannot be there because of a family obligation, but I’ll be there in spirit. We need to do this, folks.

Marilyn Clement,
National Coordinator
Healthcare-NOW
www.healthcare-now.org

Forum on Single Payer Delco

Green Solutions presents a Forum on
Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance for PA

Which do you prefer?

The way it
is now?

Or the way it
could be?

Join us Saturday, September 29th, 6-8:30 PM, at the Peace Center of Delaware
County (1001 Old Sproul Rd in Springfield, behind Sproul Lanes Bowling Alley) to learn:
-What is Universal Single-Payer Health Insurance & what would it mean for me?
-What is in the PA Family & Business Health Security Act (SB 300 / HB 1660) & how
does it compare with Rendell’s Prescription for PA?
-What is in the US National Health Insurance Act (HR 676)?

Featured Speakers:
Walter Tsou, MD, a physician specializing in public health who has worked persistently to obtain
adequate health benefits for everyone. Recently he has presented his popular power point
program on universal, single-payer health care to Congress.
Chuck Pennachio, a history professor at The University of the Arts. He has been traveling
around Pennsylvania in a tireless effort to promote health care legislation in Pennsylvania. He ran
against Senator Casey in the Democratic ‘07 primary.

Following the presentation will be a question and answer session. Refreshments will be served. More
information can be obtained at www.DelCoGreens.org or by calling 610-543-8427.
Co-sponsored by the Green Party of Delaware County & Citizen Access

Public Forum on Health Care Reform

While the following is directly oriented toward Bucks County residents, it would be quite applicable and relevant to all:

Public Forum on Health Care Reform
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Bucks County Community College
Library Auditorium
275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA
9:30am to 12:30pm.

Free and open to the public.

The purpose of the forum is (1) to establish basic principles that Bucks County residents want to see incorporated in any health care reform developed at the state or national level, (2) and to inaugurate a network of Bucks County residents ready to respond and work for those principles.

Dr. Walter Tsou, past President of the American Public Health Association and Former Philadelphia Commissioner of Public Health, will speak about the problems with our current health care system. Congressman Patrick Murphy and State Representative David Steil will talk about the process of how legislation becomes law, and how citizens can be effective in their advocacy.

The participants of the forum will decide what basic principles need to be included in any current or future health care reform legislation.

Sponsored by Bucks County League of Women Voters and many others.

The upcoming edition of democratic Left will feature more information and background on the event.

For information, contact Dr. Henry D'Silva at 215-860-7442 or Greater Philadelphia DSA at PhilaDSA@gmail.com. For directions, visit www.bucks.edu.

Spread the word!