The College Dems gathered last night to kick off the first evening of Health Care Week of Action with a screening of Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko. A big thanks to everyone who made it out! I hope you were all able to take as much away from it as I did.
Having never seen a Michael Moore creation, I had no idea what to expect. And though I was told that Sicko was well done, I couldn’t help but still come in alert and guarded. What I ended up seeing was the most compelling and emotional case for health care reform that I have yet witnessed. Even while searching for the possibility of bias in Moore’s portrayal, the fact that the stories from the film exist at all is a bitter stain on the record of our great nation. It is shameful and downright wrong that a nation that is capable of dropping around $1 trillion into defense/military spending annually is unable to provide basic health care to its citizens, especially when we seem to be the last developed nation to find a way to do it. If you didn’t get a chance to join us last night, I strongly recommend checking out the film and then sharing it with your family and friends. Unless they have been personally affected by an HMO atrocity, many Americans (myself included) may not fully grasp how much reform our system needs and how successful other nations have been in implementing universal coverage.
Sicko set the tone for our Week of Action by so eloquently affirming the reasons why we planned this all in the first place. There are many significant events still upcoming: tabling on Library Mall today through Thursday, the letter writing campaign happening tonight in the SAC, and the highlight of the week – a panel of experts from a variety of professions related to the health care debate that will speak directly to us about the issues on Thursday. Please attempt to find some time in your schedule to join in these worthwhile events. This very well may end up being the most important issue that we tackle all year, and we could really use everyone’s support.
