More DNC: SEIU, Healthcare, Public Enemy & Death Cab for Cutie
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DENVER - What does folksy radio talk-show host Jim Hightower of Texas have to do with fiery Chuck D. of the activist rap group Public Enemy?
Plenty, if the issue is affordable healthcare for the masses.
Both the rapper and the country homilist spoke passionately at a huge rally in Denver held with hundreds of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers from across the nation who traveled to the city for the Democratic National Convention. And Public Enemy later performed, as did Death Cab for Cutie (more on that later).
About 30 healthcare workers from New Mexico made the trip north in vans and private cars, leaving Albuquerque at 4 a.m. to make it to the 3 p.m. rally at Denver's Sunken Gardens Park across from Denver Health medical center.
Albuquerque physician Elizabeth Burpee, a resident in Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico Hospital, was a featured speaker at the rally. Burpee, a member of the healthcare reform group Healthcare United, spoke about the need for healthcare workers to fight for healthcare reform on a national level. The group of healthcare workers formed in February as a project of the Service Employees International Union.
"We have to do this," said Burpee. "We have no choice. If we don't we'll face the collapse of the healthcare system in this country."
After the rally, Burpee talked about her reasons for getting involved.
"I wanted to show that doctors are interested and involved in helping create legislation for healthcare reform. We need to be there, at the table, when the legislation is being drafted…in the next Congress, we hope."
Pat Bartels, a physical therapist at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Albuquerque, also made the trip to Denver to show her concern about improving the health care she provides to her patients.
She said she's been involved in consumer healthcare reform since the early 1990's with the local reform group Health Action New Mexico. But little has been accomplished nationally, she said.
"We've made no progress since 1992, when the Clintons tried to reform healthcare. We've relied on managed care to control costs. I think we can all agree that's been a failure."
Like many healthcare workers fighting for reform, Bartels said she is outraged to see patients dying from preventable or treatable conditions. And she said she's seen patients lose everything they have to pay for healthcare.
"People are going bankrupt because of health crises," she said. "That's unheard of in all other developed countries."
Bartels said Healthcare United is working to register healthcare workers to vote and to educate them and the public at large about how the presidential candidates stand on key health issues.
"We're just trying to get the word out on what their positions are, so they can make up their own minds," she said.
Before the short speaking program, Chuck D. and Professor Griff of Public Enemy joined with members of Death Cab for Cutie in converting Public Enemy anthems of the 1980's such as "Fight the Power" and "Don't Believe the Hype" into SEIU anthems. (No, Flava Flav was not there and they did not perform "9-1-1 is a Joke.) The group closed out their impromptu concert with a noisy, full-out performance of the controversial, slightly profane, anti-George W. Bush anthem "Son of a Bush."
No one complained.
Plenty, if the issue is affordable healthcare for the masses.
Both the rapper and the country homilist spoke passionately at a huge rally in Denver held with hundreds of doctors, nurses and healthcare workers from across the nation who traveled to the city for the Democratic National Convention. And Public Enemy later performed, as did Death Cab for Cutie (more on that later).
About 30 healthcare workers from New Mexico made the trip north in vans and private cars, leaving Albuquerque at 4 a.m. to make it to the 3 p.m. rally at Denver's Sunken Gardens Park across from Denver Health medical center.
Albuquerque physician Elizabeth Burpee, a resident in Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico Hospital, was a featured speaker at the rally. Burpee, a member of the healthcare reform group Healthcare United, spoke about the need for healthcare workers to fight for healthcare reform on a national level. The group of healthcare workers formed in February as a project of the Service Employees International Union.
"We have to do this," said Burpee. "We have no choice. If we don't we'll face the collapse of the healthcare system in this country."
After the rally, Burpee talked about her reasons for getting involved.
"I wanted to show that doctors are interested and involved in helping create legislation for healthcare reform. We need to be there, at the table, when the legislation is being drafted…in the next Congress, we hope."
Pat Bartels, a physical therapist at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Albuquerque, also made the trip to Denver to show her concern about improving the health care she provides to her patients.
She said she's been involved in consumer healthcare reform since the early 1990's with the local reform group Health Action New Mexico. But little has been accomplished nationally, she said.
"We've made no progress since 1992, when the Clintons tried to reform healthcare. We've relied on managed care to control costs. I think we can all agree that's been a failure."
Like many healthcare workers fighting for reform, Bartels said she is outraged to see patients dying from preventable or treatable conditions. And she said she's seen patients lose everything they have to pay for healthcare.
"People are going bankrupt because of health crises," she said. "That's unheard of in all other developed countries."
Bartels said Healthcare United is working to register healthcare workers to vote and to educate them and the public at large about how the presidential candidates stand on key health issues.
"We're just trying to get the word out on what their positions are, so they can make up their own minds," she said.
Before the short speaking program, Chuck D. and Professor Griff of Public Enemy joined with members of Death Cab for Cutie in converting Public Enemy anthems of the 1980's such as "Fight the Power" and "Don't Believe the Hype" into SEIU anthems. (No, Flava Flav was not there and they did not perform "9-1-1 is a Joke.) The group closed out their impromptu concert with a noisy, full-out performance of the controversial, slightly profane, anti-George W. Bush anthem "Son of a Bush."
No one complained.
