April General Membership Meeting Recap

Well April has been and gone, we had a very successful April General Membership Meeting, we heard from 3 speakers on Healthcare Reform passed 5 resolutions and welcomed members from Nickelsville to the 37^th LD.

The first speaker of the night was Rachel Berkson, Executive Director Service Employees International Union Washington State Council, who reminded us that a good portion of the SEIU membership include nurses, mental healthcare and adult day healthcare workers and that these workers deserved reform that included access to training in order to provide higher quality healthcare.  Rachel also stressed the importance of being an active voice in advocating for Healthcare Reform.  Following Rachel was our on Dr. Don Mitchell, Co-Chair Western Washington Chapter Physicians for a National Healthcare Program and 37^th LD PCO, who illustrated for us the benefits and advantages of a single payer system over the current defective private healthcare system. 

Then we heard from the star of the night, Congressman Jim McDermott, who briefly explained the Obama Administration’s plan on Healthcare reform.  The administration does not want to end the private system but wants to offer a public system that is as good as or better than what the private system is offering at a lower cost so that people can choose between private and public. The principle being that most people will pick the public system as it is better and cheaper thereby making the current broken private system obsolete.  The one point that all three speakers continually drove home was that no healthcare reform will happen if we the people do not demand it.  We need to be on the streets, in the news and on the web constantly demanding meaningful reform, and in such numbers that the modern version of “Harry and Louise” does not win the debate.

During the business portion of the meeting we adopted 5 new resolutions on, The Employee Free Choice Act, A Revenue Solution to the State Budget Deficit, Restoration of Voting Rights, Supporting SB 6035 and on Supporting Universal Access to Quality Healthcare.  All five resolutions were passed unanimously.  A resolution on Bank Bailouts was introduced by Dick Burkhart and was referred to the Executive Board for recommendation.

Finally, during Good of the Order we heard from a representative of Nickelsville, one of the tent cities providing some shelter for the homeless in our city.  They talked about their needs both immediate and long term.  Mostly they are in need of a permanent space so they do not have to be moving every 90 days, which is a real barrier to providing extensive services for their residents.  They are actively looking for a donation of land on which they could create a more permanent encampment.  Of course they are also in need of more immediate items including bus tickets, clothing, and much more.

The meeting was well attended with about 60-70 people; it was called to order at 7:30pm and adjourned at 9:15pm.