Submitted by arlenegloria on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 01:26

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Tim Carpenter's statement below is: "One of the most serious calls to action I've ever heard from national PDA," says Bill Bianchi, PDA-Chicago chair, and state co-chair. PDA is a little over four years old, and PDA-Chicago approaches its third birthday this month.  

From Tim Carpenter, PDA National Director  

We all know our country’s healthcare system is broken and that Americans deserve much better. PDA was founded on the principle that healthcare is a right, and single-payer healthcare is one facet in the glittering jewel of justice, peace, and equality that our country could and should be.

Insurance companies are spending millions of dollars so they can maintain their profitable control over healthcare. Our elected officials from both parties put insurance industry profits ahead of the true will of the majority of Americans, buoyed by corporate media and engineered right-wing protests. We must turn this tide. Watch Donna Smith from the California Nurses Association on CBS, and listen to Peter B. Collins’ interviews with congressional candidate Marcy Winograd and CalNurses’ Michael Lighty on healthcare.

note: If the Donna Smith embedded link does not work for you, cut and paste this link to your browser to see Donna, who was active with PDAChicago before moving on to her new job in DC: 
Watch CBS News Videos Online

It's time to take the fight to the real villain in the healthcare debate. More than 120 people a day die because they cannot afford to get the medical care they need. Meanwhile, insurance companies make billions in profits while millions of Americans have no health insurance.

Over 1,000 Americans are putting our bodies on the line on October 15 with nonviolent civil disobedience to challenge the real death panels—insurance companies. We will enter the offices of the major insurance companies and demand that they cease denying care to their members. We won't leave until they do—or we're arrested. Sign up to join us in the Mobilization for Health Care for All.

It only takes a small group of people to do a sit-in in your community, but our actions can inspire every American who has been abused by the insurance companies to stand up and fight. We all know someone who has been denied care or suffered financial loss from the status quo. Urge them to join the Mobilization with you.

Already, over 500 people just like you, have signed up to be one of the 1,000 ordinary but courageous people risking arrest. The time is now: We must do whatever it takes to cast off corporate control over our health—and our country.

Sign up to sit in with the Mobilization for Health Care for All.