Activism 101

I recently attended one of Democracy for America's Campaign Academies. My favorite part of the weekend came during a break-out session on volunteer motivation. DFA taught me a formula that I've found very effective in my everyday life. I have followed this formula with great success when asking things from people. For example for a donation, to show up and canvass, to do a favor. It can be remembered as the 5 Cs.

*Connection- First, it's important to develop the most connection possible. Don't just approach people with your hand held out. Example: "Hey Ed, you know, it's always been a pleasure working with you in this office. That project we worked was a great success. People came up to me and complemented it."

*Context- Second, explain to the person why your cause is so important. Example: "So lately, I've been volunteering with a local group driven to get meaningful healthcare reform enacted. It's incredible how many Americans go everyday without health insurance. Through our work, we help these people."

*Commitment- Ask the person for their help, and remember that a hard ask gets a hard answer. Example: "Can you come next Sunday at 12pm to Walker's to canvass with us?"

*Catapult- Hopefully, the person will say yes and then you must catapult them into their commitment. Example: "All right! That's great Ed! Your help is crucial to help this organization grow."

*Confirm- Confirm what the person has agreed to do. Example: "Ok, great, so I'll see next Sunday at 12 pm at Walker's?"

Healthcare Reform in Athens

It is clear this community needs meaningful healthcare reform legislation passed into law as soon as possible. Thousands of people in our community live on the precipice of disaster without health insurance. Thousands more are sick and tired of dealing with the malfeasance of a corporate-dominated insurance industry which rewards its employees for denying its customer's care or what it calls, "controlling utilization." This sick industry pays its CEOs hundreds of millions of dollars a year to trade in the commodity of a person's well-being. Frankly, this practice could be called "murder by spreadsheet."

The other day I spoke with an employee of the University of Georgia, Kris Kringler, who doctors recently diagnosed with leukemia. Jobs in Georgia's public sector were the final place where workers could enjoy meaningful benefits that helped foster the growth of strong families. This is no longer the case. Spiraling costs along with other factors, have brought the corporate-dominated healthcare system to its knees. The U.S. pays at least twice as much per capita more for healthcare than all other leading industrialized nations. We pay double but stand at a dismal 29th in global infant mortality and 42nd in life expectancy. It is clear we do not have the best healthcare system in the world. We need reform. Kris Kringler at UGA needs our help. His insurance provider said they will cover parts of the bone-marrow transplant procedure he needs to survive but will cover none of the cost to find a suitable donor. Frankly, this is a death sentence for this 35 year old man who's wife just gave birth to their first child, a son. Kris looked me somberly in the eye when I told him the local Organizing for America chapter collects people's stories of their struggles with the current health care system. He said, "I'll go bankrupt trying to live to see my child grow up." If this is not a case of rationed care, then what is?

Another friend of mine, Sean Kane who is a third-year law student at UGA, has a similar story. Sean first got insurance for his small family in his first year of law school, 2 years ago, and paid a monthly premium of $350 dollars. His premium has steadily risen and he now pays $650 dollars a month, almost as much as his mortgage. His small child can only make 3 doctor visits a year, and Sean must pay a $3500 dollar deductible for any procedure. These two stories are a mere glimpse of the struggles faced each day by people in our community. People in our community go without coverage, people in our community go bankrupt to cover the cost of healthcare, people in our community lack the choice to enroll in something better.

A robust public option, or what I term Kennedy Care, will offer people the choice to enroll in a government-administered insurance program. This program will decrease costs. For example, Medicare operates at a 4% margin while the average corporate health insurance company operates at a sky-high 30% margin. Second, Kennedy Care will increase coverage to the uninsured by offering insurance to people denied access by corporate companies due to pre-existing conditions. Third, Kennedy Care will increase choice in the free market and help keep corporate companies honest. With more choices, corporate companies will suffer when they deny someone care or jerk them around with endless excuses for not reimbursing. They will lose that person's business, plain and simple. Ultimately, Kennedy Care will give Americans a much-needed safety net when corporate companies mistreat them or threaten their lives by dropping their coverage.

Our representative in the U.S. House of Representatives, Paul Broun, answers the call for reform with ideas that do nothing to advance discussion. He screeches about death panels while slamming down notebooks like a spoiled child. He is the ranking-member of the House Homeland Security Committee, yet he actively spreads misinformation meant to instill fear in our seniors and incite violence toward reformers. Broun's own plan for reform is a mere one page filled with far-right talking points, regurgitated from the fight to privatize Social Security. A fight that if successful, would have spelled doom for our elderly population in the current economic climate. It is clear Paul Broun lacks both the experience and the imagination to grasp what people in our community suffer through under a corporate-dominated healthcare system. It is time we took a stand against Broun's extremist agenda. It is time we found our voice. It is time we enact meaningful healthcare reform for our community!

More from Paul Broun

Words can't begin to describe...

Back in America

My return from Italy feels bittersweet. I did significant work before I left on a townhall sponsored by Athens' local chapter of Organizing for America, Obama's campaign arm now morphed into an activist group. I heard the event went swimmingly, but I have a slight feeling of regret that I did not do more. Now in America, outright lies are working to derail any meaningful reform of our cockamamie scheme of healthcare where profit drives the insurance industry to deny care by whatever means. The idiotic Palin claims Obama is out to kill her baby. The idiotic Rush compares the Democratic Party to Nazis. Ultimately, a public option would give Americans the choice to enroll in a government-administered program if they are unable to get insurance or if their current policy dissatisfies them.

FDR famously said, "judge me by my enemies." In this case, the same can be said for this policy proposal. The health insurance lobby spends 1.4 million dollars a day to kill this proposal because they know it threatens the shell game they've operated for decades.

Good Job Tina Fey

Paul Broun, my representative in Congress

Sweet summertime

It's hot in Georgia. Now it's good to get out and see other parts of the world. Thus, I begin my travels to Birmingham, Rome, Florence, Milan, Sardinia, Burlington, Boston, Pittsburgh, then back to school. Yes, I'm a spoiled white suburbanite and can't remember not getting something I really needed. I love to travel because it expands my perspective beyond daily life in Georgia. I love to engage foreign cultures and come to learn those things they offer which are superior. The siesta at midday in summer Spain- something I still observe more often than not. The passionate dance of Argentina. The protest songs of Chile. The pura vida of Costa Rica. The playful Chinese. All of these experiences with people around the world shed light for me on those universal aspects of humanity: love, hate, good and evil. I would be naive to believe America was the best country in the world. By what measure?

I do my best to give back to the community that gave me so much. Georgia needs changes. The group of our leaders that believe Obama is "uppity," the "FairTax is genius, and health care choices should be limited simply must be replaced. It is time in Georgia for an activist resurgence. It needs all the young great minds possible.