One Nation Volusia Older Postings and Monthly News Report
- where we went, what we did, who we met, what we accomplished
Senator
Bill Nelson has not committed to support the Health Care Reform Act.
Please contact him as often as you can to let him know your feelings.
Contact him every day if possible!
email phone/snail mail
Puzzled by Healthcare Reform Bills? Be informed!
Read the proposed bills and follow the markups and proposed amendments:
http://www.opencongress.org
The President has spoken and he spoke for us. Now we act.
Are you ready? You will be hearing from ONV as this is the time to go
to work to get the sorely needed healthcare for all Americans put into
law. Get out your signs and clipboards. We pack mental.
ONV
was delighted to welcome those that visited our booth at the Volusians
for Healthcare event on Labor Day at DeLand City Hall Park. This was a
wonderful networking opportunity and there was a strong feeling of
solidarity. Great music, sign waving, speakers, plenty of fact-based
info, good food provided by Penacho's. Thank you, Hilliary, for
organizing this event.
Thank
you to everyone who attended our recent showing of Bill Moyers'
interview of former Cigna PR man Wendell Potter. The rain kept us from
the planned rally. We did have a good discussion and storytelling.
Petitions were signed and we received a bundle of signed petitions from
university students (a huge thank you!). And thank you to those who
joined our committee for sign waving action.
"And this is the cause of my
life -- new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every
American -- north, south, east, west, young, old -- will have decent, quality
health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege."
- Senator Edward Kennedy
2008 Democratic National Convention Speech
In
honor of Senator Kennedy,One Nation Volusia will pick up our activist
tools and continue to help to build the dream of health care for all
Americans.
NEW! Watch the eye-opening Bill Moyers interview of former Cigna PR man Wendell Potter: click
HERE.
One Nation Volusia is having a Healthcare Petition Drive. Click HERE
to view the petition. Please print the page or cut and past it into a
document for printing. Sign the petition (you can have others sign on
the back side or print extra copies for them. Try to get as many
signatures as you can from friends, relatives, co-workers, etc. ONV
will be hand delivering these petitions to our elected officials.
Email us HERE and we will contact you for pick up arrangements. We are fighting against a very vocal opposition to healthcare reform. Our actions will speak loudly! Thanks for all you do.
Visit our Health Care page
for links and information to help you to understand the issues and how
to take action in this critical time for reform of our health care
system and provision of health care for all Americans! Take action today.
ONV
held an amazingly successful event August 12 at the DeLand Area Public
Library. We filled the room and, unfortunately, had to turn people
away due to capacity limits. Dr. Gary Maris (Stetson University
political science professor for 30 years) presented a down to earth and
highly informative lecture to a crowd of 103. We also were fortunate
enough to hear a short presentation from Nancy Rudner Lugo, a nurse
practitioner and new best friend to ONV. A heartfelt thank you to
everyone involved in making this event a great success. You know who
you are! Also, thank you to all who came out in support of One Nation
Volusia and healthcare reform and coverage for all Americans.
Yes we will BE INFORMED, BE EFFECTIVE, TAKE ACTION.
Important call to action! - The
opposition for healthcare reform in this country is active and fierce.
We need to gear up and be active, each one of us! We need to be
writing to and calling our Representatives and Senators and letting
them know that we support the Administration's Healthcare Plan with a
Public Option. We have this chance, in this time, to make a difference
in the lives of millions of US citizens. Speak up! Speak up weekly,
or daily, as often as you can. Spread the word to all you know. You
know we can do this, and we will!
July report-
For being on hiatus(so we thought), One Nation Volusia was quite busy in July. We took four actions in one week - 1.) On July
3rd we waved signs in downtown DeLand in support of healthcare reform
with a public option. Our "Honk for Healthcare Reform" sign garnered
about an 80% honk result. 2.) On July 4th we attended the Patriot Tea Party at City Hall Park as observers and to hand out fact based
information on healthcare reform. We felt it important to attend as a
counterpoint to certain views promoted by the Tea Partiers. 3.) On
July 8th we sponsored a small forum on the issue of fair districting in
Florida. Attendees were those with high interest and information to
share. 4.)
On July 9th we hosted a rally in conjunction with MoveOn.org in
downtown Orlando in support of healthcare reform with a public option.
We visited Senator Bill Nelson's office where we were warmly received
and had a good exchange with the Senator's aide. We also visited
Senator Mel Martinez's office where we delivered a petition signed by
5,000 to 6,000 Florida voters in support of the Administration's
healthcare plan!!! We
had
another good exchange with this Senator's aide that included
attendees sharing their stories about their healthcare experiences. We
rallied in front of Senator Martinez's office with sign waving and the
telling of stories on our soapbox (yes, we now have the Official ONV
Soapbox). 5.) Your
facilitators went on a retreat July 18-19. We enjoyed an idyllic
location, fabulous food, and actually accomplished a few things in
planning and strategy sessions. Our team efforts will be evident in
our community for a long time to come!
ONV was very busy in May. Facilitators Christe' Ashley, Mary Lee Adler, Susan Hensley, and Susan DuPree attended an appreciation event for former State Representative Joyce Cusack at the Plaza Hotel in Daytona Beach on May 2nd. The event was organized by Audrey Lee (member of ONV) and friends. It was an opportunity to meet many state and local officials while celebrating the success of our hometown heroine. Yes, we danced! A lot!
At the regular monthly meeting on May 13th, One Nation presented "Building Our Green Economy," featuring sustainability expert Larry Arrington, and ONV's own Lisa Hamilton, a specialist in community development. They discussed the potential of the Stimulus Package to create opportunities for greening our lives and our community - and creating jobs inthe process. A lively discussion followed. Several people expressed interest in further discussion of the topic.
One of the issues One Nation Volulsia supports is voter education and empowerment. ONV was invited to attend the Florida Fair Elections Coalition (ffec.org) annual statewide conference in DeLand on May 16th. Susan Hensley, Mary Lee Adler and Susan DuPree attended the day-long meetings, hearing from national experts about the need for vigilance and changes in law to ensure transparent, fair elections. The most immediate action needed is to sign and collect signatures for the petition for the 2010 ballot initiatiave to eliminate gerrymandering (redistricting for political purposes). ONV has petitions or they can be printed from fairdistrictsflorida.org.
The Florida Organizing for America team contacted One Nation Volusia as part of the administration's Listening Tour. ONV, in conjunction with the Stetson University Political Science Department, hosted a meeting on May 19th at Stetson to get community feedback on priorities and actions, to have a discussion about what Organizing for America would look like at the local level, and to discuss how and if ONV could benefit from working with them.
As "Super Volunteers", One Nation Volusia facilitators Christe' Ashley and Mary Lee Adler participated in a live conference call with President Barack Obama and David Plouffe on May 28th. The President spoke from Air Force One as he flew from California to DC, answering some pre-submitted questions on health care and encouraging community groups to host or attend an event on June 6th to kickoff the national discussion on healthcare. President Obama said that this is our opportunity for change...it is not acceptable to maintain the status quo. People want action...health care reform can happen if citizens mobilize and get involved. ONV plans to attend two local events on June 6th concerning health care reform and is cosponsoring, with the Stetson University Political Science Department, a major health care event on June 10th (see home page for more information).
On May 30th, One Nation Volusia participated in DeLand's First Annual Green Fair. ONV had a colorful booth with information on "green" topics, "Got Green?" buttons, and a participatory Community Art Project utilizing recycled objects. "Earth Goddess", Ashley Bull, attracted visitors to our booth with her lively bellydancing. Many of the materials for the art project, including the door which forms its base, were donated by Mark Shuttleworth, owner of Florida Victorian Architectural Antiques. Other items were "found" objects from junk drawers, garage collections and Wyatt's room. Mary Lee Adler, Lisa Hamilton, Susan Hensley, Christe' Ashley, Enid and Sienna Turner, with help from husbands and friends, built and manned the booth. The Community Art Project will be on display for the month of June at the DeLand City Hall. Stop by and see this amazing piece of art created by the children of our community.
You+Me+Trash+Treasures=Community Art Project
The Door:
