MEDIA ADVISORY: Tribute to Kennedy, People Suffering Under Health Care System

MEDIA ADVISORY / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Henrik ERSLEV, 301-792-0401 / STAN BOYD, 301-437-3936
Event Begins at Georgia Ave & Spring St at 7:30 pm, September 2^nd, 2009
 
Montgomery County Residents Hold Vigil as Tribute to Kennedy
and for People Suffering Under Current Health Care System

Event Demonstrates Dire Need for Public Health Option , Will Include a Memorial to Senator Edward Kennedy

WHAT:          Vigil to support a Public Health Insurance Option and Pay Tribute to Sen. Edward Kennedy
WHO:            Over 100 Montgomery County Residents
WHERE:       Woodside Park, Georgia Ave. & Spring St., Silver Spring, MD 20910
WHEN:          7:30 pm, September 2nd, 2009

As Congress wraps up its August recess, on Wednesday, September 2^nd Montgomery County residents will hold a vigil at Woodside Park, Georgia Ave and Spring St, to honor Senator Ted Kennedy and those who are suffering under the current health care system and show that Maryland cannot afford to wait for health care reform with a real public health insurance option.
 
The vigils are organized by members of MoveOn.org Political Action, along with the Center for Community Change, Democracy for America, Doctors for America, Health Care for American Now, and TrueMajority. Health care reform with a strong public health insurance option will help lower skyrocketing health care costs and expand coverage to millions of Americans. Nearly 300 vigils will be held nationwide on the same day. The vigils will include a memorial to Senator Edward Kennedy, who viewed fighting for universal health care as the "cause of his life."
 
After listening to moving words by Senator Kennedy, local residents will share their personal stories of the failure of our current health care system. Vigil participants will light candles and listen as names and brief stories are read of Americans who are suffering under the current health care system. This will be done to highlight the desperate need for a REAL public health insurance option: Ready right away, part of a plan to cover Everyone, Accountable to the public and Large enough to contain costs.
 
County Executive Isiah Leggett will speak, as well as State Senator Jamie Raskin. The invocation will be given by retired minister, Larry Schmidt, who served as pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church on Georgia Ave. for 22 years.
 
"We can’t afford to wait. Every day Maryland residents are denied life-saving medical treatment, dropped from their insurance coverage, or buried under medical bills," said Mike Hersh, a local MoveOn member. "We’re calling on Congress to pass the health care reform we need as soon as they return to Washington. The longer we wait, the more people suffer."
                       
MoveOn.org Political Action is a political action committee powered by 5 million progressive Americans. We believe in the power of grassroots action by citizens.
 

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