Peter Dreier on the importance of activism:
On March 9, at least 5,000 protesters picketed outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Washington, D.C., where America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the powerful industry trade association, was holding its annual lobbying conference. About 50 public figures — including writer Barbara Ehrenreich, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger, AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka, the Center for Community Change’s Deepak Bhargava, and former Congressman Bob Edgar — participated in civil disobedience. The following day, 24 insurance–industry victims — people who lost family members, are suffering because they were denied care, or went bankrupt due to premium costs — confronted reform opponents on Capitol Hill, including House Minority Whip Eric Cantor. One of the protesters was Marcus Grimes, a 38-year-old former teacher who worked at a D.C. charter school that didn’t offer health insurance, and lacked the $3,000 down payment for doctor-recommended surgeries that would have saved his sight.
