Chico

Setting up in the rain

April weather in Chico is always iffy, something we knew when we made the decision to have an outdoor rally in Chico’s new and quite wonderful City Plaza. Although we briefly considered having a plan B, that idea was dropped once we elected to go all out on making the Chico OneCareNOW event an important factor in the discussion of healthcare in Butte County. Rain or Shine – our rally was going to happen.

Folks in the rain

And did it ever rain! It rained while we were setting up and for the first two hours of the rally. Bands, which were donating their talents, couldn’t set up since water doesn’t mix well with electricity or musical instruments. Providers and organizations rigged up tarps and such to protect their tables & materials from the rain. Our carefully planned program was hastily reorganized and our speakers, many who had flown in the night before or had made long drives that morning, rose to the occasion, as had Chico activists who had not let the rain deter them.

It would have been fantastic to have a beautiful sunny day and, certainly, many more people would have been in the plaza to celebrate how far we’d come and become more involved in the bill’s progress. But about 150 people did show up and stayed to listen to all the speakers. That so many had braved the weather to be there was an inspiration to the organizers, the speakers and all of those who found themselves among so many others who really care about this issue.

The speakers included the Mayor of Chico, Andy Holcombe; Andrew McGuire, Executive Director of Health Care for All; Rob Feckner, President of CSEA; Nan Brasmer, President of CARA; Rev. Fred Jones from the California Council of Churches; Sue McClure from CTA; as well as local representative of CNA, SEIU, California Physicians Alliance, and the Butte County Health Care Coalition. Their words were very effective too. Almost 80 letters were written that day which we were able to hand deliver to the Sacramento offices of Senator Aanestad and Assemblymember Rick Keene just before the Senate Health Committee’s hearing on SB 840 and SB 1014.

Andrew McGuire's interview with KCHO

Andrew’s interview with the local CBS affiliate made the 11 o’clock news; KCHO, the local NPR station ran a long piece the following Tuesday which had been taped at the rally and The Chico Beat, a local newspaper, followed up a week and a half later with an in-depth four page spread about the healhcare crisis, SB 840 and Michael Moore’s coming movie on the US health care system, Sicko. As a direct result of the rally, our OneCareNOW Campaign coordinator was invited to be a guest on Med Talk, a program of KZFR, a local radio station.

Although our numbers were limited by the rain, we had become aware in the weeks running up to April 14, that putting up posters and distributing flyers, along with some media publicity created an unexpectedly high level of awareness among the general population and, ultimately, the media, of the OneCareNOW Campaign, and SB840. In addition, the effort to recruit providers and organizations to participate at the event had given us the opportunity to discuss SB 840 and, in many cases, find new and important converts in the medical community. Most important, we laid the groundwork for more solid education on single payer, signing up people who want to host house parties and connecting with organizations who wish to better inform their members.

Signing the One CareNow Petition