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Oakland

Date: 8/4/07	Contact: Kay Eisenhower
Place:	Phone: 510.658.1147 ;Email: kayeisenhower@sbcglobal.net

This past Saturday's 365-City Campaign event took place in Oakland in the lovely plaza in front of the city hall.

Allowing for people coming and going, the overall turnout was approximately 150 people. The crowd was appreciably swelled by members of the California Nurses Association. The CNA also did a bang-up job of handling the sound system.

Members of Vukani Mawethu ("People Rising"), a bay area based South African solidarity choir, started the event by leading everyone in singing "This Plan is Your Plan." Vukani has done this at other OneCareNow events. The melody is taken from "This Land is Your Land," and the lyrics were written by HCA-Marin. Hopefully, you've been using this song, too. Vukani Mawethu and the crowd singing were a key visual on the local evening news report. There were excellent shots of a large OneCareNow banner, as well as my wife, Eveline, during the singing.

Speakers included Assembly Member (and coauthor) Sandre Swanson, Sara Rogers on behalf of Senator Kuehl, and representation from the offices of Assembly Member (and coauthor) Loni Hancock, Oakland mayor Ron Dellums, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Also, there were speakers from the following organizations: California Nurses Association, California Alliance of Retired Americans, Oakland Teachers Association (CTA), California Physicians Alliance, and Health Care for All-California/Vote Health. The president of the League of Women Voters-Oakland opened the rally.

The event was planned by representatives from a number of organizations, spearheaded by Vote Health chair, Kay Eisenhower.

KTVU (Channel 2) ran a piece on the event on its Saturday 6PM and 10PM news broadcasts. The reporter began, "Today's rally in downtown Oakland is one of 365 being held across the state this year in support of Sheila Kuehl's bill, SB 840. That bill would create a single payer system that supporters say would give Californians more choice and better health care, without the threat of skyrocketing medical bills." After showing a clip with Jan Randolfo, CNA spokesperson, the reporter finished, "Governor Arnold Schwarzengger has previously vetoed a similar bill. He's currently pushing his own health care reform package to require health insurance for all Californians."

KPFA broadcast a report on the rally at 6:00 PM, too.