Dwayne Heisler of SEIU provided a fascinating glimpse into the history of American’s healthcare system. Our healthcare system is costly yet leaves tens of millions of Americans without coverage.
Below find two resources that help explain the challenges we face here in Pennsylvania.
PA Affordability Report (PHAN)
Susquehanna Valley Progress is honored to award David A. Young with the Robert Ingersoll Forward Thinking Award this year for his lifetime commitment to free thought, education, peace, and justice.
The award was presented at the group’s annual Networking Reception attended by dozens of fellow progressives.
Anyone who has been involved locally with efforts related to the environment, civil rights, and humanitarian issues likely knows David Young. He has been involved in numerous organizations and community efforts. He has been a source of passion, energy, and leadership. And his work has benefited communities all around the world.
It will not surprise anyone to know that David is an educator at heart. He began his career teaching high school in California where he taught for two years. For two years, he served as a teacher in Ethiopia and Morocco, before meeting his wife, Renna Mae, an elementary teacher. For thirty years the couple served as educators for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools (DODDS) and lived in Germany and Japan. They raised their two daughters, Christina and Sarah, overseas and opened their hearts and minds to a world of cultures and ideas.
During his career, he participated in the Fulbright-Hayes fellowship in India and Indonesia. He served as Coordinator for Service Learning and AVID Program Monitor for DODD schools in Guam, Japan, and South Korea.
Throughout his career, David has pushed boundaries, challenged authority, and fought for the underdog. In his early teaching career, he was one of two teachers who filed ethical chargers against the superintendent, who ultimately resigned. During his DODDS career, he was instrumental in restoring crucial funding to the program utilizing grassroots advocacy strategies.
He also volunteered his time to worthy causes and served on several boards including the local branch of the NAACP and Phi Delta Kappa.
When he retired to the Lewisburg area, he immersed himself in community activism. He delivered Meals on Wheels for six years and served as the board secretary for four years.
He was on the board of two environmental groups, vice president and newsletter editor of the local branch of the ACLU of PA and, in 2008, elected to a three year term to the state board of the ACLU of PA.
In 2014, he became an official visitor of the Pennsylvania Prison Society. His interest and compassion for inmates started early in his career. He began taking his high school students to the Fresno County prison and then to San Quentin. While overseas, he took his students to a Moroccan prison and a military brig in Okinawa. Over the course of six years, he visited some 250 people in Pennsylvania’s state and local prisons and was selected as volunteer of the year in 2014.
A few years ago when a tire burner was proposed outside of Lewisburg, David was one of the core organizers. His unconventional strategies, outside the box thinking, and insistence on engaging the “unconverted” environmentalists was crucial in stopping the facility from being built.
Robert Ingersoll was a well-known orator from the late 1800s who traveled the country challenging conventional thinking and religious doctrine and promoting scientific theory and reason.
Nicole Faraguna, SVP Chair, has high regards of David. “Every moment is an opportunity for him to expand his thinking and the thinking of those around him. He is constantly challenging all of us here in the area regarding the work we do and the lives we touch.”
“David Young is truly a forward thinker in every sense of the word and the Susquehanna Valley is a much better place because of him.”
About Susquehanna Valley Progress
Susquehanna Valley Progress is a nonpartisan organization united for the betterment of the whole community. We envision a community that empowers individuals to be engaged in and educated on the democratic process; promotes equality and appreciation of diversity; improves the living and working standards of all that live in Susquehanna Valley and actively protects our natural world.
Attend the networking reception for progressives in the Susquehanna Valley. Enjoy hearty appetizers and desserts, wine tasting, and good conversation. Meet new like-minded individuals and reconnect with those you know.
This past week the republican senate leaders hijacked efforts to pass sensible redistricting reform in Pennsylvania. Instead of moving bipartisan legislation forward that would have empowered the people of Pennsylvania in the redrawing of our legislative and congressional districts, a few powerful republican legislators took the opportunity to obliterate existing compromises, abandon any efforts to diligently fix the process, and institute unfair advantages to their own party.
In 2012, state republican legislators drew distorted, biased maps that disenfranchised voters and compromised our democratic process; the League of Women Voters challenged the congressional districts on the basis of political gerrymandering; subsequently the districts were deemed unconstitutional and thrown out by the state Supreme Court.
Susquehanna Valley Progress (SVP) has long supported the establishment of an independent commission made up of real people –not partisan players with partisan agendas–to draw congressional and legislative districts. SVP is a supporting organization of Fair Districts PA (FDPA), a non-partisan statewide coalition working to create a process for redistricting that is transparent, impartial, and fair. In 2017, FDPA endorsed bipartisan legislation introduced in the house and senate with strong sponsorship on both sides of the aisle.
In the house, the legislation languished in the State Government Committee, chaired by Republican Rep. Darryl Metcalfe. Metcalfe refused to move the bill or hold hearings. In April, he called a last minute committee meeting where he unveiled a plan that killed the original intent of a the fair districts approach and instead guaranteed the legislative majority would control redistricting, even stripping the governor and the Supreme Court from participating in the process. It was a callous and arrogant move that demonstrated how little Metcalfe regards the people of this state, nonetheless, fair and transparent democracy. The measure passed by party lines in the committee. Fair Districts abandoned the house bill and turned its attention to the Senate. Surely there would be reasonable republicans to work with in the other chamber.
FDPA began working with Senator Folmer, a republican from Lebanon County, and chair of the State Government Committee. Folmer, to his credit, has often taken a balanced approach to making government work better. He collaborated with FDPA to advance the bill. There were challenges along the way and certain provisions were stricken from the original language that caused a great deal of concern among those who have long supported a truly independent process.
Folmer introduced an amendment that resolved many of these issues. The amended legislation was not perfect but with improvements could have resulted in good reform. His amendment passed with a vote of 44 to 1.
Then another amendment was proposed that killed any chance of fairness and transparency. Republican Senator Aument of Lancaster, with support of his party leaders, pushed an amendment through to replace the statewide election of members of the Supreme, Commonwealth, and Superior Courts with election by judicial districts.
The amended bill passed along party lines with Senators Folmer and Rafferty courageously voting no along with every democratic senator.
Republican senators’ Constitutional amendment would give the majority party in the General Assembly a strikingly unprecedented degree of influence over who is elected to our statewide courts, including the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. This undermines the checks and balances in our state government — including those that have blocked, and in the future would block, the Republicans from tilting the rules of our democracy in their favor.
The state appellate courts are our last line of defense against consolidation of state power. When the Supreme Court determined the republican-drawn districts were unconstitutional, republican legislators chose not to right the wrong, but to instead make the process worse by undermining the courts that keep them in check. These new rules guarantee republicans will have control over the courts for decades to come.
By hijacking the efforts of so many committed volunteers, republicans in the legislature have signaled their belief that they are impervious to the anger and frustration felt by so many voters across our state.
This bill will now go to the house. Call your state representative immediately and tell them to vote no on SB22. Tell them we need to start over and find a process that is fair, transparent, and works for the people, not powerful politicians.
Nicole Faraguna is a founding member of Susquehanna Valley Progress and an active volunteer of Fair Districts PA –Susquehanna Valley.
Conservatives are proposing work requirements for Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients — an unnecessary and cruel act that would actually result in the government spending more to administer these programs.
Conservatives are attempting to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. To be fair, Republicans do not want to fix these programs, they want to eliminate them. Don’t believe me? Ask Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who bragged that he has been dreaming about defunding government healthcare spending since his college days. I should note that his college days were paid for by Social Security benefits (another program Ryan wants to defund) that his family received after his father died, but I digress.
Medicaid and SNAP recipients already work at roughly the same rate as everyone else. The costly bureaucracy the laws would put in place would make it harder for those with real needs to qualify for Medicaid or SNAP. Not only will that make it harder for people who are too sick or too hungry to work, but hungry people without Medicaid will once again rely on the emergency room for health care, driving up health care costs for all of us.
The majority of those who participate in these programs are one of the following: children, elderly, disabled or able-bodied adults who are already working. Many are low-wage workers who are holding down multiple jobs.
There are already work requirements in place for able-bodied adults receiving SNAP. For those too sick to work and too poor to purchase health insurance, is it moral to force them into the labor force? At what point does requiring work in return for basic life necessities equate to a form of slavery?
Safety nets are in place to help those in need. I should know.
When I was 12, my father lost his job through no fault of his own. A high-level company executive decided he didn’t like traveling to Shamokin, and so my father’s plant permanently closed. This was during the recession of the 1980s when folks didn’t ask, “Where are you working?” They asked, “Are you working?” Subsequently, my dad was out of work for two years.
With five kids at home, he and my mom were forced to rely on food stamps and other forms of government assistance. My mom was unable to go to work since she was needed at home to care for our severely autistic brother. It wasn’t easy for my parents to go on food stamps, and it wasn’t their choice. But they did what they had to do to provide for their family.
Too often, conservatives attempt to publicly shame people, like my parents, who were just trying to get by. They utilize “we versus they” tactics in an attempt to turn the public against those who require government support. For example, they’ll ask, “Why should we have to work and support ourselves while they receive something for nothing?”
There are several problems with this thinking. First of all, anyone who has worked has paid something into the system, and these safety nets are designed for those who fall on hard times. But more importantly, none of us knows when “we” might become a “they.” Our circumstances can change in an instance. We could lose our job, get injured or be diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Anyone of us could, some day, need government assistance.
I remember having a conversation with a woman who was criticizing people on government assistance. I told her my family’s story of how we ended up on food stamps. Her response was “Well, that’s different.” I told her it wasn’t. My family’s story is not any different than the majority of those seeking support through disability, food stamps or Medicaid. We shouldn’t make assumptions about people. Unfortunately, some politicians exploit elements of human nature to push their political agenda.
House Speaker Ryan and I are a lot alike. We both benefited from public assistance. We both know what it is like to be in need. Unlike Ryan, I believe these programs should be available if YOU need them. Please call your state senator to oppose measures that create more red tape for those in need.
