There are concrete things that you can do to right now to help us move this effort forward.
Help expand local chapters and start new ones (link to chapters/leaders)
- Recruit a new member to your local chapter
- If there is not a chapter in your community, start one
- Attend chapter meetings
- Hold a house party and invite you friends to view the Archimedes Movement DVD Health Care for the 21st Century: a Call to Action
Help take the Archimedes Movement to the public
- Gather sign-ups for new members of the Archimedes Movement during local events such as neighborhood farmer's markets, library days and park events;
- Walk around your neighborhood talking to neighbors about health care and what we are trying to achieve through the Archimedes Movement;
- Wear your WeCanDoBetter t-shirts to local health forums and rallies
- Write letters to the newspaper; respond to articles that are published.
Protesting the Status Quo
Show your concern with the current system by helping expose and highlight the consequences of holding onto "the way things are today."
- The next time that a health clinic closes in your community express yourself;
- The next time that a child is hospitalized or dies due to lack of access to needed medical or dental care let the media know that this is unacceptable in the United States;
- When you see a donation jar at your local coffee shop asking for money to pay for care for someone who has been injured needs expensive medical treatment let the media know that in this country We Can Do Better.
Political Action
- Every time a candidate speaks in your community - local, statewide or national - you can stand up and ask them what they are willing to do to create a sustainable health system that ensures that everyone will have access to a defined set of essential, effective health services.
- Help educate them about the Archimedes Movement, its Vision and principles.
- Tell them you want access to the right services, not just more health insurance.
- Every candidate needs to hear from you starting now and lasting right up to November 4th of next year.
For help getting started with ideas like these - or an idea of your own - in your community, contact your chapter leader or our staff.
Do you have a suggestion to contribute? Log in and add your ideas as a comment below.
All of the above suggestions are good ones. I talk about this organization to just about everyone with whom I converse, even if they seem to have no interest in it. I think though, that in order to really build this grass roots pressure that we need to succeed, we need to have some serious media exposure. Those talking points or phrases that we will use with everyone to convey what this movement is about are really important.
When I talk to people in their 20's and 30's who do not have children about this topic, I get responses such as "I was watching American Idol." So many Americans are concerned with similar trivia. This has to have a PERSONAL meaning to everyone. In order to reach those folks who are ”watching American Idol,” there have to be radio interviews, internet blog exposure, short TV spots (15 seconds would be sufficient to pique curiousity if it were repeated often enough--think of those "head-on" commercials). Perhaps get some popular media idols (i.e., if Britney Spears cared about it, substantial numbers of her followers would) to join this movement. John Kitzhaber needs to be interviewed on Oprah.
One of the people who attended one of the first Archimedes meetings hosted on premises to which I had access said she attended because I posted a notice on the door that asked the question, "Have you ever stayed in a job that you hated because you were afraid you would lose your health insurance if you left it?" This individual said she was hooked when she read that question.
A lot of people just don't have an interest in the political process. We have to reach those folks. So, while I admire the thinking and the work that has been done so far in this organization, and I wish that I could write half as articulately as John Kitzhaber, his beautiful words and political efforts are lost on a large segment of the population. Let's include some of the tried and true methods of getting a public message out so that the politicians cannot resist the groundswell demand for major revision of the healthcare "system."