If there was ever a month where growing the Archimedes Movement seemed more imperative I can’t think of one. In just the past week, the media has gone from “when will the congressional leadership send a bill to the President’s desk” to today having House Speaker Nancy Pelosi say that the House no longer has enough votes to pass the Senate bill. Did something drastically change in the past week that has made health reform no longer critically needed in this country?
What has changed is momentum, and that’s due to some pretty effective messaging. In essence, the story has changed. We’re no longer hearing about businesses unable to offer coverage because of rising insurance premiums. We’re not hearing about 40-50 million people who lack insurance. And we are no longer hearing the President’s eloquence about the values and principles that drove him to name this one of his top domestic agenda items. We’re hearing that the vote in Massachusetts was a vote to stop federal reform, and we refuse to buy that story.
Regaining Perspective
I had a chance to meet with a group of 20 international visitors who were in Portland with the World Affairs Council of Oregon. They are all experienced social activists in their countries, which included Moldova, Gaza, Slovak Republic, Vietnam, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Israel, Lithuania, Nigeria, Cambodia, Kuwait, Macedonia, Kenya, Cyprus, Afghanistan, Angola, Columbia, and Iraq. They had been in Portland for only three days when we met last Tuesday, and I walked through an overview of how our system of insurance and health care evolved, how the Archimedes Movement has used a set of principles to engage Oregonians to pay attention to this issue, become more informed and to take action when they can – using leverage to make change. We then spent about 40 minutes in dialogue.
After just 3 days in Portland, they had questions about the ballot measure campaign, about the work accomplished so far by the Oregon Legislature, about federal reform efforts, and why Americans are so disappointed in President Obama after only one year. It was an invigorating discussion because of two things. First, they did not have preconceived notions or positions on any of their questions, which allowed for a rich interchange; and second because of how impressed they were to hear of discussion of vision, principles and values, and how you can leverage the work of small groups to influence change.
Regaining Perspective
We still believe that agreement on principles and a framework will reunite all sides of this debate and allow us to find strategies that work. It will require taking the media spin doctors out of the equation. Because if we don’t remove the media’s spin (sometimes believing that their spin is the same as reporting news), we will be stuck in the status quo for some time to come. We would be led to believe that:
- the debate over health reform is the equivalent of ending slavery,
- that electing a republican senator in Massachusetts changed the majority party’s ability to lead in the House, the Senate and the White House,
- that Americans are saying they don’t want health reform.
Many of my colleagues shared thoughts with me in the past week. One said “status quo is status woe.” So, how do we lose our fear of letting go of the status quo? The other sent a quote (and if you know the source please email me so I can attribute it correctly): there is a spectrum that moves from debate…to discussion…to dialogue…and while our culture inculcates us with the value of debating, learning how to dialogue with each other requires something much different from us – a posture of deep listening with an intent to understand.
Whether it was the debate around Measures 66 and 67, implementation of Oregon’s HB 2009, or trying to influence the federal debate – we need more than the point-counterpoint form of debate. It is time to realize that there is more to Oregon than supporters + opposition. We need to learn more than tactics and strategies; we must listen to what the public is truly saying, so that we can create policy that works for all of us, not just some of us. It is time.
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