"People all over are stepping up and are willing to go to jail," said Newkirk. "I want to let everybody know how critical this is. We can't just laugh it off and say, "Oh, that's just the way things are,' when politicians are basically taking these legalized bribes," which are preventing real healthcare reform.
To date, the Mobilization for Health Care for All has engaged in 26 sit-ins in 23 cities and around 150 people have been arrested and more than 200 people have risked arrest.
"What Mobilization for Health Care for All has done transcends what's been going on in Congress right now," said ordained minister and talk radio host Mark Thompson. "It's one thing to have a public option. It's one thing to have a debate about single payer. But it's really critical that we hold politicians accountable and we hold private insurance accountable."
For the past month, the Mobilization has taken on insurance companies for putting a stranglehold on American democracy and preventing anything from happening that would change the healthcare system in America. This recent action (and a recent sit-in at Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office in San Francisco) shows the campaign is beginning to address the other side of the problem.
"Our political leaders are complicit. They are playing along in this game by which insurance companies are corrupting democracy and preventing any real reform," said Newkirk. "Joe Lieberman is the poster-child of that corruption."
"He's got to decide whether he's the senator from Connecticut or the senator from Aetna," added Newkirk.
Jason Ortiz, a student activist at UConn, explained the group of students he is with from Connecticut want "to take a stand and let [Lieberman] know that the youth of Connecticut are absolutely paying attention."
"We're watching him and we're not going to let him get by with business as usual whenever he feels like making a buck at somebody's expense," said Ortiz."
Brittany Florio, a women's rights advocate, explained that she's a believer in direct action and said you can go and lobby but it's not nearly as powerful as a sit-in where you say you will stay until certain demands are met.
Florio also believes that "health care is a human right" and "not a privilege for the white and wealthy." She thinks Lieberman is a "white obnoxious privileged man" who doesn't want to fund oppressed people, fund women, or acknowledge there are racial disparities in America's health care system.
"[He] doesn't even realize he has all this privilege and he's using his power in a negative and destructive way," said Florio.
John Mohrbacher, a student at UConn who found out about the Mobilization for Healthcare for All through Democracy Now!, said it's perfect to target Lieberman and make an issue out of not just a public option but also the fact that Lieberman's taken money from the health care industry. He also wants to "heat up the debate for single payer."
"Obama's administration made a strategic blunder by not starting out with single payer option on the agenda," said Mohrbacher. "[They] started out with a compromised position, which has now become further compromised with a weak public option." So, Mohrbacher says it's time to take on the politicians and get them to allow states to vote on single payer as a real solution to America's healthcare crisis.
The students participating engaged in a health care rally on
UConn's campus Wednesday before leaving to engage in a sit-in in Washington,
D.C. What is happening in terms of healthcare matters even more to them because
Aetna, who is funding Lieberman's fight against the people, is UConn's healthcare provider
"I am not insured under university healthcare plan and I'm not even allowed to set foot in our student health services," said Florio. "They won't see me at all because I do not have their health insurance or any health insurance." Florio is unemployed.
This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that, according to Ortiz, "students have to pay [Aetna] $1300 a semester and it doesn't cover anything." Students "can't even get a basic checkup under that plan."
