Last Tuesday evening I was officially invited out to Washington, DC to be part of a press conference on health care reform with Nancy Pelosi and the House leadership. I was honored and humbled to speak on behalf of millions of American families like mine who are paying more and more for monthly coverage (if they can even afford it) and yet receive fewer and fewer benefits.
(continued below the Whrrl story)
So Tuesday was the invite, Wednesday I was on a plane to DC thanks to the folks at Consumers Union, and at noon on Thursday March 18, 2010 I was in Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's office, ready to head to the press conference. Yikes!
Knowing that a vote on the health care bill was just days away, the press corps showed up in full. The press room was packed, there were something like 150 reporters and cameramen crammed into the room.
I stood behind Speaker Pelosi as she made the opening remarks, certain that anyone tuned into C-Span at that moment could see my heart beating out of my chest!
Meg, one of my "handlers" (read: hand-holders) at Consumers Union, and her team had prepared us for this moment, but, wow. She reminded me that I was there to share my story. She advised me to think of my statement like a blog post.
Easy peasy. Writing a blog post is simple. Just me, my thoughts and the computer. But reading a blog post, to a live audience, and not just any live audience, but one fully outfitted with still cameras, video cameras, notebooks and netbooks who are by the way transmitting, transcribing and publishing in real time? Eep.
But I did it. And so did Carolyn, Ed and Stella, the other "real people" brought in to share their stories as a cancer survivor, small business owner and senior citizen, respectively.
And Speaker Pelosi and the House leadership did it, too. We delivered health care reform to the American people. My thanks goes out to all of the people who worked hard to make this happen. I was honored to be a part of this effort.
My thanks also goes out to fab mamas Joanne at PunditMom and Erin of Queen of Spain and everyone else who sent me messages of support and encouragement during my whirlwind trip to DC.
Read my speech on Speaker Pelosi's blog. I'm the second photo down.
Read my speech on Speaker Pelosi's blog. I'm the second photo down.
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22 comments:
Kim, kudos to you! You are an inspiration. Thank you :-)
Good for you!
And by the way ... love the title. :-D
Awesome, Kim!
Thanks Laura and Edie.
Drew, thanks. The title is a play on the recent NYT article on Mommybloggers.
Kim, you did an amazing job. Thank you for sharing your story with everyone to help the people of our country. BTW - love the play on words for the title ;)
I got the reference, that's why it's so great.
What an amazing and historic experience.
Good on you, Kim!
Beaming with pride,
Isabel
You rock! I hope you are feeling proud, because you deserve to.
Very exciting Kim! What an experience. You are right, we are using our power for good. You go girl!
I'm convinced the bill passed because of you. You rock!
Wow, you're part of history Kim! Not many of us can say that no matter how much success comes our way. Congrats! (And love your don't bother mommy tongue in check spoof of the NY Times article.)
Yeah, baby. We're so proud of you!
The The Animal Store.
very, very cool. Go you.
So thrilled that you got it passed!
You had prepared remarks at the press conference. Have you posted them any where?
Kim, I can't believe I missed this! Wow. Way to go. You really made a difference.
I am so proud of you, Kim! What you did was important for millions of people.
Also, love love love your clever title.
That is one experience worth a life time :>
I am glad that you were able to make it. You have so many thing to share to people being an instrument for them to be inspired and to see the beauty lying behind confusion.
Congratulations for doing such a great job!
Wow, very cool. You should be proud. However, I for one am very disappointed with the new so called reform. I wanted the single-payer system Obama originally was in favor of but later declared "too disruptive." Yeah, disruptive to the insurance companies, that is. From what I've learned about this "reform" it simply gives these inept for-profit insurance companies more business and more power to raise their rates and provide more of their incompetent coverage to more people. Yeah, I'm happy that more people will be covered, but the insurance companies have got to go.
You are amazing Kim...way to go!
Coming from Pundit Mom; great action by you, being involved and getting America some real sound bites.
Alyzabeth's Mommy
You know if was MORE than my pleasure to promote it and cheer you on! It's for all of us!
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