Reply #26: Mary, I honestly don't know what the answer is. [View All]

What I thought years ago, and what I keep coming back to, is working harder to inform the general populace.

I find that when I discuss all the facts of health care with folks, there is so much they didn't know, and so much they find of interest, and they start thinking differently.

I think that we have mostly been talking with each other, and talking OVER those who don't really know the facts, and we have missed that opportunity. I know that I thought years ago that PNHP should be doing more to preach beyond the CHOIR!

Now this issue has become so polarized that I don't even know how much is possible.

What I *DO* know from volunteering with an organization working for single payer is that, in the typical USian way, what everyone wants to do is to tell their own stories, rather than to work together. And, that is still going on.

Unless and until we can somehow get beyond the Rugged Individualism barrier, and that includes "progressives"!!, no amount of us begging people to "shout" will have much effect.

We haven't reached that tipping point yet, and that will only happen by speaking WITH those who are beyond our natural sphere.

That's all I know, and it leaves us where we began... needing to develop some really effective stratgery, and we need to do that YESTERDAY!