Monthly Archives: June 2014

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

I’m a mom with a rare form of cancer. ~~~ Victory


On February 18, Florida Hospital Healthcare System agreed to cover Holly’s surgery in DC. Holly said “I just received word that Florida Hospital/FHHS has formally signed the agreement and that my surgery can proceed as normal. I can’t even begin to thank you enough for your support and willingness to share this petition to help make this happen. I’m in the process of developing a CaringBridge link where my family and caregivers can share my progress once I’m hospitalized. THANK YOU!!”

 Florida Hospital/FHHS: Authorize a single case contract with Dr. Sugarbaker / Washington Hospital Center so I can have my lifesaving surgery

       By Holly Freuler

          St Cloud, Florida
My name is Holly Freuler. I am a 35 year old married mother of 2. I have a very rare form of cancer: Multicystic Peritoneal Mesothelioma. Only 130 cases have been reported worldwide.
I was first treated for this cancer back in June of 2012. Unfortunately, my most recent CT scan indicated a recurrence of my disease.
This type of disease requires a specialized surgery (Cytoreductive Surgery with Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC). No doctor within my insurance network has ever treated a case like this before and no doctor performs the surgery necessary to save my life: Cytoreductive Surgery with HIPEC (open perfusion). My local surgeon who is considered, “in network” recognizes this fact and is also recommending I have surgery with Dr. Sugarbaker in Washington, D.C. He has stated that, “No one here can cure what you have. You need to go to Dr. Sugarbaker.”
Cytoreductive surgerywithHyperthermic Peritoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) is the standard treatment for my disease. There is NO alternative curative treatment.Itis approved by the FDA and my surgeon has a 90% survival rate at 5 years (well above the rest).

In 2012, my health insurer, Florida Hospital/FHHS, authorized the surgery with the same surgeon/hospital I am requesting now after I created a Change.org petition. Now, I need FHHS to authorize this treatment and sign a single case contract with Dr. Sugarbaker/Washington Hospital Center again. Since they have set a precedent of treatment and clearly agreed with the points I raised in my appeal in 2012, I hope they will authorize this treatment once again.
My surgeon’s office has been attempting to obtain authorization in a timely manner prior to my surgery date of February 26th, 2014. Unfortunately, they have been given incorrect fax numbers, claims of numerous lost received faxes, and other roadblocks preventing us from receiving the authorization.
I am proud to have been a Florida Hospital employee for 3 years. I’ve been a registered nurse for over 10 years.  Through my work not only as a registered nurse but also in Information Technology, I strive to provide the best solutions for our patients. It’s time for Florida Hospital to “extend the healing ministry of Christ” to one of their own employees: Me. They can do this by signing a single case contract to let me have my life saving surgery to cure me of cancer.
Please sign my petition and help me once again to convince Florida Hospital Healthcare System to give me the same chance at beating cancer as they did in 2012.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

#NotOneMore


You helped make this powerful message unavoidabl​e

If you were in D.C., this ad was all over news sites, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Basically, all the places political offices have to monitor.”

That’s how our ad team described MoveOn members’ powerful ad campaign targeting decision makers in Washington, D.C. and state capitals across the country. The ad featured a call for action on gun violence from Richard Martinez, whose son was killed in the recent shooting at UC Santa Barbara.

This ad generated 8.1 million impressions in capital cities across the country in a week, including nearly 1 million in Washington, D.C. While not all of those “impressions” mean that someone watched the entire video, we do know that it was viewed thousands of times by government staffers and more than 600 times by members of the media.

Together, we’re working to make this powerful message unavoidable—to demand action in the face of the continued scourge of gun violence in communities across America. Sadly, in just the past few weeks, there have been multiple mass shootings since UCSB and countless individual gun deaths.

But passionate messages like Mr. Martinez’s can break through. As this video was being shared from coast to coast, MoveOn member and UCSB student Kyley Scarlet started a petition on gun violence to the Obama administration, and Vice President Joe Biden responded with a personal video message for students at the school.1

That’s why, no matter how frustrating this effort can be, we have to keep lifting our voices. If you haven’t already, please share the ad with everyone you know.

Thanks for all you do.

–Garlin, Jo, Nick, Alejandro, and the rest of the team

P.S. Have an idea for reducing gun violence in your community? Start your campaign today.

Sources:

1. “Vice President Joe Biden’s video message for UCSB graduates,” KCBX, June 11, 2014
http://www.moveon.org/r/?r=299639&id=97504-17809870-5iignsx&t=4

Want to support our work? MoveOn Civic Action is entirely funded by our 8 million members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from CEOs. And our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

A Win For Workplace Fairness


President Obama Just Announced The Single Largest Expansion Of LGBT Workplace Protections In Our Country’s History

Progress

As many as 9 out of 10 voters believe federal law already protects LGBT workers from discrimination. But it doesn’t. And while the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) was passed by the Senate this year, it has stalled in the House; Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has made it clear that there is “no way” ENDA will pass this year.

Enter the latest chapter of the Obama Administration’s “year of action.” The White House announced today that President Obama will issue an executive order requiring that all companies who contract with the federal government must not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

Think Progress reporter Zack Ford has the details:

The order, expected to be finalized in the coming weeks, is an extension of orders previously issued by past presidents — most recently Johnson — similarly banning employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin among all contractors and subcontractors who do over $10,000 in business with the government in any one year.

The protections will reach over one million LGBT workers across the country, making it the single largest expansion of LGBT workplace protections in our country’s history. There continue to be 29 states that offer no employment protections on the basis of sexual orientation and 32 with no protections based on gender identity, but many LGBT workers in those states will now have workplace protections for the first time ever. As many as 43 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and 90 percent of transgender people have experienced some form of harassment or discrimination in the workplace.

As with Obama’s executive order raising the minimum wage for employees of federal contractors to $10.10, this order will cover an enormous number of people but still relies on Congress to pass a law making sure that millions more LGBT Americans have the freedom to work.

Recently, some LGBT advocates have been giving second thoughts to the current ENDA bill in Congress, based on a religious liberty exemption that could have the potential interpreted too broadly. Here’s Zack Ford again:

The LGBT movement has also become increasingly divided over whether ENDA in its current form is worth pursuing. After two decades of failed consideration in Congress, the bill has been weakened by an exemption that would grant religious organizations unprecedented privilege to continue discriminating against LGBT people. A number of state groups and legal organizations have recently dropped their support for ENDA because they believe that the exemption goes too far and codifies into law the idea that LGBT identities are incompatible with faith. The executive order is thus an important step even if ENDA eventually passes.

BOTTOM LINE: Americans of any sexual orientation and gender identity should have the freedom to work and the right to equal treatment in the workplace. President Obama’s latest executive action is the biggest expansion of those rights in American history. There is more left to be done when it comes to giving all Americans equal protection, and Congress should follow the President’s lead by passing a federal law that ends unfair and discriminatory workplace practices that hurt LGBT workers and their families.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Teachers forced to sign a “morality contract”


by Dominick Mortarotti via Change.org

I go to a Catholic school in Oakland, and the local Bishop wants to be able to fire teachers for things like supporting gay rights or seeking infertility treatment. Please sign my petition calling on the local Diocese to change this offensive contract.

Petitions on Change.org are started by people like you who care deeply about an issue. It takes only a few minutes, and can change something big.
Start your own petition

My teachers are in trouble, and we need your help. I go to a Catholic high school in Oakland, CA, and the Bishop of our district just put out a terrible new contract which says my teachers could be fired for being gay, for supporting gay rights, for supporting a woman’s right to choose, even for using or supporting infertility treatments like in vitro fertilization.

No one at my school wants this contract: not the teachers, not the students, not even the administration.  

The Bishop in my district re-categorized teachers as ministers to be able to get around employment law and fire teachers for their beliefs or even their personal medical decisions. There’s also a broad ethical clause that would give the Diocese leeway to fire teachers for any belief they hold.

I started a petition on Change.org calling on the Diocese of Oakland to get rid of this offensive and outlandish contract. Please click here to sign my petition.

It has been really difficult to watch my teachers struggle with this terrible contract. Some of them have even quit over it. My favorite teacher is just a few years away from retirement, and she has to choose whether to live with this offensive contract or risk compromising her pension. She’s the teacher who taught me about having strong moral character and standing up for yourself. It’s awful to watch her question whether she should hide her own beliefs because she can’t afford to lose her job.

This isn’t just happening in Oakland. The Catholic church is putting out terrible contracts like this all over America, from Cleveland to Honolulu. 

But some communities are fighting back, and they’re winning. In Santa Rosa, the community fought back so hard against a contract like this that the local Diocese was forced to postpone it. I know we can do the same in Oakland — and make the Bishops think twice before they try to do this to teachers in another city.

Please sign my petition calling on the Diocese of Oakland to change the contract that would allow teachers to be fired for supporting gay rights or infertility treatments.

Thank you,

Dominick Mortarotti
Oakland, CA

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

21st century policies ~~ by Valerie Jarrett Senior Advisor The White House


whitehousebannerI still remember the moment the value of a flexible work environment became crystal-clear for me.

I was working for Mayor Richard Daley in Chicago, and sitting in a particularly long cabinet meeting along with the Mayor’s corporation counsel, Susan Sher. Susan and I were both single moms, and dear friends — and frankly, we both had somewhere else to be.

As the meeting stretched on, and the two of us kept looking at our watches (and each other), the Mayor interrupted and asked where we needed to be that was more important.

Not quite sure what would happen, I blurted out the truth: “Susan and I both have second graders, and their Halloween Parade starts in 20 minutes — and it’s 25 minutes away.”

Without a second’s hesitation, the Mayor replied, “Well, then what are you doing here? You better get moving.”

We were fortunate that day to have an understanding boss willing to give us the flexibility we needed as parents — but in 2014, most working Americans still don’t have that.

It’s time for our workplace policies to match the realities of our families. That’s why, on June 23, we’re joining together with employers, business leaders, workers, academics, labor leaders, elected officials, and a diverse group of stakeholders and advocates to explore ways to take to scale the best practices designed to build 21st-century workplaces that meet the needs of 21st-century workers.

We’re calling it the White House Summit on Working Families, and you can add your voice to the conversation right now in two ways:

Our families and our workforce have undergone fundamental transformations over the past several decades. In 63 percent of families with children, all parents work. Thirty-two percent of families with children are single-parent households. And yet, employers report just 11 percent of workers have access to paid family leave that includes time off for caregiving.

It’s time our workplaces did something about that, and it’s going to take all of us to make it happen.

So, if you can relate at all to the story I described above — the need to choose between the very real responsibilities of being a worker and a parent — then working families’ issues are your issues.

If you’re a young woman wondering if you’re earning the same as your male counterpart, this is your battle, too.

If you’re a single, working dad struggling to balance the responsibilities of raising a family with the demands of a job, you’re in this fight.

It’s time for 21st-century workplaces that allow every American family to succeed — both at home, and at work.

Each story shared will expand this national conversation, and bring these issues to the forefront.

Add your voice — and pass it on.

Thank you,

Valerie

Valerie Jarrett
Senior Advisor
The White House