 All right, thank you all so much for being here. So just wanted to let everybody know that we have interpreters here for the following languages, Spanish, French, and Nepali. And I think, I mean, Arabic, is there someone here? Oh, come on up. I don't need Arabic. And is anyone here that was gonna do that interpretation? Everybody's here. Yeah. We don't have our Arabic interpreter here. So I'm gonna get started for just a little section and then I'll pass it to each of these interpreters. And then kind of after this initial part, we'll, you can find the person who speaks the language that you speak in. So we, the poor and dispossessed of this country communicate in many languages. We are organizing a moral fusion movement across all lines of division, including language. We, the poor in this country, speak many languages and many languages. We are organizing a moral movement through the lines of the language. Good evening. We are a poor and dispossessed society of this country and we communicate in many languages. We are an organization with a moral, a movement also, on all the levels of society, including all languages. We are the group we call the Verment Roque Sainte, and we understand the importance and also the commitment to create a multilingual, multilingual space as much as possible. And for that, we have interpreters in French, in Nepali, in Arabic as well and also in Spanish. And sometimes we hear the work of the interpreters, but sometimes we need to pause as long as this is enough. Good evening. We, the poor or the dispossessed society of this country speak many languages. The Verment worker center understands the importance of and is committed to creating multilingual spaces when possible. To that end, we have interpretation in Spanish, French, Nepali, and hopefully Arabic. We are the group we call the Verment Roque Sainte. We are the group we call the Verment Roque Sainte. So, for that end, we have to pause for a few seconds for you to hear what is happening here. It is important, because, there are experiences that we span from thinking of the worker center. Arabic and Burman Center. Burman Center is a community of two languages. Spanish, Spanish, French, Nepali, and Arabic. Sometimes working with interpretation means that we need to pause or that things will take longer than if we're meeting in only one language. We are moving at the speed of liberation and slowing down is well worth it. We ask that everyone speak slowly and carefully today and we want to thank everyone for helping to make this a multilingual space. Arabic and Burman Center is a community of two languages. We are moving at the speed of liberation and it's well worth it to speak slowly. We want to speak slowly and clearly and thank you all for helping us to make this a multilingual space. Arabic and Burman Center is a community of two languages. We are a community of two languages. We are moving at the speed of liberation and it's well worth it to speak slowly. We are moving at the speed of liberation and it's well worth it to speak slowly. We are moving at the speed of liberation Okay, so now I'm going to invite the interpreters to join everybody so if you speak Arabic you'll follow Salali. Yeah, and then Kamal for yeah, so you can join the crowd and then Kate for Spanish and Eddie for French so if you need that interpretation please find those folks so everyone gets settled for a moment. So I just want to make a couple of housekeeping announcements. If anybody needs child care you probably already found it but it's in the back left over here. If anybody needs to use a bathroom you can go out these main doors to the left and we also want to let folks know that there is going to be video documentation today and so if you don't want to be in a photo or video if you could find Keith who's raising his hand over there. Let's see and then if you do want to share your health care story you can find Charlie over here. Okay, thank you again all of you for being here. My name is Erin Keller and I'm here today as a member of the Vermont Worker Center an organization that has been fighting for human rights since 1998. We're here today as part of the health care is a human right campaign on the heels of the one year anniversary of the start to the Medicaid cutoffs. In January we held a rally inside the state house calling for an end to the Medicaid cutoffs. On the same day the legislature introduced a bill H721 to expand Medicaid and Medicare eligibility which would allow tens of thousands more people in the state to access affordable health care. Over a hundred people across the state called their legislators in support of the bill and leaders from labor and grassroots groups like the Worker Center testified in support asking for it to be made stronger. By the end of March however the House of Representatives had watered the bill down to a more modest expansion of Medicaid of Medicare and Dr. Dinosaur with a study of expanding Medicaid paid for by raising taxes on corporations. We are supporting this bill because expanding public health care oh sorry lost my spot but because expanding public health care by raising taxes on those who can afford it is the right direction forward and so this month we're going to be asking people to call our senators and make sure the bill does not get watered down any further and can override a potential veto from the governor. As of February 2024 over 26,000 people in the state of Vermont have lost their Medicaid coverage and 6,000 have their renewal currently pending. What this means is that tens of thousands of our peers are paying more than they can afford or going without life-saving medication and treatment. I am one of these individuals. When I lost my Medicaid coverage in July of last year I felt enraged, powerless, terrified, dehumanized and alone. One of the ways I felt able to reclaim my humanity was by sharing my story and hearing from others going through something similar. Health care touches each and every one of us in some form or another whether we are managing chronic illness with insurmountable medical bills or our in good health and unable to afford basic preventative health care. In this country health care is not a guarantee and to solely rely on our politicians to manage our human rights is to be disappointed. We are here today to continue to weave our stories together as an independent social movement in the demand to create a new story about health care. One that centers ease, abundance, care, protection and dignity for all. One that treats health care as a human right that it is. So what that's going to look like for today is we are going to watch a video just after this about the nonviolent Medicaid army and then we're going to have a few speakers that will share their stories about the impact that the Medicaid cutouts have had and then there will be an opportunity to share stories in smaller groups with each other and then we're going to hear from Angelina about what the problem is who can change it and what is our plan moving forward and then afterwards there will be a meal here to share again in community and then we'll also have a pop-up clinic for folks to kind of get their vitals checked on the outside over here and an option to do a photo petition to again kind of share your story. And so yeah just want to thank you all for being here again and then I think Kate you have the we'll get the video started about the nonviolent Medicaid army because right now we're in a week of action across the country regularly organizing against health care profiteers. Is a growing militant force of poor and working people united across all identities, all regions, races and issues. Do you know anyone who's been cut from Medicaid? Me, even though we've turned out paperwork, even though we've been trying to fight for and talk to people that are not listening, they're not close. I lost my knees building Joe Walken for making $23 over the limit for Medicaid cutouts. My inhaler is $48 to $50. Without Medicaid, I'm not going to make it. Joe to dad, my son, and now my child is dead. 600,000 people were cut from Medicaid and Trump. Now after 24 million people across this country are going to lose their health care and it's not necessary. It shouldn't be this way. I've walked through hell to get where I am today. I've seen the worst. Now I'm ready to see the best. My partner and my kids are going on Medicaid and we're part of the nonviolent Medicaid army. We're not just in the war stories with the health care system that I had my choice for to be out here crying. And protest with us. Whatever you can do, just come out. We can't add money or add money to the health care profiteers, but we can organize them. Poor, working class, people who are struggling to make their lives better are held at the mercy of cheap corporations that make millions of dollars profiting off of people suffering in our district. Well, I think it's really important to recognize that we're really in the same boat and I think we have a vested interest in joining forces. We can't fix anything if we're constantly pointing the finger at each other and not up where it belongs. We know that this rate isn't running a date. It's not worth for the long term. And when rule gets broken, Robbie and the hill, as we go marching and the wind. So we're going to hear some stories from our community members that are here with us today. So, Leah, can I invite you up to start us off and then we'll hear from Brett and then I'll be reading for somebody else. Yeah, I'm Leah. I joined the Vermont Worker Center in 2022. Hearing how other people have been impacted by the health care crisis helped me reframe the ways that I have been struggling and to see my life in a larger political context for the first time. I've been working low age, no benefit jobs in the service industry for 10 years since I was a teenager. When I was 19, I got kicked off of Dr. Dinosaur. My parents were uninsured so I couldn't get on their insurance. I didn't get benefits through work and never made enough money to buy insurance from the marketplace. I should have qualified for Medicaid at the time, but navigating the application process, all the hoops they make you jump through was impossible. When I was 20, I developed an overuse injury while washing dishes at a hotel where I was paid partially in Roman Ford. I didn't have insurance and couldn't access care for my injury. Most jobs in the service industry don't afford you unpaid off, unpaid time off, let alone paid time off. So if I rested my injured shoulder by taking time off from work, I would have lost my income and my housing at the same time. I continued to work and now six years later the condition is almost unbearable. The constant stress and overuse progressed, what could have been a minor treatable case of tendonitis into a disabling spinal deformation and endocrine disorder that I will have to cope with for the rest of my life. I have spent my entire adult life cycling through low wage jobs trying to make enough money to make ends meet, but not so much money that I lose my access to Medicaid. I'll work at one place until the pain in my shoulder and spine become unbearable and the only workforce seems to be quitting and getting a week off, a week of rest until my next job starts. Being disabled in this way without reliable access to care, employment and housing is being caught in a destabilizing cycle that makes personal, professional or physical growth nearly impossible. It's impossible to build any kind of stability because the foundation keeps getting ripped out. It doesn't need to be like this. I was fortunate enough to get back on Medicaid during the COVID-19 public health emergency. The two years when I had Medicaid and didn't need to worry about it were real blessings. I started treatment and started healing. I made a little extra money and felt more financially secure. It was a window that let me and a lot of us see how having Medicaid for all would change their lives for the better. Now that they have called an end to the public health emergency, despite how COVID-19 rates continue to soar, I have lost and regained my Medicaid four times in the last two months. My income was well below the cutoff threshold and did not change, but because of clerical errors I had to spend two months without access to Medicaid that I qualified for. I had to porgo treatment again. Six years have gone by since my injury and it feels like I'm still in the same place. It shouldn't be like this. We all have stories like this in some way. We are all impacted by the healthcare crisis. We all need Medicaid for all. Thank you. Next we're going to have Brett to share. Hello everyone. Thank you for coming. I'd also like to thank the Vermont Workers Center and the Poor People's Campaign for inviting us to this wonderful event. My name is Brett Rhodes and I've worked as an inpatient licensed nursing assistant at the UVM Medical Center for six years. I'm also a proud to be a vice president and support staff union at the hospital. During my time as a healthcare worker at UVM, I've all too often seen the effects that our privatized profit driven healthcare system has on our patients. It's heartbreaking to see these patients, many of whom are incredibly sick and struggling with the new diagnosis, also have to struggle with the fear and anxiety of how they will pay for their care and their treatment. I've had patients too afraid to order meals out of fear of adding to their insurmountable medical debt. Something is very wrong here. And this anxiety is not isolated to the patients we see. Many of my friends and fellow union members have recently been kicked off of Medicaid, leaving them in the precarious position of no longer being able to afford the very healthcare that they help to provide. Our union supports staff united as well as amazing organizations like the Vermont Workers Center, the Poor People's Campaign and the Nonviolent Medicaid Army. Fight tirelessly to fix our broken healthcare system and to provide every Vermonter with equitable and affordable access to healthcare. And together we will continue to fight. Thanks so much for that. Okay, so this next story I'm going to read and I'm reading this on behalf of Dr. Ryan Quinn, who's a pharmacist at Lakeside Pharmacy here in Burlington. So just a little bit about Ryan. Ryan has worked in pharmacy in Chittenden County since 2014, starting as a pharmacy technician and working up to becoming a pharmacist in 2021. Since becoming a pharmacist, Ryan has moved from corporate to independent pharmacy working at Lakeside Pharmacy since August of 2021. He's now the manager of Lakeside Pharmacy and he works to assist the residents of Burlington and the surrounding area with access to medications and assistance with any medication related questions in a judgment free and supportive community focused space. So I just also want to say before I read this that Ryan is the pharmacist that helped me when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. And this is all, I'm one of the patients that he's speaking about and can attest to that from the other side of his care. So this is Ryan's share. As a pharmacist working in Burlington, I interact with and see the positive effects of Vermont Medicaid on a daily basis. Medicaid gives access to vital medications with a level of ease and accessibility not seen with private insurances. Having Medicaid means going to a new provider or using a new pharmacy doesn't come with the frustration of trying to figure out which card or ID number is the exact one they need. Instead, all you need is a short number from a single card and you receive healthcare in Vermont. It is a level of simplicity that should be commonplace in healthcare, but often is not. Beyond even physical accessibility of receiving healthcare, financial accessibility makes it even more wonderful. A patient's co-pays can range from nothing to only a few dollars per prescription. Even then, if a person is unable to pay for their prescription, this isn't a barrier as co-pays can be waived so people walk away with their prescription, regardless of income. Whether it's a doctor's office visit, a dental appointment, or a blood pressure medication. Medicaid ensures that people receive the care they need and deserve. It is the gold standard I hold every other insurance against. Unfortunately, the income limits on being eligible for Medicaid are far too low and far too binary. Patients of mine have found themselves kicked off Medicaid from making too much money. Even if it's only by a margin of a few dollars a year. You are either under this line and covered by the best insurance in the state, or you are over it and forced to use private insurance or no insurance at all. I have seen patients who have come to me excited with news of a new job quickly be shocked by finding that their new insurance is asking for tens or hundreds of dollars on a prescription they got for only a dollar a month prior. Even worse, these private insurance companies can look at a patient who has been stable on a medication for years with Medicaid and say, this is not on our formula. We refuse to fill this, forcing someone to use another potentially subpar choice and disrupt their lives. These issues have regularly caused patients of mine to go from stable on medications that keep them healthy to suffering from infrequent access due to cost of the drug or arbitrary formulary limitations from these massive conglomerates. I cannot stress enough the pain it causes to see healthy people shaken up and potentially made to suffer from lack of medical access when they are by every metric doing the right thing. Healthcare is a human right and no one should be punished by a lack of access when we have the foundation of an incredible system that should be used by all Vermonters. One that is focused on the patients and providers it is supposed to help and not on shareholders who pursue a perpetually inflated bottom line and insurance that should be supported and expanded instead of slash and restricted. An invaluable resource to a huge number of patients and one that I would want nothing more than to see expanded to every single person in Vermont. Easy access, affordable health care that is good for everyone. A simple idea that can and should be achieved. An idea that I fully believe in and fully support for the good of all Vermonters. So that's Brian's Lakeside Pharmacy. So now we want to turn it over to all of you folks who are here with us today and this is an invitation. If anybody in the audience here today has a story about health care that you'd like to share kind of right here right now. Anyone feeling called? It's okay if not. So instead of having somebody shared or just come up here. It's really an invitation to turn to your neighbors, maybe find one person or a couple of other people and just start a conversation about health care, what it's been like for you to navigate health care and we'll do this for about five minutes. You can kind of turn to your neighbors or go kind of find other folks. So we'll come back in about five minutes. So just take some time to connect with each other. So I first just want to say that I'm feeling really inspired seeing so many people talk to each other and just how engaged everyone seems to be. It's really, this is the reason that we're here. And I think it just kind of proves the fact that health care touches each and every one of us in some way or another. So I'll turn it over to all of you now again. If anyone's feeling inspired to share anything that stood out to you in your conversations, even just what you're feeling right now after hearing from other people, anything that felt surprising. It's just an invitation for any reflections and I can pass the mic if anyone's feeling called to share. I mean, there's been legislative meetings. I'm not sure, do you know of anything coming up in the near future? There have been a few rallies. There was a group of us that spoke and testified with the Health Care Committee about the bill H721. So there are actions that have happened and will happen. There is an email list. We could probably set you up and sign a course so you get the notifications on any events coming up. Anyone else want to share? Hi, my name's Quinn. I should stand up. Okay, thank you. Hi everyone, how's it going? Good. So, let's see. I've been on Medicaid since about 2017 when I had to live homeless for a while and not work in order to receive Medicaid because I've been in and out of psych hospitals over like 10 times at the course of my life. I have bipolar disorder. I take lithium twice a day along with anti-psychotic medications to stay stable and healthy. And I live with debilitating drug addiction, which has been in remission for a few years now. Thank you. But I got a, it wasn't a letter, but it was one of those cards from the state that said, you're on Medicaid. This is what the red letter looks like if we send it to you. And the red letter isn't, well, it's basically, it's a letter with a line through it on the front that's red. And it says, you are no longer on Medicaid. And I just thought that would ruin my life if I could afford my medications because I make pizza for a living and I can barely afford to pay my bills as it is. I also take PrEP, I'm a member of the queer community, and that helps prevent, it's like an HIV prophylaxis, it prevents getting HIV. And I'm just thinking that would be extremely, that would just be blatantly unaffordable if I weren't on Medicaid. And like that pharmacist said, it's very easy to pick up your medications. It's free for me, which sometimes, like this week, is entirely necessary. And I'm just thinking, when I saw that letter, that I could risk my physical, mental, and clean self if I weren't on Medicaid. So that's my story, thank you. To share, oh, I got this. Yeah, I just wanted to share that I was on Medicaid and then I went on disability and it was very shocking because then they suddenly put me on Medicare and my life became quite hellish. And just for anyone who doesn't know when you're on Medicare, there's just a lot of things you have to pay for that you didn't have to before. And it doesn't cover things like a naturopath, it doesn't cover dental anymore. So I've had to get like a whole bunch of different insurances. And also because my situation was kind of unique, there was just so much confusion in all my communications with all these systems, which was pretty overwhelming for me because I recently found out that I have autism and ADHD. And the last thing I'm really good at is communicating with people in systems. So, you know, I think like a while back there was like a conversation about Medicare for all, but I can say we don't want Medicare for all, we want Medicaid for all. But even Medicaid for all is not without its issues because I don't know the specific reasons why this happens to some people, but some people are forced to pay back their Medicaid bills. Like I was reading a story about a family where the mom passed away, she had left the house to her kids and Medicaid made the kids sell the house. So it really affects things like generational wealth, which ends up affecting all kinds of equality issues in our community. And I feel like it's something, you know, that as we're changing laws, we have to look at all the different ways that our government manipulates people out of their money and is exploitative of us, our labor. And, you know, I think it's really great being in this community because I feel like we care about each other's health. And I think we're going to build that world by how much we care about and look out for each other. So I just wanted to share that. Thank you. Thanks so much for that. And I think we have time for maybe one more story if anybody is feeling called to share. Okay. Oh, awesome. All right. I feel like everyone else is way more qualified to tell their story than me, but since no one else raised their hand, I'll get up here and share a few words. I'm addicted to snowboarding. It's a debilitating habit that occasionally results in injury, especially when you're going down through the trees. So I broke my ankle in 2017 and I swore up about, like, this big. And so we took an x-ray and they said, you know, you're fine. It's not broken. Just walk around, go back to your life. And one of the technicians said, you know, really it would make more sense to take an MRI, but, you know, your insurance is not going to pay for that. MRIs are like $4,000. Well, in Japan, where they have a nationalized healthcare system, where they've taken the profit motive out of the healthcare system to some extent, MRIs are 20 times cheaper. And so people are able to get the imaging that they need right out the back. So after about a month of walking around on my broken ankle, I was like, man, I'm feeling really terrible. I still have a lot of pain. Can I get that, please? Can I get that MRI? And they're like, no, you need to be in more pain. You need to be more sad. And so somehow I got the MRI and they're like, we're so sorry. Yeah, you do have a broken ankle. So walking around on it for a month was not really the thing to do. So, yeah, I have arthritis in my left ankle now. I can no longer run or do a lot of things I like to do. But I feel like so many of us today have just talked about how unnecessary this all is. You know, it's just so that a handful of billionaires on Earth can just be astronomically rich and confused about even what to do with that wealth. And so, yeah, what are we going to do about it? I mean, I think if we look around the world at countries that have one single payer or nationalized health systems like the UK, it's about the working class getting organized. Organizing the unions, organized our workplace primarily, but organized as tenants. Community organizing this right here, like what we're doing right now, we're getting organized, we're getting our stories organized. We're getting to know each other, relationships are power. And I'm just so lucky to fight alongside you. And that was a beautiful transition to turn things over to Angela who's going to talk just about that and what's next and what the problem is and how we can change it. Oh, there it is. Hi. My name is Angelina. I've been a member of the Vermont Workers' Center since 2021, I believe. First of all, I just seriously want to express so much appreciation for those sharing their stories and for everyone for listening. It's really so impactful and you're also resilient, strong people. You know, I think in the system you're forced to be resilient. You don't have any other choice but to be resilient. And so, yeah, thank you all for sharing your stories and they're really powerful because when the state of Vermont chooses for thousands of us to be kicked off their only source of healthcare coverage, you're really reminded of your dispossession as a working class person and you're reminded that our state's priority, our country's priority is profits, not our health, not our lives, but profits. And so, our stories are a power. They are points of connected, you know. There's many new faces here for me, people I've never met, but I feel so connected to you from sharing from the story you shared. And so, that's all to say and to reiterate what Erin had said at the beginning of today's event, you know, by sharing our stories, we really are taking back our power. So, continue sharing your story. It's such a powerful thing. So, this year, as you probably know or maybe even experienced, Vermont kicked around 25,000 people off of Medicaid and this is following the one million Medicaid cutoffs made last year nationwide. Now, everyone's healthcare story is different. The distinct impacts that being denied healthcare has is different, but at the end of the day, everyone is impacted and our struggle shares the same root cause. People who have private insurance are impacted as well. Let me say that there are 140 million poor people and people who are just one emergency away from becoming poor in our country and out of those 140 million people, those who are forced to pay an arm and a leg for their private health insurance are just one accident, one mis-paycheck, one unpredictable emergency away from having no coverage at all. So, if that happened, how many of those people would make the threshold for Medicaid, you know, with so many people who already need it are being denied? So, too many people do not have access to healthcare and that's because the corporations that dictate this country deny them their access. Too many people do not have a stable roof over their heads because this country denies them a home. Vermont faces a healthcare crisis, a housing crisis, a human rights crisis. The U.S. is denying its people of their basic human rights while also simultaneously ending thousands of lives in Gaza. In 2011, after years of organizing, the Vermont Worker Center secured the passing of Act 48. Act 48 is Vermont's universal healthcare law. But do we have universal healthcare in Vermont? What's up with that? Seriously. Oh my goodness. We must just loss our access to healthcare and at the time the governor explained that universal healthcare would just be impossible to fund. So even though it's the law, it goes unfunded. But if Act 48 were implemented, 93% of Vermonters would have full healthcare coverage and also higher incomes. But meanwhile, our country is spending billions of dollars to bomb hospitals and schools in Palestine and completely destroy their healthcare system. And yet we're told that we can't fix our own healthcare system. So Martin Luther King Jr. saw a very similar contradiction in 1967 in his speech, Beyond Vietnam. Dr. King stated that a nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social justice. Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Our country's priorities are killing us and additionally they're polluting our planet. War is one of the greatest contributors to carbon emissions and this is only exacerbating the poverty and the illness that too many people are unjustly and unnecessarily experiencing. So not only is healthcare extremely expensive and difficult for most of us to access but its quality is even compromised by corporate greed and by racism. It's more dangerous for us to have children now than it was for our parents. Maternal and infant mortality rates have increased for everyone but especially for black mothers, even black mothers who are wealthy. Hospitals make more money by performing C-sections even though they put mothers at higher risk for complications when they're not necessary and because it's profitable to minimize the time mothers spend in the hospital and in labor. So all this is to say that hospitals are profiting from maternal death. Under capitalism, illness and death are a source of profit and our entire society is structured to make us sick from extremely stressful and over-demanding work environments to air pollutants to the foods that are most accessible for us. In the same speech, King urges that we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. He warns that when machines and computers profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. But I want to talk about how we can move to what King calls a person-oriented society and I think we had a glimmer of insight. Right? Right? So we have to get organized and build our power as the people. I want to quote Asada Shakur. She was an incredible black revolutionary and she said nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them. Hey cut-offs, I want to remind we're supported by both political parties. So it's clear that our human rights are not the concern of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party. We have to unite across all lines of division, our political divides, our racial divides, our gender divides, all lines of division to create a person-oriented society and to resist our oppression. Martin Luther King organized the original Poor People's Campaign in 1968 which was also the year he was assassinated and the collective movement from the Poor People's Campaign is the collective movement from which the nonviolent Medicaid army is modeled after. So who knows about the nonviolent Medicaid army? We just watched that amazing video, right? Right? Right? So the nonviolent Medicaid army is a united network that aims to be a new and unsettling force made up of the poor and the dispossessed. Over 90 million people in the U.S. rely on Medicaid for healthcare and a third of Vermonters are on Medicaid and this doesn't even include those who are excluded or cut off from its access. And I want to quote directly the nonviolent Medicaid army. Those who are on or excluded from Medicaid represent the diversity of the entire working class and are impacted by every single front of struggle there is. Be it the fight for housing, a healthy environment, living wages, food, education, freedom from debt, freedom of migration, or freedom from criminalization and incarceration. This fight for our human rights, for a people-oriented society, requires unity. And as the nonviolent Medicaid army often says, we might not be able to out money for those profiting from our suffering but we can out-organize them. We are leading the fight for healthcare by sharing our stories. Just today we're seeing how powerful it is and if you have a story of how you're impacted by the healthcare crisis, we are sharing them through our photo petition. If you have a healthcare story, you can write why you need universal healthcare and we'll share those photos. And as a collective, it tells the story of why we need healthcare. So here we are actively bringing together the poor and the dispossessed because we have incredible power as a collective movement. And when we are united, we can persuade any legislator to fight for our cause. Just this past January, we were at the state house telling our policymakers why we need universal healthcare, why we need H721. And as a collective, we have the power to determine who our policymakers are. For instance, the previous mayor, Ryan Berger, was mayor of Burlington for over a decade, right? But through collective organizing, grassroots collective organizing, we were able to elect a new promising mayor, Emma Mulvaney Sainic. And so every conversation we have, just a few minutes ago, I was so absorbed into the conversation I was having, I learned so much from talking to people and from those connections. So every conversation we have, every March that we organize in May, we'll be having our annual March for Medicaid. And every story we share is one step toward equitable, just healthcare system. And beyond that, a world where everyone has a roof over their head, food in their stomach, the freedom to love who they love, the offer to meetings and resources to bring their dreams into fruition. And this is the dream that I have and that many of us have. And I believe that we can make this dream a reality when we organize and we unite as a collective force. So I'm gonna say, who are we? And we'll say, the Medicaid Army. Ready? Who are we? The Medicaid Army. Who are we? All right, so to close us out and finish off also with a song, I think we have maybe Crystal and Keith, or Keith? Keith and I can't change. Come on up. And then after that, we'll transition to food and whatnot. So I'm gonna pass this over. Hi, hello. So yeah, so I don't have too too much to say. I'm just kind of, you know, wrapping things up, closing things out. A bunch of great, you know, speeches and stories and very, you know, meaningful and moving experiences that, you know, are not not even close to the totality and like total amount of, you know, these stories that are like for, for every like one person here, there's dozens of other people who are going through the exact same thing. And not just here in Vermont. But yeah, so what I wanted to share was kind of my, my whole supplemental information as a history teacher. Well, starting next semester, but wink wink. But yeah, so looking at, thank you, thank you. So looking at history, we've seen, just like Angelina was saying, that rights have had to be fought for. You know, you quoted Asahir Shafoor, the Black Panthers are certainly not, you know, they couldn't be said to not be militant. They were very organized. They read, you know, theory. Research, very knowledgeable. And very active. And it was very, this was during a time when, you know, there was great, like attitude and, you know, beliefs aside, racism and segregation were very possible to the system at that time. And they still are. But that was something that was part of the status quo. And needed to be organized and actively antagonized against. And the reason that something so profitable and integral to the system was able to be changed, was because of that organizing. I also think I'm like, you know, the disability movement. Those, the, you know, the federal legislation requiring like disability ramps on buses, that didn't happen because someone was like, oh, you know, why don't we, why don't we go ahead and add those? It happened because this group, I think it was called the Atlantis group in Denver, kept throwing themselves in front of buses. And they said, we're going to do this every day until like the city or state reps here meet with us and agree to make buses accessible, sidewalks accessible, all that good stuff. So that is to say that like, this is something that needs to be fought for. And just like all, you know, social progression in the past. And as Angelina also mentioned, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a, you know, a thing on the table saying we're going to pass, you know, healthcare support. In fact, you know, obviously we know the Republicans have pushed very hard to, against, you know, the ACA, reduce the tax on the individual mandate or whatever you call it to zero, but also Joe Biden in 2022 he hired Liz Fowler who said her goal is to privatize Medicare completely by 2030. So it is very clear that neither nor the Republicans as opposed to being had the interest of the working people, the majority of people in America, in mind. So now that's really easy to hear and it's really easy to be like, yeah, okay, that sucks. So what do we do? How do we get involved? How do we, you know, follow in the footsteps of like these past movements? Well, I've got a couple ones. The easiest one, first and foremost is to keep in the loop. And so you can do that by following us on social media. If you've got a phone, go ahead and take it out. If you've got Instagram or Twitter, I'm gonna go ahead and give our handles. Yeah, I'll give people a second to take them out. All right, so on Instagram, we are at Vermont Worker Center. Twitter, we are at VT Worker Center. And then our website is workercenter.org. I know that, what was that? Woo, okay. Anyway, so I know that if this is your first time coming to something like this, you probably have some questions. Like, okay, yeah, it sounds good, but like, you know, how are we gonna pay for it? How are we gonna, you know, all these questions? And they're fair questions, because it's like, you know, in theory, like, how would this work? You know, it's, I hear people saying, oh, people will have more money. Oh, this will be more efficient. But how? And so on the worker center, I highly encourage everyone to check out our website after, just skim around. We have full, like, documents from, like, exactly how we plan to do, like, the financial side of it. I think it's like a 37 page document, like, outlining how it actually saves the state money to do a single payer policy. And then the very last few things is to let people know what we got coming up. Over the next few months, we're going to be both meeting with state officials and also calling in for show support for Bill H721. And if you're following us on our socials, or if we have you on, like, our email list, we'll be sending out emails as well as you can get involved whenever you're able to in comfortable doing. And let's see, we're also having our summer organizing drive. I don't know. I think we'll probably be sending out some more information on that. And then, yeah, so Keith is up after me, but before he gets into the musical side, if there's any events you wanted to, like, mention that people can be on, like, the lookout for, or me? Nothing much, probably. And can we go inside? Yes. Do you want to? Yeah, can I do your mic? Yeah, you can. You can ask me. The service? Yes. Are we going to send them out by email? We have them here. Oh, period. Okay, so before you go, we have a bunch of little, like, leaflet thingies. We're encouraging, in fact, we're demanding that everyone take five of them, bring them back with you, give them to people, get, you know, people thinking about their healthcare, thinking about their, you know, their connection to it. Because some people here might agree with the message, but might not personally be affected. I'm very fortunate to have had my Medicaid this year, but we all have a lot of people in our lives who aren't necessarily sharing, like, what they're going through, like, you know, it's not fun to be like, oh yeah, probably gonna be in debt forever because I can't pay my bills for medical costs. So we're hoping that, yeah, everyone, please, please, please take five surveys or more if you want, but the goal is for everyone to take at least five and then pass them out to people in your life, start that conversation with other people. Get that conversation, that dialogue going and see just how much we show our many differences. I'll share this common connection to and challenge with healthcare. Yeah, I'm gonna pass it over to Keith, and yeah, oh, that's great. Right here, it's gonna roll off. Can we turn it off, though? I think so, test. We're off. Am I just loud or is it? Okay, thank you. All right, everyone, and we're gonna eat in a minute, have the health screening clinic, but I just wanted to put out so somebody's hurting our people and it's gone on and you all say, far too long. It's gone on far too long. Somebody's hurting our people and it's gone on far too long. And then we all say, and we won't be silent anymore. Does anyone know this song? Some people have heard it, maybe? Whoa, whoa, whoa, somebody's hurting our people and it's gone on far too long. Yes, it's gone on far too long. I tell you, it's gone on far too long. Whoa, whoa, whoa, somebody's hurting our people and it's gone on far too long. Somebody's hurting our brother. We're gonna sing it together. People feeling it? All right, the spinner. Oh, go, oh yeah, thanks, Charlie. All right, this isn't about me or Jordy singing. This is, this is, y'all, let's sing. You know, it's part of a movement. Somebody's hurting my brother and it's gone on. Yes, it's gone on, let's tell you and we won't be hurting my sister and it's gone on, my sister and it's gone on. So now we're gonna transition to food in the back on the left over here and then please visit our pop-up clinic, health clinic on the side on the left over here as well. And that's where the surveys will be. Thanks everybody.