Over the past few months, two things have become clear about the fight for health insurance reform:
- 1. Our opponents will create and spread outrageous lies to try to stop President Obama from creating real change.
2. We just can't count on the media to debunk them.
If somebody puts out misinformation... then the way the news report comes across is, "Today, such-and-such accused President Obama of putting forward death panels. The White House responded that that wasn't true." And then they go on to the next story. And what they don't say is, "In fact, it isn't true."We've already made historic progress, and momentum is now on our side. We'll be able to keep moving forward if all Americans know the real facts about reform.
So we'll need to double our own efforts to get the truth out. That means more organizers running door-to-door canvasses and phone banks to educate our neighbors, more events to spread the word to Congress, and more ads on the air to counter the smears. And we'll need the money to pay for it all. Please chip in $5 or more to make it happen.
There's no doubt that the better people know the facts, the more they support reform. Real reform will bring stability and security to those who currently have insurance, provide affordable coverage to those who don't, and bring costs down throughout the system -- all without adding a dime to the deficit.
But our opponents' frightening smears can be pretty convincing too -- if folks don't know that they're false.
Stepping in when the media fails is a daunting challenge -- but this community has already come together and accomplished feats no one thought were possible. We did it for last year's election, and we're already doing it again as Organizing for America. In the three short months since we launched our first organizing drive for health reform, OFA volunteers have held more than 18,000 events in every part of the country to spread the truth about reform and the need for change.
We'll all need to step up to continue our amazing momentum -- and right now that means chipping in to make sure we can keep organizing hard to spread the truth and pass real reform in 2009.
Please donate $5 or more to get the truth out:
https://donate.barackobama.
Thanks,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America
