 December
6th - Portland, Maine |
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The
Freedom Bus travelled through the snowy hills and to Portland,
Maine. We stepped off the bus and immediately began marching
with POWER (Portland Organization to Win Economic Rights).
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POWER
is responsible for leading a statewide referendum on Universal
Health Care. Despite strong, well-financed opposition
from insurance companies, voters asserted that everyone
should have the right to health care.
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Heather
Blanchard, from the Preble Street Consumer Advocate Group,
spoke on the incredible struggles people face to meet their
basic needs. "Even my parents are having to struggle.
They've worked all their lives, but now they can't afford
their prescriptions, and they're going to lose everything
they have." |
Dot
shared how she was homeless after losing subsidized housing,
then sleeping in her car, then losing her car. She echoed
other speakers who discussed the total lack of affordable
housing in Portland...and how nowhere in America can someone
working a full-time, minimum wage job afford fair market
rent.
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Jesse
from POWER presented the collected stories of Economic Human
Rights violations. She shared how before she could get the
assistance she needed to pay her medical bills, she had to
become totally destitute. "It's not right, because people
deserve more than bare survival, they should be able to flourish,
to live lives of decency and dignity!" |
Chita,
representing CRIDES from El Salvador, also gave testimony
about her community's struggle for human rights in the face
of repression, and her experience on the bus tour: "When
I return home, I will be able to tell how I have seen for
myself people in the United States rooting through the garbage
to survive."
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Cheri
Honkala accepted the documentation of Economic Human Rights
violations in Maine gathered by POWER, and promised to bring
them to the Truth Commission in New York City on the 10th.
"We refuse to accept a lower and lower standard of living.
Across the country we hear the same stories: Families doubling
and tripling up to afford housing; young adults returning
home because they can't get the jobs or affordable housing
they need; seniors scraping money together for the medication
they need. We need to be fighting the war at home!"
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Briggs
Seekins, a Gulf War Veteran, spoke on how he had joined
the armed forces because he was poor and saw few other options.
He also shared some of the struggle to organize when people
are preoccupied with their day-to-day survival. "But
we saw the documentary of the last bus tour, Outriders,
and I knew this was something we had to do."
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About
the Campaign 
