VOICE-Buffalo Inc.
“Faithfully Bringing Forth Justice” (Isaiah 42:3)
Another Voice / Citizen action
M. Bruce McKay: Guiding principles should direct health care reform
By M. Bruce McKay
Updated: 06/22/09 from The Buffalo News
As a pastor in Western New York for nearly 20 years, I have seen time and time again the devastating impact on individuals and families of our broken health care system.
The physical, emotional, financial and spiritual well being of those who are uninsured, underinsured or paying unsustainable amounts for health insurance coverage is placed at risk each day by a system that for too long has been driven by institutions seeking to profit from suffering rather than promote the common good.
Our broken health care system has driven thousands of our neighbors into the quagmire of poor health and financial hardship, creating economic and racial disparities that make a mockery of our nation’s deepest values and our shared conviction that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.
The current debate in Washington about the future of our nation’s health care system must be shaped by a vision of a society where all people are afforded the health and dignity they deserve as people created in God’s own image.
Legislative proposals must be measured by their capacity to create a future where health care is:
• Inclusive, offering a guarantee of health care for every person regardless of individual circumstances.
• Accessible, eliminating all barriers to the care that contributes to our health and wholeness as individuals and as a society.
• Affordable, ensuring that we use our abundant health care resources effectively, efficiently and equitably.
• Accountable, calling for shared individual and institutional responsibility in a system of timely, quality and safe care that treats body, mind and spirit.
To lift up these values as people of faith in Western New York, VOICE-Buffalo and NOAH, the Niagara Organizing Alliance for Hope, will be sending more than 50 people to Washington on Wednesday for an Interfaith Service of Witness and Prayer.
Both VOICE-Buffalo and NOAH are congregation-based community-organizing projects working to train and empower citizens to shape the political, social and economic decisions that impact their lives. This journey offers one such chance.
The local organizations also work with the Gamaliel Foundation, a training institute in Chicago. President Obama worked with the Gamaliel Foundation when he was organizing in that city.
For more information about how you can support this effort to bring health care for all, contact the VOICE-Buffalo office at 842-6571 or e-mail office@voice-buffalo.org . Now is the time, as Langston Hughes wrote, to “Let America be America again — Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed.”
The Rev. M. Bruce McKay, the pastor of Pilgrim-St. Luke’s United Church of Christ on Richmond Avenue, is the founding president of VOICE-Buffalo and a founding organizer of NOAH.
Celebrating Our Unity
On June 4, 2009, we had an exhilarating gathering at the
Creekside Banquet Center at
2669 Union Road, Cheektowaga, NY. It was our fundraiser to benefit VOICE-Buffalo. We appreciate your support. See the slide show here.
