On August 24, 2009 we requested information from Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont Senator) regarding the Health Care Reform petition he had initiated in June of this year. Below, you can see the response from Senator Sanders’ Press Secretary, Will Wiquist. The message is consistent – we must contact our Senate & House  Representatives to let them know what We The People want.

Bob,

Thank you very much for your interest in the senator’s work on health care and for your own efforts to mobilize public support for health care reform.  It is very important that the grassroots make clear that there is very strong public support for serious reform to our health care “system.”  Regarding the specific petition in question, I’m sorry that it is no longer active.  Our polls and petitions are, generally, sort-term action items rather than permanent fixtures on our site.  That said, I am glad to read that your readers are still interested in signing this petition.  That is a good sign of the strength of grassroots support for reform.  In lieu of the petition, I suggest that readers write their members of Congress to express their support for progressive reform, express themselves – in an orderly fashion – in town meetings, write letters to the editor of their local paper, call in to local radio shows, and generally make sure that the strong grassroots support for health care reform is vocal and vibrant.

 Best Regards,

Will Wiquist

————————————

William S. Wiquist, III

Press Secretary

Office of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

332 Dirksen Building

Washington, D.C.  20510

With Congress coming back from vacation, it is now more important than ever for us to let the folks in Washington hear our voices, to become involved on a local, regional and federal basis.

As you can see, they really do listen if we speak up. The above response was sent in a very timely fashion considering we are not Vermont constituents of Senator Sanders. Thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders, his staff, and Will Wiquist for their efforts on our behalf. They have added our site e-mail to their press release list so we will be reporting on a regular basis what Senator Sanders and his staff are working on in Washington.