This year, Medicaid and Medicare turn 50 years old and Social Security turns 80. To celebrate their birthdays, the Social Security Works Coalitions has organized a big rally downtown, complete with all sorts of speakers and music. Sanders, who won’t be campaigning at least for the two hours he’s addressing the crowd, will speak along with Representative Adam Smith and city council member Kshama Sawant. Musicians Geo Quibuyen of Blue Scholars, Daniel Pak of Kore Ionz, and Jim Page (no, not that one) will perform throughout the rally.
Xochitl Maykovich of Washington Community Action Network, part of the broader coalition that’s putting on the rally for the entitlement programs, says the celebration is particularly important because “grassroots struggle is what created these programs in the first place, and grassroots struggle will help maintain and expand these programs, especially to communities of color and women.”
For those of us who grew up with these government safety nets, it seems as if they’ve always been there. But these programs were hard won, fought for by people who wanted to create a society where the elderly and the poor can live with some measure of dignity and with access to health care.
*Updates*
Bernie’s campaign just announced that he plans to hold his own rally between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Also, he just gave our very own (okay, and Portland’s) ShellNo protesters a shoutout on Twitter:
Inspired by the activists standing up to Shell in Portland and Seattle. We cannot address climate change and drill in the Arctic. #ShellNo
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) July 31, 2015
Now a presidential candidate is talking about Arctic drilling at the national level. Nice job, ShellNo!
