For the 7th Annual Membership Assembly, the Pittsburgh HRC Beauty and Order team decided to design and assemble fabric banners for the opening ceremony and to decorate the Sanctuary where we held meetings on Saturday October 12th. For the opening ceremony, we displayed a banner: “All Our Health Is Interwoven” as we led the procession of members singing “Somebody’s Hurting Our Brother”. The Pittsburgh HRC also created a banner: “We Are The Medicaid Army”, with a background of fabric fists.
Members from the Mon Valley HRC helped us create bows and tabletop pipe-cleaner decorations in PPF-PA colors, red white & black. We used the banner and bow making time as organizing time – as we crafted banners, we also crafted relationships and politics! The Beauty and Order team was led by Olivia Robinson and Rica Phillips, with help from LaMetta Davis, Tisha Robinson, Penny Lynch, Ben Fiorillo & Barbara White. Below are a series of photos to capture the beautiful art that filled our space at the Membership Assembly.
On Friday Nov 1, 2019 at 6:45 pm, the newly formed Lancaster County Homeless Union took its first action at Penn Square in Lancaster Pennsylvania. They partnered with the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA to host a vigil for Desierie Quintero, a leader in the California Homeless Union who was killed by a falling tree after the city of Santa Cruz evicted homeless residents of the Ross Camp. Desierie, known as “Mama Desi” was part of a federal lawsuit against the city for this brutal displacement of families.
The Lancaster Homeless Union has been building over the past few months, initiated by the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee of Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) in collaboration with the National Union and came to fruition throughout October. Quality healthcare and housing for all are two of the biggest unmet needs in Lancaster County. (Link to YouTube video footage: https://youtu.be/4ZwGNTFE3Bs)
Lancaster is the first county in PA to re-establish a chapter of the Homeless Union after the demise of the original union during the 1980’s. The Lancaster County Homeless Union will work collaboratively with Put People First! PA and other groups as part of the PA Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. (Link to YouTube video footage: https://youtu.be/DExcTqwwC3k)
Leaders from the National Union of the Homeless visited Lancaster on September 21 for the Medicaid March on Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital organized by PPF-PA. Medical debt and healthcare crises are leading causes of homelessness and securing healthcare is one of the biggest challenges for unhoused people. Similarly, PPF-PA members fighting for healthcare justice also struggle with housing insecurity amid rapid gentrification and housing is a social determinant of health. (Link to YouTube video footage: https://youtu.be/dieOT4TMAKE)
Join the Lancaster Healthcare Rights Committee for a free “Day After Thanksgiving” Dinner! Because the poor and homeless are hungry 365 days a year, not just Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter, Put People First! PA will be joining the National Union of the Homeless in solidarity by hosting a free “Day After Thanksgiving Dinner.” Join us to learn about PPF-PA, The National Union of the Homeless, create a vision for our newly formed Lancaster County Homeless Union, and have group activities towards community building. We are also looking for donations of winter wear items, blankets, socks, underwear and other needed items for all ages to give away at the event. For more information or to donate to this event contact us at 717-298-0562. Please be sure to RSVP so we can be sure to have enough food for everyone. Hope to see you there! (Facebook Event link: https://facebook.com/events/493661421482558/?ti=icl)
Remember Felicia Lance with smiles for all the joy through all the years. She came to Put People First! PA’s Leadership Institute and the Membership Assembly last year. She was about to become a regular member. I bless the memories within my heart because I can’t see or hear her. I know she is nere though. She parted this Earth, but she will forever be in my heart.
Willie Handley by Ben Fiorillo
Willie Handley was a beloved member of our PPF-PA family. He made you feel good when you talked to him; like you were right where you were supposed to be. Willie was an elder who chose to be hopeful, when he could have been cynical. He was a teacher who used his own experiences of racism and poverty to help us understand history and shed new light on our struggle today. Willie moved us, with a gentle spirit and fierce words. The following is an excerpt from a speech he gave last year:
“Most people today in this society, in the information age, don’t have no feelings. I don’t want you to leave here unless you feel me. If you feel what I feel, then you’ll be able to pass it on to someone else…Dr. King was talking about 40 million poor people in America. Right now, we have possibly 140 million poor people in America today. The bad part of that, they don’t know they’re poor. Our job is to bring them into the leadership here…With Artificial Intelligence there’ll be 240 million people by 2040 out of a job. Unless we change some things there’s not gonna be no jobs for America’s poor people. There’ll be no white jobs, no Black jobs…I have a dream that I want 5 million people, and we’re gonna go to Washington and shut it down. Once we shut it down, no one is going to be able to move. They gonna call Reverend Barber, they gonna call the people in the different organizations. They gonna ask them what they need… I want you to be able to go out here and next time I see, my question is to you, have you recruited anybody for the march? Every one of you is a soldier and we need more soldiers like you.”- Willie Handley
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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.
There’s so many more of us than there are of them. So many of our kin are just born into this mess. I don’t know why the police aren’t on our side. I don’t know why we’re not all on the same side. I’m on the side of the earth I’m on the side of the earth. There’s so many more of us than there are of them. So many of our kin are just born into This mess and all the things they obsess with And they are truly lost But I’m on the side of the earth Livin’ on a shoestring income I’m on the side of the earth Askin’ myself how come How come the police aren’t on our side? How come we’re not all on the same side? I”m on the side of the earth There’s so many more of us than there are of them So many of our kin are just born into this mess So many things left unaddressed by our education And I really realized I wish there were no sides When you got rising coastal city tides
// johnpeacefire1.bandcamp.com \\
Today’s world
by Jennina Rose Gorman
Today’s world was turned upside down and I found out on Facebook. Today I learned I’d never again “See you around” So bright, talented, kind- you had “what it took” Taken from this world too early, you were supposed to do so much more…. I expected someday to see you on the big screen, you would’ve dazzled us all You are the second that I went to college with, that left, shaking me to my core It wasn’t supposed to be YOU! You were the best of us…you weren’t supposed to fall. Today I learned I’d never laugh with you again, or act with you again, my heart is on the floor I found out on Facebook. So busy making a living, I’ve forgotten how to LIVE. You had so much talent, you could convey so much in a single look…. You are gone too early, you had so much to give….. To all my friends near and far, know that I love you and support you in every endeavor Please make the time to check on your friends often, even those who seem destined for greatness – maybe ESPECIALLY them… And forgive my clumsy tribute, I am not that clever.
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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.
