Clearly, it is time to re-envision what defense means. In terms of health,
37 million people in the United States have no health insurance. In California,
6 million people -- two million of which are children -- have no public
or private health insurance. Eighty-seven percent of all the uninsured
in California are workers and their families.
New studies done by Harvard University researchers have shown that, during
1989 and 1990, among the almost one and half million people who lost their
health coverage were: 29,000 doctors, 89,000 engineers, 269,000 teachers,
58,200 college professors, 52,500 clergy, and many, many others. All legislators
and judges were insured.
It's time to question the assumptions on which our health care system is
based. Why is access to health care linked to a job? Is health care a commodity?
Why, once someone is sick, are they ineligible for health coverage? Why
is the U.S. the only industrialized nation (outside of South Africa) that
fails to provide access to health care for all of its people?
We no longer can claim we can't afford it. In this time of tight money,
health care for all would ironically save us money. Japan and Holland,
for example, spend half of what we do on health care; Canada, two-thirds
of what we spend. Yet all three countries provide health care for everyone.
The day has come to learn from other countries, to examine how they defend
their peoples' health, and spend less, much less, than we do. It's time
to create from this collage of information, a system that is truly ours:
one that cares for and about everyone, and one that provides excellent
and affordable health care for all.
The title of this exhibition is our declaration of intent. The photographs
and poems are the evidence of need.
