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Letter from the Council of Presidents all three of us have been registered nurses for more than 35 years, and we have never seen our communities in such disarray, in such suffering, as we have the last couple of years. The economic crisis has kicked people out of their homes, made children go to bed hungry, and, yes, it has killed patients. Our patients. But we are beyond feeling sad. We are angry. Because at the same time as all these horrible things are happening to our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, an elite group of CEOs are making an ungodly, obscene amount of money. More money than a normal person would know how to spend in a lifetime. In 20 lifetimes. Money that could buy groceries for thousands of families, buy asthma and blood pressure medication for thousands of people, and put thousands of students through college. According to an Associated Press analysis of CEO salaries, it would take 636 years for a minimum-wage worker to make the average CEO salary of $9.6 million, and 9,096 years to make the $137 million annual salary of David Simon, CEO of Simon Property and one of the highest-paid executives. Just to help you wrap your brain around this, a minimum-wage employee would need to work three years just to make what Simon does in one hour. Is this fair? What does it say about our society when corporations and executives like Simon are allowed to hoard NATIONAL NURSE,��� (ISSN 2153-0386 print/ISSN 2153-0394 online) The Voice of National Nurses United, April | May 2012 Volume 108/3 is published by National Nurses United, 2000 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. It provides news of organizational activities and reports on developments of concern to all registered nurses across the nation. It also carries general coverage and commentary on matters of nursing practice, community and public health, and healthcare policy. It is published monthly except for unimaginable amounts of wealth, while seniors and kids in our communities are literally starving? Robin Hood may be only a myth or legend, but, boy, did he have the right idea. A representative of the people needs to swoop in and set things right. And that representative is you, the registered nurse. As patient and social advocates who, poll after poll shows, are most trusted by the American people, it makes sense for NNU nurses to come to the rescue. (We normally do anyway, don���t we?) We are pushing for a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street: a small sales tax on financial trades by the big banks that could generate up to $350 billion a year to fund all the basics that people desperately need. We dedicated our spectacularly successful 2012 Staff Nurse Assembly to this theme of healing the world, and you can read all about it in this issue. Think about it. It makes sense. Please visit our website at NursesHealAmerica.org to learn more about the Robin Hood tax and how to help. Your patients and communities are counting on you. Deborah Burger, RN | Karen Higgins, RN | Jean Ross, RN National Nurses United Council of Presidents combined issues in January and February, and July and August. Periodicals postage paid at Oakland, California. POSTMASTER: send address changes to National Nurse, 2000 ��� Franklin Street, Oakland, CA 94612-2908. To send a media release or announcement, fax (510) 663-0629. National Nurse��� is carried on the NNU website at www.nationalnursesunited.org. For permission to reprint articles, write to Editorial Office. To subscribe, send $40 ($45 foreign) to Subscription Department. Stay connected www.facebook.com/NationalNurses www.flickr.com/nationalnursesunited TWITTER: @RNmagazine, @NationalNurses YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/NationalNursesUnited FACEBOOK: FLICKR: Please contact us with your story ideas They can be about practice or management trends you���ve observed, or simply something new you���ve encountered in the profession. They can be about one nurse, unit, or hospital, or about the wider landscape of healthcare policy from an RN���s perspective. They can be humorous, or a matter of life and death. If you���re a writer and would like to contribute an article, please let us know. You can reach us at nationalnurse@nationalnursesunited.org EXECUTIVE EDITOR RoseAnn DeMoro EDITOR Lucia Hwang GRAPHIC DESIGN Jonathan Wieder COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Charles Idelson CONTRIBUTORS Gerard Brogan, RN, Hedy Dumpel, RN, JD, Jan Rabbers, Donna Smith, David Schildmeier, Ann Kettering Sincox PHOTOGRAPHY Jaclyn Higgs, Tad Keyes