National Nurses United

NewsBriefs We Should All Be This Unreasonable or nearly a half century, Ralph Nader has been one of the biggest thorns in the side of corporations that put profits before the safety of the American public. He is obstinate and uncompromising, and we should all take his cue. An Unreasonable Man, the new documentary movie about Nader, helps us do just that, and holds important lessons for activists, nurses, and patients. In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I am a former "Nader's Raider," having spent one summer in college knocking on doors to raise money for the fight against corporate water polluters, a cause I deeply believe in. It was a mixed experience. I was frustrated with the hard work of fighting for change one person at a time. But I never lost my admiration for the man who is regarded as the most influential consumer advocate of the 20th century. Today, nearly two decades after Nader inspired my first attempt at advocacy, his name evokes passionate responses relating to the 2000 presidential elections. Many of the people interviewed for An Unreasonable Man directly blame him for Al Gore's loss—not that thousands of African Americans were kept off the rolls in Florida, not that around 2,000 voters in Palm Beach county who tried to vote for Gore ended up having their votes counted for Pat Buchanan instead, not that every third- F 8 REGISTERED NURSE party candidate won more than the 537 votes in the official Florida recount that handed George W. Bush the presidency, and certainly not that the judicial branch overrode what most independent scholars now agree was the will of the voters. To its credit, this film includes the perspectives of people on all sides of the 2000 election controversy. More importantly, it provides an in-depth look at the career and life of the man who is directly responsible for (among many other things) the seat belts and air bags in your car, the Clean Air and Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Whistle-blower Protection Act, the W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G Freedom of Information Act, the Pension Protection Act, the the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Automobile Fuel Efficiency and Conservation Act. As a young lawyer, Nader's public advocacy successes were made possible in large part by the political influence of the civil rights and anti-war movements, which had pushed politicians in both major parties to address social concerns. An Unreasonable Man shows how his legal approach was more conservative than the methods of many protestors working outside the system and how, as a consequence, he was able to collaborate with APRIL 2007

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