Issue link: https://nnumagazine.uberflip.com/i/327441
NATIONAL O n sept. 1, more than 10,000 registered nurses across the nation staged 61 actions in 21 states to call for a tax on Wall Street in order to raise revenue for healing Main Street America— National Nurses United's most ambitious effort at coordinated protests to date and likely the biggest series of events ever hosted by RNs in U.S. history. From Maine, down along the East Coast to Florida, across the Midwest, the South, and on to California, nurses used every variety of creative tactics to draw the media and educate their legislative representatives and the public about our Main Street Contract for the Amer- ican People campaign and rally support for a small tax on trades of stocks, bonds, and other speculative financial transactions. "What we have to say to Wall Street is you have taken and taken and taken, and have given nothing back," said NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro to a crowd of nurs- es and community members in San Diego, Calif. at a soup kitchen event. "You have aban- doned the country and abandoned the people. There should be no hungry people in America, and no people without jobs in America." Registered nurses, recognizing that their advocacy for patients must move beyond the bedside to eradicate damaging social conditions—such as unemployment, lack of insurance, hunger, poor education, and home lessness—that prevent people from being healthy and living to their potential, have taken up the mantle of acting as advo- cates for working people struggling on Main Street America. The nurses' events ranged from soup kitchens evoking the ubiquitous images of Great Depression food lines, to street theater involving giant puppets, to acts of civil disobe- dience, to donation drives of school supplies, food, and clothing. As part of each action, 4 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 1 Nurses Hold Record Number of Actions Calling for Tax on Wall Street NEWS BRIEFS NewsBriefs_Sept 10/11/11 9:30 PM Page 4