WPSR President's Letter - Fall 2020
October 2020
Dear WPSR Members and Supporters,
We find ourselves living through turbulent times. The daily news cycle dumps the heavy baggage of scandalous, atrocious, often immoral, and sometimes criminal activity on the part of elected officials and government appointees in our laps. We are overwhelmed and losing our capacity for outrage. All this occurs in the setting of a pandemic that has taken over 220,000 lives in our country and over one million lives worldwide. Projections for the fall and winter indicate a second wave that may be as terrible as the first. A sense of doom is accelerating as we approach the election, now just over two weeks away. For those of us who engage in health-based advocacy, the current trajectory can be downright emotionally disabling. But we know that the way out of the abyss is taking action. Action gives us hope. Action gives us purpose. Action is the antidote to despair.
WPSR is non-partisan. We will engage with our elected and appointed officials on our core issues regardless of party affiliation. We have serious work ahead, no matter who wins the White House, no matter who wins the Senate, and no matter who sits on the Supreme Court. Our work is urgent. Life expectancy in the United States is falling as economic inequity rises. Armed conflicts could escalate to nuclear conflicts at any time, so long as we continue to possess such weapons. The window for having a meaningful impact on the climate crisis is rapidly closing.
The policies we put in place in the next one to two years will have a lasting impact, for better or worse, on all future generations. Given the urgency, we have no choice but to press forward leading up to, and following, the election -- regardless of the results.
That said, elections do have consequences, and the range of possible results clearly includes some that will make our work easier and some that will make our work harder. The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine took the unprecedented step of calling for the electoral removal of a sitting president. This stance is based on the adverse health consequences of the current administration’s policies.
WPSR member and former Dean of the UW School of Public Health, Howard Frumkin, outlines the climate policy differences between the two presidential candidates in this article in the Lancet.
I encourage you to read WPSR’s 2020 voter guide, to learn about the positions of WA Congressional candidates on the issues of greatest concern to WPSR. I also ask that you read - and share - the articles linked above, and consider them deeply as you fill out your ballots. This is crucially important. Our volunteer Task Force and staff members will enter a period of intense strategic planning immediately after the election. WPSR intends to have a major impact on a local, state, and federal level in 2021. While some strategic priorities will clearly be affected by the outcome of the elections, you can be sure that we will be working on the following:
Nuclear Weapons Abolition: WPSR will continue to advocate for a policy of No First Use, for limits on presidential sole authority to use nuclear weapons, for renewal of existing nuclear weapons treaties, for a prohibition on nuclear testing, and for a redirection of spending on weapons systems to health and human services. We will continue to seek access to medical care for communities, including the Marshallese and the Spokane tribe, that have been harmed by our country’s irresponsible production and use of nuclear weapons.
The Climate Crisis: In order to prevent the worst human health impacts of our fossil fuel addiction we need to move rapidly toward 100% carbon-free electricity, and then electrify as much of our household, transportation, commercial, and industrial energy use as possible. WPSR will advocate for a clean fuel standard in Washington, and policies for supporting gas-free buildings in cities across our state. The impacts of pollution from burning fossil fuels are not felt equally. Low-income communities and communities of color are already suffering the greatest harm from pollution and will continue to do so if we don’t act. Therefore, we will continue to advocate for investments in low-income communities and climate adaptation assistance to low-income families in our state. Unfortunately, while Washington remains ahead of the rest of the nation on climate, this crisis will not be solved on a state and local level alone. We will need strong federal policies which will include investments in clean energy infrastructure and storage, investments in the electrification of public transportation and automobiles, investments in vulnerable communities, assistance to displaced workers, and a fee on carbon emissions paid by the polluters.
Economic Inequity: More equal societies are healthier societies. The growing crisis of economic inequality - locally, nationally, and across the globe - is a health crisis, and WPSR is advocating tirelessly for policies that will reduce economic inequity, and in doing so, decrease health disparities. Our state has the most regressive tax code in the nation. Low-income households are paying a much higher percentage of their income to keep the state running than are high-income households. We, along with our coalition partners, will push for reforms including state-level earned income tax credits, capital gains taxes, and a state income tax, as well as increased economic support for our most vulnerable communities, particularly in this time of extreme and widespread need.
WPSR is well-positioned to meet these challenges. We have engaged and committed volunteers and full-time program staff working on each of these formidable issues, issues that are more relevant now than ever. We do need your help. We need you to be informed and ready to take action, by writing and calling your elected officials, by writing a letter to the editor, and by bringing your colleagues into this work. We also depend on your generous financial donations to pay for our program work. Please: consider supporting this critical work with a one-time or recurring donation today.
Mark R. Vossler, MD
President, Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility