On May 25, 2020—on Memorial Day—when we were remembering those who gave their lives in service of this country, a Minneapolis police officer kneeled on the neck of George Floyd for at least five minutes, killing him. Three other officers, all of them sworn to serve and protect the citizens of Minneapolis, participated in this killing. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has asked why the officer who killed George Floyd has not been charged. We should all be asking that question, about every officer involved.
Even though Congress moved quickly to pass a financial relief package, the money in that package is not getting where it needs to be fast enough. The CARES Act became law on March 27, and very little of its relief has reached those who need it. Each day that passes translates to more hungry families, more homes lost, more prescriptions for essential medicines not filled, and more suffering for those who are struggling. As lawmakers begin discussing the CARES Act, Part 2, they need a much quicker way to distribute funds. The payroll processing system should be considered as a way to get money to people faster.
I've spent a fair amount of time in hospitals, both for my own care and with those I love, as I suspect many of you have as well. I know that nurses are the ones you count on.
They explain everything that the doctor didn’t say. They help you to the bathroom when you can’t make it on your own. They know what medicines you need and help you take them. They change your bandages, fix your i.v., and reassure you that the beeping monitor is normal.
The “new normal” isn’t normal at all. Parents are home-schooling their kids or supervising their e-learning. Many businesses have had to shut-down or have significantly reduced operations. Many are figuring out how to work from home, and those who normally work from home are learning how to do it with a full house. For many, jobs have disappeared and income has dried up, but everyone still needs to eat and keep the lights on.
South Bend, IN - On Wednesday, March 11th, the Ellen Marks for Congress campaign announced it would discontinue attendance at most large gatherings to support “social distancing” protocols intended to reduce the spread of the coronavirus through Indiana’s Second Congressional District, which includes all of St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, Wabash, Starke, Miami, Fulton, and Pulaski Counties as well as parts of LaPorte and Kosciusko Counties. Marks will still participate in the Democratic Primary Debates scheduled for March 25th and April 20th, and the campaign will continue to assess as additional information becomes available.
February 4th is World Cancer Day.
Of course I have a personal connection. Of course I do. I would have to be living under a rock.
Carrie was always excited to find a diner that served real roast turkey on its turkey sandwiches—none of the deli stuff. She was whip-smart and no-nonsense, with a warm, deep laugh. She fought her cancer for almost a decade before she succumbed, still in her thirties.
On Sunday, I woke to a series of emails and posts from legal groups, reporting that American citizens who had been born in Iran or had Iranian ancestry, including children and the elderly, were being denied entry into the US and held at a United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility at the Peace Arch in Washington State. Everyone was seeking information about how many people were affected. They also wanted to know whether there was new guidance to the CBP about how to treat Iranian-Americans and whether the problems were isolated to the Peace Arch border station or were happening nationwide. Group members were reaching out to lawyers in Seattle, elected officials, newspapers, and others, trying to get credible first-hand information. I spent a portion of the morning connecting these groups to each other and sharing information as it came in.
At this time last year, I began planning a run for the U.S. Congress, because our government is broken, and our Congressional representatives don’t effectively represent a large portion of the residents in this district. I wanted to move our discussions away from the politics of anger and fear and toward the politics of community and hope. We officially launched our campaign on September 17th, and I’ve spent the last 4-1/2 months balancing a start-up campaign, my job as a lawyer (which I get to step back from on January 1st), and raising our two children (one of whom was snuggled against my arm as I typed this).
Open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on www.healthcare.gov continues until December 15, but some consumers are buying short-term policies on other sites that don’t provide the coverage they need. And they may not know it. The Trump administration and the Indiana legislature recently made it easier for insurers to sell these policies. Private insurance brokers increase their profits by steering consumers to low-coverage insurance.
When I met my friend Joseph in June 2000 at a writing program in Vermont, he had already been HIV+ for decades, Nearly everyone who was infected when he was, early in the days of the AIDS epidemic, had died. He would go out to the National Institute of Health in Bethesda every year so they could draw his blood as they searched for a cure.
I’m thrilled that my children’s public schools have decided to close on the 19th to allow their teachers to make their voices heard at the statehouse. I understand that when schools close unexpectedly, it places a burden on parents who may not have back-up childcare plans. But protecting our schools and our teachers is essential to the future of our children and our communities.
Have you wondered why Team Ellen’s colors are purple and white? They are also the colors of the March of Dimes. Today is World Prematurity Day. For more than 13 years, Ellen has raised money for the March of Dimes Indiana Chapter with her family as Team Verity to combat prematurity and give all infants a healthy start to life.
"To us in America the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service, and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of nations." - President Woodrow Wilson, November 11, 1919.
Thanks and gratitude to all who have served and continue to serve our nation from all of us at #TeamEllen. And a promise: as your Congresswoman, I will fight to make sure that the needs of our returning veterans and their families and caregivers are met.
Important information for the November 5 election. Voting machines may prevent Hoosiers from casting votes in all elections, and you may not even notice!
If you cast a straight-ticket party vote, it will not include votes for any candidates in races where voters are required to vote for multiple candidates, such as the at-large city council races. This is a result of a state law change adopted in 2016. We are also hearing about issues where the ballot structure may cause some candidates for an office to be on a different screen than other candidates for that office.
The statistics on maternal and infant mortality are staggering, and devastating. We need to do better. When we talk about ensuring that everyone has access to affordable healthcare, we include this: making sure that there are doctors, nurses and hospitals (and doulas!) where they need to be, and providing bias training so they deliver the same quality of care to all their patients. We should include government support for healthcare facilities where needed and pay for healthcare providers to go to school if they commit to serving underserved areas.
Indiana has one of the worst rates for childbirth-related death - read more here.
While the news continued to be filled with images of immigrant children in cages at the U.S. border, I was with my family at Disney World. Disney World during a heat advisory is by no means the happiest place on earth, but it is hard to conceive the end of the world order while watching people from all over the world buying cotton candy together, united in their shared desire to wear headbands adorned with Mickey Mouse ears while eating mouse-shaped pretzels. Disney World in June in sweltering heat somehow gave an impression of racial, ethnic and religious harmony that stood in stark contrast to what we knew to be happening in Texas.
