Tribute: Local Activist Robin Nadeau, Liberty, Equality, Justice, and Our Planet

[FayeforCure]

A formidable St Augustine activist has passed away at age 86. She leaves a rich legacy that should serve as an inspiration to younger generations to fight for what's right.

Robin never waivered from what she believed was her duty as a citizen: to speak out.

She passed away on Jan. 6th, the day that she would normally open her house for lively political debate among fellow citizens of our community.

On January 6th each year, Robin Nadeau held a traditional Twelfth Night party at her home, where activists and politicos mingled, celebrating the last night of the Catholic calendar for Christmas.

Last year the Twelfth Night party was not held because Robin had suffered a stroke. In 2010, I fondly remember Robin at the Twelfth Night Party, resplendent in a red dress she had made decades ago. Robin was seated, just inside her front door, talking with our former Democratic Presidential nominee, Senator George S. McGovern â€" engaged in public spirited discussion about how to improve our country and protect our people.

Truly, Robin Nadeau was both a “force of nature,” and a lover of nature, and a lover of democracy, equality and justice. In the spirit of St. Francis and Catholic Worker movement founder Dorothy Day, she spoke her truths and inspired future generations.

http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2012/01/robin-nadequ-rest-in-peace.html

Robin was a good friend of mine and understood well what it meant to be a caregiver to a disabled or sick family member, as she had long cared for her ailing husband Bernard.

Robin Nadeau was nearly 87 years old, and she lived a wonderful life. She lived all over the world with her late husband Bern, who was a Foreign Service Officer and a diplomatic courier. They met on an airliner in Latin America, where Robin was a stewardess, working in the civilian equivalent of a C-47 in the early days of passenger flights. Bern proposed to Robin within 18 hours, because he was afraid they would never meet again.

After Bern’s retirement from the State Department, and after they ran a trailer park in Gainesville, Robin and Bern moved to St. Augustine Beach.

http://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2012/01/robin-nadequ-rest-in-peace.html

As a community let us remember that her activism continued to the very end. She spoke to the St Johns county commissioners as recently as November to advocate their adoption of a resolution in support of a St Augustine National Park and Scenic Seashore. She knew just how important it was to protect our environment. It was there that I last saw her, as always with her most charming smile.

I remember Robin to be such a real lady.

As an immigrant from Canada she never let an opportunity go by without advocating for Medicare for All, knowing first hand how well this system worked in Canada. Her most recent letter to the St. Augustine Record was published just weeks ago:


Nation needs a 'Medicare for all' health care system


Posted: December 13, 2011 - 11:41pm


By Robin Nadeau

St. Augustine Beach


Editor: In response to an editorial from the Northwest Florida Daily News in The Record on Friday, nothing could be further from the truth. America’s privately run, for profit healthcare industry is ranked 37th in the world, according to the World Health Organization, far from being the “best in the world.”

We have a worse infant mortality rate than impoverished Cuba; And Americans die from more serious ailments, and die younger than in other advanced nations, even though they spend almost half as much as we do on health care â€" because most of them benefit from a government run, single payer system, very similar to our VA system.

To quote my son, a neurologist at University of Florida, who also cares for the veterans in the excellent VA hospital, across the road from Shands: “The VA is the best system in America.” Not only does it cost far less to care for our veterans, but, unlike our regular privately run health insurance system, the VA has brokered a far cheaper rate of payment for pharmaceuticals, so that prescription drugs cost a fraction of the high costs that the rest of us pay. If you were to give veterans a voucher for the cost of their health care, they would have to pay a hefty amount out of their own pockets.

There has been “market competition” among the private health insurance companies for years, and yet their prices keep soaring.

Also, our factories that produce goods that we would like to market overseas are unable to compete with the nations with government run healthcare systems, due to the heavy costs of private health insurance for their employees (it costs an average of $2,000 extra per vehicle).

We need a “Medicare for All” system of health care for all Americans. Medicare Administration costs 3 percent, whereas private insurance companies charge an average of 31% to administer their systems, which is required to pay the exorbitant remuneration for their top executives, plus profits for their share holders; added to that, private doctors are obliged to hire experts to sort through the varied billing required by the private insurers, which probably accounts for 59 percent of doctors who would choose a single payer system under Medicare.

http://staugustine.com/opinions/2011-12-13/letter-nation-needs-medicare-all-health-care-system

And earlier in 2011:


Nadeau: Universal health care system would cut deficit


Posted: August 20, 2011 - 11:15pm



By Robin E. Nadeau



St. Augustine Beach


Editor: A single-payer system â€" Medicare for all â€" would cut the deficit.

If Congress were really serious about cutting the deficit, they would institute a "Medicare for All" system of universal health insurance. So-called Obamacare is a big improvement over the existing system, which leaves 56 million American citizens unable to afford health insurance (probably more now, since so many Americans have lost jobs, and the health insurance provided by their former employers). Even Obamacare leaves anywhere from 15-to- 23 million Americans uncovered, including many who are underinsured, who would be subject to bankruptcy if hit by a major medical incident.

As for the plans to cut Social Security and Medicare, Congress has no right to touch that money that we have paid for out of our FICA taxes on our salaries, that have been spent on general funding (over $2.5 trillion so far) instead of putting it into a Social Security trust fund. They must pay it back, by raising taxes somewhere else -- for instance, wipe out the President G.W. Bush tax cuts on the ultra rich.

The main driving force of the ever-spiralling cost of health insurance is that our system is run by private insurance companies, which use 31 percent of every dollar spent on health care on administration, whereas Medicare spends under 3 percent.

Medicare for all would save $400 billion per year -- enough to cover those remaining uninsured.

Instead, we now have the poor, uninsured, resorting to costly emergency-room services, or, not seeking any medical services. It has been estimated that more than 59,000 deaths per year are due to lack of health care when it is needed.

We are almost last in ranking as to longevity, as compared to other developed nations of the world, and we have among the highest rate of infant mortality.

Having the system under one leading agency (a single payer) would allow better control over the system. To those who would argue that they do not trust government to run our system, would you rather trust a corporation, with the profit motive first and foremost in mind, to tell our doctors how to treat us?

In nationwide polls, 87 percent of Americans favor a single-payer system, and 60 percent of doctors favor it. It would save doctors from having to pay for experts to sort through all the disparate billing requirements for the private insurance companies.

However, do not think that a single payer system puts private health insurance companies out of business; they are still profiting in Canada, selling insurance for luxuries, such as private and semi-private hospital rooms.

Our latest trade-deficit gap has widened to the highest to date. Is it any wonder, when our exporters have to add the cost of employee health insurance to the price of their product (estimated at an additional $2,000 per vehicle), while competing with nations with government-run health care systems?

*

Robin E. Nadeau lives in St. Augustine Beach and has been a resident of St. Johns County for 33 years. She is a member of the League of Women Voters and is active in protecting the quality of life of county residents.

http://staugustine.com/opinions/2011-08-20/universal-health-care-system-would-cut-deficit

Don't we wish we had more Robin Nadeau's in Leadership positions?!?

[FayeforCure]

Hundreds of Robin Nadeau's friends joined her family, celebrating her life
on January 23rd. 

"Thinking globally and acting locally," always young at heart, Robin knew
"freedom is never free."  "Speaking truth to power," she worked for positive
change and a more sustainable world.

Citizen Robin Nadeau (1926-2012) was a zealous environmentalist, peace
activist, government reformer and free speech defender.  Robin won the
Daughters of the American Revolution National Conservation Award for work
planting and saving thousands of trees (where greed once endangered them
all). 

Robin supported "Medicare for All," solar/wind energy, progressive taxation
and Environmental Justice.  She opposed polluters' promiscuously weakening
our environmental laws. She exposed the horrors of nuclear powerplants and
offshore oil.  Robin supported banning dirty money from politics. 

Robin was kind, logical and thoughtful, winning progressive victories with
information, research, diplomacy and tact.  Robin had what Ambassador Andrew
Young calls "soul fire." Few said "no" to Robin Nadeau.

A faithful convert to Roman Catholicism, she supported Occupy St. Augustine,
Grandmothers for Peace, NAACP, LWV and Sierra Club. She championed equality
for Gays and Lesbians. 

Robin encouraged and nurtured so many people.

Robin knew that "decisions are made by those who show up," showing up for
decades. Her work was a tale of two cities (St. Augustine and St. Augustine
Beach) and St. Johns County, persuading all to adopt tree protections,
serving for decades on city and county boards and as TREES VP for thirteen
years.   

In December 2006, Robin persuaded me to help investigate our Mosquito
Control District's luxury jet helicopter purchase and organophosphate
spraying.  Together, we helped kill the $1.8 million, no-bid helicopter,
winning a refund.  It took us nine months, enduring AMCD's then-Chair's
insults and arrest threats.  The people won. Robin wrote in her
autobiographical note, "I contributed to an ultimately successful effort to
replace use of organophosphates to control mosquitoes in St. Johns County
with environmentally friendly techniques."


In 2007-8, Robin and I sought ballot-petition signatures for Democratic
Congressional candidate Faye Armitage in local parks. Someone threatened to
have us arrested, exclaiming, "I know the law!"  Gently, Robin and I stood
our ground, as we knew our rights. The First Amendment now lives safely in
our parks.

Robin believed in hope, forgiveness. democracy and Democrats: as precinct
committeeperson, Robin worked hardest of all.


Robin Nadeau lived with joy, wit and style, getting things done (often
working until 3 AM).  Like Thomas Jefferson, she loved beauty and she
designed her own home.  She had an infectious laugh, threw wonderful Twelfth
Night parties, and made the best orange marmalade.


The Record printed a cognitive miser's 2004 letter, attacking "the Robin
Nadeaus of the world."  I responded, "thanking the Robin Nadeaus of his
world," who bring us moral strength.


"Robin Nadeau family values" are based on love, reality and kindness - the
opposite of "faux family values," based on appeals to prejudice, ignorance
and hatred.


With all of her beautiful heart and soul and wonderful mind, Robin Nadeau
avidly supported the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National
Seashore since 2006.  St. Augustine Beach Mayor Gary Snodgrass remembers
Robin telephoning him about the proposal two months ago - he was in the
shower, but took her call. 


Robin's inner strength showed on November 1, as we were called "Nazis" and
"Communists" by angry, misguided "Tea Party" members, who momentarily scared
off our County Commissioners from supporting the Historical Park and
Seashore. 


But Robin Nadeau got the last word.  She wrote, "I think my greatest
achievement lay in my contribution to enactment of the St. Augustine
National Historical Park and National Seashore Act of 2012."  Let's do it
for Robin!

Ed Slavin