Above: Margaret Flowers and Jill Stein discuss the Fukushima nuclear power plant and the delivery of petitions to the United Nations on Bill Moyers Journal
In the face of a government by and for the one percent, two medical doctors, Jill Stein and Margaret Flowers, left their careers behind to fight against a dysfunctional system and offer policy alternatives.
Have you ever dreamed of quitting your day job to work on something you really believed in? That’s exactly what this week’s guests, Jill Stein and Margaret Flowers, did when they left their careers behind as medical doctors.
Both saw that holding political office largely depended on how much money you have, which in turn enabled injustices to be fashioned into law and public policy. Outraged and angry, they decided to stand up and take action.
“When people ask me ‘what kind of medicine are you practicing?’ I usually say, ‘I’m practicing political medicine because it’s the mother of all illnesses,’” Stein tells Bill. Flowers adds: “Once you start speaking truth to power and standing up for the right things, it’s very empowering.”
Stein and Flowers serve as the president and secretary of health, respectively, for the Green Shadow Cabinet, an organization offering alternative policies to the “dysfunctional government in Washington, DC.”
This week, Bill talks with them about their personal journeys fighting for policy change — including arrests for acts of civil disobedience — and the pressing challenges they’re focusing on, such as the fallout from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
Interview Producer: Julia Conley. Associate Producer: Robert Booth. Editor: Rob Kuhns.