Dogsledding Alaskan nun fights for health care expansion

by Vinnie Rotondaro

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A recent segment on "The Rachel Maddow Show" features the testimony of an Alaskan Daughters of Charity nun named Sr. Mary Peter Diaz and how it helped defeat a Koch Brothers-led effort to deny health care expansion in the state.

Diaz's testimony before the Alaskan state legislature helped repel the efforts of the Koch Bothers-funded Americans for Prosperity, referred to in the segment as an "astroturf, parachute in, fake grass roots" group that has been attempting to turn average Americans against the Affordable Care Act.

"We are our brother's keeper," Diaz says, referring to those who lack health insurance. "Like the good Samaritan, you know, we have to go and help them, we can't be the ones who walk on the other side of the street."

Her efforts helped extend coverage to 40,000 Alaskans.

Maddow ended the segment with video of Diaz dogsledding through blinding white snow.

[Vinnie Rotondaro is NCR national correspondent. His email address is vrotondaro@ncronline.org.]

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