SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Republicans and Democrats can't agree on how to reopen the U.S. government. But hundreds of volunteers with the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society put political differences aside when they came to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress. Noam Levey with our partners KFF Health News has the story.
NOAM LEVEY: The professional lobbyists in expensive shoes are filing into the Cannon House Office Building as a group of New York citizens circle up on the sidewalk outside. They're about to visit their congressman's office, and there's just enough time for a final rehearsal.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #1: On this paper, it says the messaging, we appreciate the congressman. This is a first step. We are urging Congress to act now.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #2: So do you feel comfortable with this?
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #1: Yeah. So I'll just read the...
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #3: Just read it.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #1: ...Whole thing.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #3: Just read it.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #1: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #3: Yeah.
LEVEY: The cancer volunteers are a microcosm of America - old and young, Black and white, Democrat and Republican. But they share a common bond - cancer. Mary Catherine Johnson is a retiree from outside Rochester in Upstate New York.
MARY CATHERINE JOHNSON: My mom lost all of her 10 siblings to cancer. My lifelong friend succumbed to lung cancer at the age of 57.
LEVEY: Johnson herself survived breast cancer. She's worried about the state of our politics.
JOHNSON: I think we're probably the most divided that we've ever been, and that scares me. It scares me for my grandchildren.
LEVEY: Katie Martin, a cancer volunteer from Buffalo, also worries. She and her daughter recently drove past political protesters screaming at one another on the street.
KATIE MARTIN: My daughter is silent and then starts asking, like, what is this? And I don't know how to explain it 'cause it doesn't even make sense to me sometimes.
LEVEY: Lexy Mealing, who lives on Long Island and, like Johnson, had breast cancer, says she can barely watch the news these days.
LEXY MEALING: A lot of Americans are very stressed out. There's a lot of things going on.
LEVEY: Mealing is a Democrat. Johnson voted for Donald Trump three times. Martin didn't want to discuss her politics.
MARTIN: I wish that there was a safer question.
LEVEY: But political affiliation wasn't important as the volunteers gathered in Washington. Here's Mealing again.
MEALING: Not one person here discussed if you're a Democrat, if you're a Republican, because cancer doesn't care.
LEVEY: The volunteers spent hours together practicing the pitches they'd make to members of Congress. On the morning of their Hill visits, they packed into a hotel ballroom.
UNIDENTIFIED VOLUNTEER #4: I think it's so important that we do this because not one of us has not been touched by cancer.
LEVEY: The volunteers donned matching blue polo shirts and grabbed red folders to leave at each congressional office they'd visit. They got a pep talk from Lisa Lacasse, the head of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
LISA LACASSE: I know that you're going to make such an impact today. Thank you all so much, and I'll see you on the Hill.
(APPLAUSE)
LEVEY: Then it was on to the Metro for the ride up to the Capitol.
AUTOMATED VOICE: This is Capitol South. Doors opening on the left.
LEVEY: The army of volunteers hit 484 Senate and House offices, telling their stories and ticking through their priorities - funding for research, support for more cancer screening, federal aid for people to buy health insurance. The last was a tough sell in many Republican offices, but lawmakers from both parties have backed the other two. Mealing and the other New Yorkers were feeling good.
MEALING: It was amazing. Seven hundred of us going up to the Hill today - you could just feel the sense of everybody just stronger together.
LEVEY: When evening came, the volunteers met on the National Mall for a candlelight vigil. It was raining. Bagpipes were playing.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGPIPES PLAYING)
LEVEY: Around a pond by the Lincoln Memorial, some 10,000 tea lights glimmered in little paper bags. Each luminary had a name on it, a person impacted by cancer. John Manna, another New Yorker, is a self-described Reagan Republican whose father died from lung cancer. He reflected on lessons this day could offer a divided nation.
JOHN MANNA: Talk to people. Get to know each other as people, and then you can understand somebody's positions. And we have little disagreements but, you know, we don't attack each other. We talk and discuss it.
LEVEY: Manna said he'd be back next year.
In Washington, D.C., I'm Noam Levey.
SIMON: And Noam is with our partner KFF Health News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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