



Several prongs of the proposal have the potential to bring relief to millions of people: She is afraid the powerful pharmaceutical lobby might still thwart the plan, but said, “If this goes through, it will help a lot of people.” “We worry constantly, ‘Will we be able to afford this?’” said Becky Miller, a 67-year-old retired teacher from Bradenton, Florida, who spends thousands of dollars each year for drugs to treat epilepsy, heart problems and an inflammatory disease that affects her spine. But Manchin’s backing brought new optimism to many who have lobbied and prayed for relief. Some of the issues addressed in the deal have been talked about for decades and proved elusive. Joe Manchin includes landmark provisions that could help senior citizens, including a cap on out-of-pocket Medicare drug costs and a requirement that the government negotiate prices on some high-cost drugs. The health care and climate agreement struck by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democratic Sen. The end of the morning was also marked by the heart-rending song of a woman, in tears, who wanted to express to the pope the suffering of her people.A deal on Capitol Hill that could cut prescription drug costs for millions of Medicare beneficiaries was cautiously cheered by older Americans and their advocates Thursday even as many worried it might never come to fruition. The meeting concluded with a “healing dance,” and one of the Chiefs placed a traditional headdress on the Holy Father, to much applause. The Bishop of Rome had received the moccasins from delegations that came to see him at the Vatican last March, asking him to bring them back in person from across the Atlantic. In response to his speech, a traditional Indigenous song was sung, presented by the organizers as “a gesture of openness and, for some, of acceptance of the Holy Father’s apology.” The participants also prayed the Our Father in Cree.Īnd, in a symbolic gesture that drew much applause, the pope presented children’s moccasins to Marie-Anne Walker-Pelletier, former chief of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan. His words, translated into English by an interpreter, were greeted by several rounds of applause from the crowd. Behind them, dozens of people carried a huge red banner with the names of 4,120 children who died in residential schools.Īfter words of welcome from Cree Chief Wilton Littlechild, a residential school survivor and figure in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation process, Pope Francis gave his first speech of the trip, during which he asked for forgiveness “with shame and unambiguously” for “the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous peoples.” As the head of the Catholic Church looked on from a podium, Indigenous leaders marched in traditional garb, wearing feathered headdresses, entering through the east gate and symbolically moving with the sun. Still in a wheelchair, the 85-year-old pope continued on to a circle arbor, a traditional native pow wow area, where his guests were waiting. Now gone, the building is commemorated by five teepees, four for the nations present at Maskwacis (Louis Bull, Montana, Samson and Ermineskin) and the fifth symbolizing the entrance to the school. The third stop at the site was the first building of the large residential school established on these lands.
