Last week, we found out at Grassroots Leadership that the bid by GEO Group to privatize the Kerrville State Hospital has been rejected by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The battle isn't totally over -- the rider in the last legislative budget that instructed DSHS to look into reducing costs at a hospital by 10% is still there -- but this is still a major step forward for us.
It's amazing to me that I got to experience an actual victory so early in my YAV year; at orientation we talked a lot about how few and far between actual, tangible results can be in this type of work. I came into this job expecting to be part of stemming the tide or pushing back what's already happened, knowing that something like this might not happen at all.
What ended up surprising me the most was with how little fanfare it actually happened. While there have been a flurry of celebratory email, tweets, and Facebook posts, most of my day went entirely as usual. So instead of popping open a bottle of champagne with some activists, I've been doing an internal prayer/squeal/happy-dance since about 11 this morning.
And, of course, the work never stops. I still have to get private prisons abolished by July!
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