There was a rally this morning in downtown Portland organized by Health Care for America Now. The keynote speaker was Wendell Potter, and other speakers included representatives of the Oregon Nurses Association, the SEIU, and the AFL-CIO, a local small business owner, a minister, and Oregon's Attorney General.
I'd estimate the crowd at a few hundred people, with only two counter-protesters that this observer noted (one of whom carried a sign about "government is the problem" [I referred to him as 'Reagan's ghost'], and the other of whom tried to shout over one of the speakers, saying that he had "freedom of speech" to do so, carrying a sign demanding less government and less taxes, who was told to settle down and let people speak. After being spoken to, he did not pipe up again).
Here's a few photos from before the speeches began:
The first speaker was John Kroger, Oregon's Attorney General:
(notice Wendell Potter sitting on steps)
He spoke to the need for immediate health care reform in the form of a robust public option, and focused especially on fairness and a society that takes care of its' own. In response to the naysayers out there, he pointed out that even a child could see that everyone deserves comprehensive, affordable coverage, and brought up his son Isiah to answer a few questions such as, "Can we provide quality health care to everyone?" with Isiah answering "Yes we can!" to each question.
The next speaker was a woman from the Oregon Nurses Association who told an awful story of a patient who had masses on her neck, but delayed seeking care out of fear she would be dropped by her insurance company. By the time she sought care it was too late, and the cancer had spread throughout her body and become terminal.
Next was the manager of an auto body shop, who arrived in uniform.
He told us that his company provides health care to all its' employees, but the increasing cost of premiums had become 18% of payroll costs over the last five years, a jump of 100%. He spoke strongly in favor of a public option to compete with private insurers to bring down costs for small businesses like the auto body shop where he works.
Following him we heard from a representative of the SEIU, who spoke to the plight of working people and the need for immediate health care reform to fight for-profit insurance company greed that continues to hurt so many for the benefit of the few.
(crowd cheering SEIU rep:)
Next was a minister who gave an incredibly rousing speech, delivered with the fiery cadence one would expect from a faith leader:
The minister spoke with deep conviction about the need to take care of the least among us, and spoke about faith leaders he knows from the Catholic Church, various Protestant sects, the Jewish faith, and Islam, who all strongly support health care reform.
He mentioned the town hall in Pennsylvania where a heckler told Arlen Specter that he'd be judged by God someday for pushing government health care. The minister affirmed that we would be judged, but according to whether we lived up to Jesus' call that we take care of the poor and sick in our society.
After the minister was the star of the day, Wendell Potter. I got about 10 minutes of footage with my camera, though I admit it is a little shaky. I was standing on a hill, holding a standard point-and-shoot digital camera, so please forgive me if it is irritating to watch. I did my best.
I started filming a couple minutes after he started because I wanted to make sure that I at least got the meat of his speech. In his opening, Mr. Potter apologized for his work with Cigna, saying that he regrets having caused so much pain to so many thousands of people.
As my camera's memory filled up and I had to stop filming, Mr. Potter was putting out a hypothetical situation to those who say that health care reform will cost too much. The video ends right before he finished the story. As he finished his voice cracked, and it was obvious he was trying to fight back tears. Mrs. Anima noticed this first, and your correspondent quickly realized that the reason Mr. Potter had been having trouble telling this story is because of how real the situation was in his mind, and how awful the situations of millions of people are in this country due to the practices of health insurance companies.
It took him a moment to compose himself and finish speaking about people watching their American Dream disappear and die because they get sick. It was the theme of his closing: that sickness, disease, and injury should never come between anybody and the American Dream.
Finally we heard from a representative of the ALF-CIO who spoke about a recent trip to Ireland and the UK. He mentioned his cousins who live overseas, and how they never see people living on the streets or in their car because of health care (or lack thereof). He then spoke about a cousin of his in the US who had kidney failure at 31 years old. This cousin has a wife and child, and is worried about whether he'll be able to work or not and if he'll be able to continue taking care of his family.
The cousin was informed three weeks ago that his last kidney is also failing, and so now he's on the donor list. If he doesn't get a transplant, and if he dies, he wonders how his wife, who does not have her own coverage, will get on paying for herself and their child.
The rep. also talked about the disgrace of for-profit insurance companies spending millions of dollars to kill health care reform, just like they've done so many times before. But he was convinced that this time we'll win, this time we won't be defeated.
As I left, I took a few photos of signs. The last two pics are of a sign being drawn by a child.
What do we want?
HEALTH CARE!
When do we want it?
NOW!