From Daily Planet Staff Reports

A rally in favor of President Obama’s proposal for health-care reform drew about 200 people at its peak on a sunny morning Aug. 29 at Pritchard Park in downtown Asheville.

Part way through the rally, organizer Leslie Boyd stressed that “I want to keep it positive ... Health care is a right ... So health care is for everyone — and we won’t unplug grandma.”

She encouraged attendees at the scheduled two-hour gathering, cut short about 30 minutes “to let the Goombay Festival” get started and to sign petitions asking Obama to continue to push for single-payer universal health-care reform. The rally was one of four held across the state at the urging of Common Cause to promote passage of health care-reform pending in Congress.

Boyd also urged the crowd to communicate to Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, and Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., their support for universal health care. Following the advice of several speakers, Boyd recommended that faxes be sent because they are believed to be more effective than regular letters or e-mails.

In response, the crowd chanted “Yes, we can” for about a minute.

Then Boyd, a former reporter for the Asheville Citizen-Times, said, “We’re all fired up! I’m so excited!” and many in the crowd cheered.

Earlier, various speakers announced upcoming related events, including a vigil at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 2 in Pritchard Park, sponsored by MoveOn.org; and a discussion of health care from a “faith perspective” at 5 p.m.  Sept. 7 at Central United Methodist Church in downtown Asheville.

Among the speakers was Cecil Bothwell, a former journalist with the Mountain Xpress who is running for a seat on Asheville City Council. “I think we can do better,” said Bothwell, in reference to what he termed a current system that is too expensive and/or restrictive to include a large proportion of Americans.

Tyrone Greeley said, “I am director for Christians for a United Community, which includes 15 churches and does social justice work.

“We as a society are connected to one another and if you’re suffering, so am I.”

“With this health care debate — health care issue — it’s about ... what my Christianity is all about ... What this is about is providing a just, fair and vibrant community for all of us.”

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About 200 people attended an Aug. 29 health care rally in Pritchard Park. Daily Planet Staff Photo

Quoting from “High School Musical,” Greeley said, “‘We are all in this together.’”

Another speaker, Tom Sinks, a retired lawyer in Black Mountain, prompted laughter from the crowd when he quipped of Shuler and Hagan, “They’re not bad people — they just need guidance.”

Joe Brown of the State Employees Union said his group’s 56,000 members voted to support universal health care and that backers of Obama’s plan need to make sure people understand the bill — “many people don’t.”

He also noted that, when one must go for care to a hospital emergency room, “they don’t ask if you’re a Democrat, a Republican or an independent. They ask if you have an insurance card.”

At that point, Boyd asserted, “People who know me know I’ve got a pretty big mouth ... I speak out ... and it’s got me in a lot of trouble” in her life. Nonetheless, she said, “This is moral to do this ... It’s not even a question. It’s wrong to even debate it.”

Dr. Lewis Patrie, a retired physician, said he and his wife have coverage comparable to members of Congress — “and I thank you, as taxpayers, for your support.” The crowd laughed and cheered at his comments. More seriously, he said that his family would be living at a considerably lower lifestyle, financially, without their topnotch coverage. He lamented that others are not so fortunate.

To that end, Patrie urged those at the rally to attend the MoveOn.Org rally.

Between speakers, Boyd said, “I want to add a note to ‘Don’t Unplug Grandma’ ... unless she wants to be (unplugged). It’s so important to have a living will. If I get hit by a bus, I’ve asked to be unplugged.”

She added, “Health care shouldn’t just be for those who can afford it. It’s getting to the place where few can afford. it.”
Later, she lamented that Shuler has said that “he’d like to get it right” before voting in favor of it. “Well,” Boyd said, “we’re never going to get it perfect. Let’s get it passed now.”

She added, “Ted Kennedy worked in the Senate for 47 years and couldn’t get it done. Let’s do it for Teddy, a man who believed all his life that health care is a basic human right. Let’s do this.”

Jim Potter of Winston-Salem noted that his son’s policy increased 700 percent when his family moved to North Carolina. He said of Obama’s proposal, “If it’s not public, not national, it won’t be competition for private insurance firms” and, therefore, not effective.

Boyd responded, “I agree with you. Health care should not be for profit.

A woman in the crowd shouted, “It’s criminal!” in an apparent reference to today’s for-profit health care system in the U.S.

“Yes,” Boyd said in response to the woman, “that’s a good term for it.”

Boyd, who organized the Asheville rally through her nonprofit organization Life o’ Mike, told the crowd — several times throughout the event — about the premature death of Mike Danforth, her son. He died on April 1, 2008 because he was unable to get needed diagnostic tests until his colon cancer was too advanced, she said.

“I have a dead child because we couldn’t get health care for people who need it,” Boyd noted. “We as a nation should be there for them ... I would give anything to have my son back. He’s just one of 30,000 people who die prematurely (in the U.S.) every year because they don’t have access to health care. There is about morality.”

Another speaker noted that “there are really two people missing here today — Kay Hagan and Heath Shuler.” He said that, during the last such rally in the park two months ago, Hagan was in Asheville — at the posh Grove Park Inn — “and didn’t bother to send a representative (to the rally) or a letter of support” with Mayor Terry Belamy, who spoke at the rally.

Among the last to address the rally, a man said, “If you take the middle-man out, it’ll cost less. Anybody who says different — they’re idiots!”