A protest on the Hill

RHONDA SPIVAK

While in Washington, D.C., last month, I noticed that people were starting to gather for a protest on Capitol Hill. Curious, and sensing a potential storm brewing, I went to the scene.

People of all ages were gathering to protest President Barack Obama's health-care reform. People arrived with handmade signs and I read as many as I could, trying to understand what the opposition was all about.

One man held up a sign saying, "Abortion is not health care." Two people were dressed up as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with blood-stained clothing, carrying baby dolls and fetus-like plastic shapes. It was a horrific image. Cameramen snapped photos. The crowd began chanting: "Nancy, can you hear us now?" This crowd said it did not want the federal government, directly or indirectly, funding abortions in any way. A woman near me said, "I don't want some bureaucratic government health board, that isn't even made up of doctors, telling me whether I can have a hysterectomy or not."

Other signs focused on the claim that the U.S. government wouldn't have the financial resources to pay for extending health-care insurance to the uninsured. The lawn was awash with signs, saying, "We can't afford Obama-care," "Economic slavery" and "No to socialism." One rather nasty sign said, "No to Obama Care. Re-distribute my work ethic." Another man had given his daughter a sign saying, "Give me liberty, not debt – I'm only eight."

The crowd was polite, at times singing "God Bless America," as an American flag was held over people's heads.

I think it would be safe to say that virtually all of the people there had voted Republican in the last election. I didn't see a lot of visible minorities. I decided that I must have been pretty well the only Jew in the crowd. As the flag passed over my head, one man was saying something about this feeling like a "baptism ceremony."

A man with a loudspeaker announced: "We're going to have ourselves a good old-fashioned sit-in at Nancy Pelosi's office. It's office number 225. We're going to bring her all 900 pages of the health-care bill and start ripping them up one at a time. You're all invited to participate – as long as you don't mind getting arrested." Many in the crowd chuckled, and a boisterous chant of "Kill the bill!" began.

Just then, two women arrived with a copy of all 900 pages of the health-care bill, to be ripped up. Police officers stood on the hill, looking down over the crowd. About an hour and a half later, the lawn was completely filled. Some estimates said that 25,000 people were there.

Several days later, the bill narrowly passed through Congress, but still it must wind its way through the Senate.

I thought of the scene I had witnessed on Capitol Hill when, later, I heard White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel address the 3,000 delegates at the Jewish Federations of North America's General Assembly in Washington. Emmanuel said, "We are closer than ever to achieving quality health care," and "He [Obama] is fighting for a day when no one loses health care because of preexisting conditions." He received warm applause.

It seemed to me that those Jewish delegates would never have been out protesting "Obama Care." Many American Jews, who voted for Obama en masse, are in favor of his health reform. They believe that the need to care for the vulnerable in society is in keeping with traditional Jewish values and, in their opinion, publicly funded health care is the way to do that.

Rhonda Spivak is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

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