Real Voices for Change Forum
Posted by gnome de plume in Current Events, Health, Relaxed Politics
Saturday, August 29th, First United Methodist Church, Austin, TX
The small print beneath theWWJD says: (Probably slap the shit out of your selfish ass!)
Before settling down inside the comfortable Methodist Church, my friend Debbie and I took part in the rally on the capital steps at 1:00. We got to mix it up with Teabaggers, Separatists, Secessionists and God knows what else, including LaRouche followers, who had scurried to get a protest of their own together at noon, when they found out that those “George Soros funded MoveOn people . . . that support blatant marxism and more Federal control [who] are not the voice of the Texas people” had a permit for a rally. (Actual quote from their e-mail). The fabulous picture is from that event. Another great poster read, “I have insurance and I am willing to share.”
I don’t feel I need to give the hating side much coverage other than to say they really were about hatred and fear. Sour faces all. We engaged them when we could. I even said something not very nice to a young man who told me to go back to Canada. (Debbie is still laughing over that, although I am feeling kinda bad as I made a comment about a certain problem he obviously had, and told him it would have been tended to under Canadian health care.) The whole thing was quite well organized and there was no violence and the only guns I saw were on law enforcement.
After deciding we had had enough standing in the sun (and it wasn’t even 100 degrees!) we moved on to the Methodist church across the street to see if we could help there. Instead we got inside the cool space and claimed good seats. The energy in the place was terrific. The vast majority of the crowd was pro-health care reform. The church, which seats 900 people was completely full, as was the union hall nearby and then a third hall where the overflow crowd was accommodated. We even had two elderly LaRouche followers sitting in front of us.
There were 12 speakers lined up, including the mayor of Austin and US Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who told us he decided to leave his red horns at home, because he didn’t think they were right to wear in a church. 
We could hear protesters shouting outside, but we never heard any gunfire, thank goodness. By time we got out, most of the crazies had left.
Lloyd Doggett, US Congress District 25 speaking to the overflow crowd.
It felt good to be in place where 99% of the people cared about reform and were doing something about it. The speaker who thrilled us the most was Jim Rigby, Pastor of Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church. His job was to speak to the moral and ethical imperatives of Health Care Reform. Both Debbie and I decided we wouldn’t mind attending a church where he was minister. I will close this brief account with two statements Pastor Rigby made, which I had to write down.
“If you talk about helping the poor, they call you a Christian. If you do something to help the poor, they call you a Socialist.”
“The American Dream is not about property rights. It is about Human Rights.”
Tags: health care, rally
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Thanks for the reporting Gnome. Wish I could have gone with you!
This post will be up until 11AM. Then we’ll do Sunday Social at 11 and a Katrina post later tomorrow afternoon or early evening.
I’ll be asleep.
Both NDFG and I need healing vibes. She called me earlier this evening.
Sounds like a great turn out, and the reasonable, sane people outnumbered the batshit crazy. That’s always comforting!
I wish more was made of the so-called Christians spouting all their hate and fear and misery. Today’s services made some excellent choices in the readings that reinforced Ted’s feelings on public service and the responsibility we all have for one another. This point needs to be hammered home over and over. That someplace that calls itself a Christian nation can take seriously a position that torture is OK and citizens starving and going bankrupt paying for medical care is mindboggling.
When these jerks meet their maker they’re going to be in for a very rude surprise. If only they read that book they claim to take so seriously, they might get it one day.
Back from my walk with two happy dogs. (Mr. Gnome took his two out while I was writing the post). I put a caption under the first picture in case you can’t read the small print. The big letters are WWJD – What would Jesus do. The small print says, Probably slap the shit out of your selfish ass!
@ gnome de plume:
Bravo to Rep. Doggett and Pastor Rigby. Excellent reporting Gnome and Debbie. I love the quotes. Think I’ll use them! I agree with Madmommy – points well made and well said. I think the hatred is awful, and it surprises me. How can they hate me? They don’t know me, and I am a loving, caring, friendly person who only wants the best for everyone. Why is that so wrong? It’s all very sad, the hatred and the fear and the abuse. Sigh.
@ gnome de plume:
I’m watching videos on MSNBC. Teddy’s boys are so eloquent. Such love! Amazing! I still have a lot to watch.
THe little guy brought home a note from his teacher Friday. He needs to bring in a dozen eggs by Thursday. I bought them at the store today, now I’m just trying to figure out how to get them to the school. The idea of putting them into the backpack of a kindergarten boy, who rides the bus, then has 15 minutes of playtime before school starts, and expecting them to arrive in the classroom intact is a bit fanciful on my part.
Any ideas would be appreciated!
And now it’s off to bed, see y’all in the morning!
OT
but still politics. One of my FB friends had this up: Breaking news: One of Sarah Palin’s fans has suggested that Mitt Romney appoint her to fill Ted Kennedy’s senate seat! 707!
The idjit neither knew about the residency requirement nor that Mitt hasn’t been MA governor for years. 
Why do these people even get media attention?
Details, details.
Egg carton, shoe box, peanuts, bubble wrap. Lots of tape to keep the box closed. In a backpack, using other stuff to hold the box in place. And then write luck and draw shamrocks on the box! Good luck.
g’night madmommy. sleep tight, sweet dreams.
@ gnome de plume:
IDJITS! They are all IDJITS
OMG! This is hilarious! Click through all 40 photos!
OK, I am of to book and bed. See you in the AM.
I’m going to post Caroline here. Enlightening. All of the memorial speeches are so special.
hi honeys, i’m home! and seriously glad i live in a civilized state AND currently have health ins. But i hate to think of the bill i’m gonna face as it is. The good news is that my retina didn’t detach and thus i didn’t need immediate emergency eye surgery. The bad news is that it did tear and unless it gets worse tomorrow, i will have in-office laser surgery for the tear on monday. The emergency room called a specialist who met me at his office (my brother drove) and after conferring with the surgeon, they decided it would be good to wait til monday. Gives the floaters a chance to sink to the bottom of my eye. So i’m supposed to sleep sitting up for the next two nights!
I wore comfy grubbies to the ER, in case i needed to stay at the hospital. No makeup. No coffee. No food. I was a cranky farmgrrrlll. But i was allowed to go to my class reunion dinner tonight! Straight from the specialist’s office with grubby clothes, no makeup and a patch over my eye. I made quite the entrance
My brother was hassling me the whole way to the reunion because i wouldn’t let him draw a gross eyeball with blood-shot veins on my patch. brothers!
and what caused it? “at your age ….”
But the reunion was GREAT FUN! and some of my HS buds might even stop by the Beach House for a visit sometime
I hope your eye is better soon, NDFG, and requires the least amount of treatment possible. If your friends visit the beach house, that doesn’t mean we have to behave and stuff, does it?
Morning bumz!! NDFG best of luck with all that.
(Do you sleep? I thought you just worked or played lurking mod all night long?)
@ Texas Betsy:
Like all the other children of the night, she crawls into her lair at sunup
I didn’t spend a lot of time in retina clinic, so I’m not sure of the complete procedure for dealing with a retinal detachment. Plus, it’s been nearly 10 years, so it’s possible that the protocol has changed since then. But depending on the size of the tear, the laser treatment might take a while. The worst part is the position you’re in; leaning forward into the slit lamp while the doc does his thing. Some docs use a stabilizing strap across the back of your head to keep you positioned properly, others have their tech hold your head in position.
Good luck to you for Monday, and take it easy. If they tell you to rest your eyes, stay off the computer, and home from work, etc., DO IT! *she says using her best mommy voice while crossing arms and tapping her foot*
Sunday Social upstairs.
g’morning bumz!
i crawled into my lair an hour before sunup, i was so tired from all the excitement yesterday. I hate having to sleep nearly sitting up!
luckily my retina didn’t detach, it only tore a little teeny bit. But there was a little capillary in that area, and it released a little spray of blood which is making an incredible number of floaters and my vision is a total blur in that eye. The doc said it’s an in-office laser procedure, they seal the area around the tear to stabilize it or something. I try not to listen because mostly those detailed right-to-know pep talks squick me out.
The ER doc didn’t want me to leave ER until he had talked directly to a specialist. Said specialist wanted to see me, so Baby Brother drove me to his office in a town 20 miles away. Lo & behold it was a new branch of the eye clinic i’ve used for decades and the dr was my age & thus knew & worked with my marvelous original eye doc who retired 16 years ago! Small world.
Baby Brother said to eye doc, “she’s gonna have to rest her eyes and stay off the computer, right? I’ve got good safety glasses, she can help me scrape paint on the outside of my house until her eye heals!” Doc laughed. Computer good. My good eye is good, & i’m just sitting when at computer = good. Scraping paint & vigorous activity = bad. But i’m supposed to stay vertical. As the doc said, the eye is like a little snow globe. If i keep my head vertical, it gives all the blood floaters a chance to settle to the bottom, making surgery on monday easier. Squick.
as for some of my hs buds showing up, needing to behave?
@ newdealfarmgrrrlll:
So what did you do that caused the detachment???