Fired Up? Ready to Go?

   Today, I attended the 'Health Insurance Reform Now' bus tour in Orlando; part of a fifty state push for President Obama's Health Care Reform Plan. Speakers included Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart, Ashley Walker; Florida State Director of Organizing for America, Rep. Alan Grayson (D), a registered nurse, a small business owner, and a sculptor/activist. The 'Health Insurance Reform Now' bus tour started June 6 th and has had 14, 000 events so far. Next the bus heads to Tampa and wraps up in Vegas next Thursday.

         I expected a small number of people because of the not exactly stellar weather conditions, but, about or over 200 people showed up. Local news stations Wesh 2 News and Local 6 covered the event as well as local affiliates of ABC and Fox News. There were no Health Insurance Reform opponent protesters. Attendees were excited and observant to the speakers, getting rilled up when the chants 'fired up, ready to go' and 'what do we want-health care, when do we want it-now' were started. Other trigger words or phrases were 'push back on lies and misuniformation', 'pre-existing conditions', 'start over on Health Care Reform', 'lower premiums/costs' and of course 'public option'. When a public option was mentioned, for some reason I expected a luke warm reception, but, to my surprise it accounted for the loudest applause. As with audiences of then presidential hopeful Sen. Obama, the crowd was a diverse bunch.