Protestors rally against health care reform

Tea Party Patriots call on Congressman Thompson to attend town hall meeting

David Courtland, Humboldt Sentinel
8/22/09

Eureka

A local grassroots group is sponsoring a town hall in Fortuna to give Humboldt County residents a forum for discussing healthcare reform legislation.

Members of the non-partisan Humboldt County Tea Party Patriots say they decided to organize the meeting, which will be in Fortuna's Veteran's Hall on Aug. 26 from 6-8 p.m., after failing to get an interview with North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena).

"“Everyone in the country is going to be impacted by this legislation,”" Dorice Miranda, president of the Humboldt County Tea Party Patriots, said in a press release. "[Congressman] Thompson is one of the architects, so it is not unreasonable to ask for straight answers.”"

Thompson's office has confirmed he will not be attening the Fortuna meeting, but will hold his own a week later on Sept. 2 from 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Redwood Acres Home Economics Building.

About 60 people gathered at noon last Friday in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse, most of whom were allied with the conservative-leaning Tea Party movement -- although other more populist or libertarian-leaning locals appeared with Obama "Joker" posters and stickers advocating the candidacy of former Presidential contender and longtime Congressman, Ron Paul (R-Galveston, Tex.).

Filling the courthouse's front lawn as they held signs, banners and numerous American flags the Patriots drew honks and cheers from passing motorists for about an hour. Some of them dressed as Revolutionary War-era patriots to indicate their support for what they describe as traditional American values.

One lone dissenter, Suzanne Cook, held her own counter-prostest across the street from the courthouse.

“"People should be getting real information, not just blasting their views,"” said Cook, who said she favors a single payer healthcare system. "“A lot of the organizing is being done by people connected to the insurance industry, like Dick Armey.”"

At about 1 p.m the protestors marched from the courthouse to Congressman Mike Thompson's Third Street office in Eureka.

"We're firing Mike Thompson," explained Miranda, one of the protest coordinators, as the protestors filed into Thompson's office one by one to deliver symbolic pink slips.

Thompson is one of the House of Representatives' "blue dog" Democrats, who have generally supported one of the more fiscally conservative reform bills that have been introduced. The Blue Dog Coalition also opposes the single payer system advocated by the Progressive Caucus.

Some party members said they felt more able to express their views through the protest than at one of the town hall meetings held during Congress' summer break this month. For his part, Thompson was part of a panel discussion on healthcare reform in Napa last month that some said was carefully orchestrated to discourage protestors opposing healthcare reform.

While holding "telephone town hall" meetings with handpicked constituents across his district, Thompson had yet to hold an in-person and unscripted town hall meeting in Humboldt County this year, and on Monday his Washington, D.C. communications director said schedule for the rest of August is still being decided.

"The main thing I'd like to tell him is he needs to come to Humboldt County to have an honest to goodness town hall meeting, one where we're able to speak," said Margaret Stafford after dropping her pink slip off.

Miranda said the number of party members had doubled in the two weeks since she began organizing the protest as people who felt unable express their view joined.

The Tea Party Patriots will also have a protest rally at State Senator Patricia Wiggins' and Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro's Eureka offices on Aug. 28 as well as sending a contingent to Sacramento to join other protestors.

Miranda said that protest will be a show of support for farmers who have lost much of their water supply because of Endangered Species Act protections, specifically for the Delta smoot.