Published: November 05, 2009 11:04 am      

Tea partiers voice health care concerns

OKLAHOMA CITY — With her American flag in tow, Edmond resident Dottie Smith joined more than a thousand Oklahomans Wednesday at the state Capitol. They gathered for one last tea party in the state before Congress votes on a health care bill, which may happen as early as this weekend.

“I want to make a difference,” Smith said, noting that she wasn’t there just to take a stand against the government’s health-care bill, but its overspending in general. This was her first time to attend a tea party.

This tea party was part of a national tour hosted by the Tea Party Express. The Oklahoma party took place at 6 p.m at the back of the Capitol building. The tour took off from San Diego on Oct. 23 and will come to a halt Nov. 12 in Florida.

Americans for Prosperity is an official tour partner. Stuart A. Jolly, Edmond resident and state director for Americans for Prosperity, said the numbers that came out to support the issues Wednesday exceeded what he had expected for the night. Although he admitted in his speech that he was preaching to choir, he took the opportunity to deliver facts about the proposed health-care legislation that would affect the nation and encouraged attendees to play their part in preventing a potential crisis.

“We’ve got to get the message out that this is important,” he said.

Jolly is promoting a “Patients First” petition; he hopes to have 1 million signatures on this petition before he presents it to legislators. A table with the petition was set up on the Capitol lawn Wednesday. Jolly said there are already half a million people who have signed on the dotted line nationwide. The petition also is available online.

“This is not about health care at all,” Jolly said. “It’s about health control.”

Edmond resident Conrad Caldwell said Jolly invited him to attend his first rally to take a stand for his concerns about health care. As an emergency room physician at a local hospital, Caldwell said he thinks the government is approaching health-care reform the wrong way.

“Our system just needs reform instead of a complete do-over,” he said.

Although Jolly said the main focus of Wednesday’s rally was health care, subjects relating to the war in Afghanistan, government overspending in general and even Oklahoma City’s Maps 3 project were addressed by a variety of speakers.

Oklahoma residents showed their spirit with their signs and their dress, many sporting homemade posters and even costumes portraying their views on a variety of issues. Vendors took the opportunity to capitalize on the event by selling glow sticks, signs and T-shirts.

One man, Jay Thirkell, traveled all the way from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to sell his “Constitutional LiberTees” to tea party participants. Oklahoma City was his first stop on the tour.

Despite the heated overtone of the speeches, Tea Party Express members attempted to lighten the mood during the middle of the rally by leading crowd members in tunes such as the “Bailout” song and the “Big Fat No” song, both relating to recent government issues.