On the night of November 4, 2009, four of us drove from Florida’s Space Coast for a 12-hour drive to the nation’s capitol to join with thousands of other Americans protesting the despised Healthcare reform bill, a piece of legislation so reviled it brought out yet another mass of citizens just one month later.
Earlier posts:
We’re comin’ and we’re bringin’ hell with us
“…Until we see the whites of their eyes”
Kill the Bill
Taking back our country, fast as wheels can turn
John Vail, his son Steven, Kristinn Taylor of Free Republic and I packed a thermos of coffee, snacks and pillows, and headed north on I-95, where we drove all night until we arrived in Washington DC just after sunrise. We tuned in the local D.C. morning talk show and Kristinn called in to let everyone in DC know that the contingent from Florida had arrived.
On this crisp autumn day, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) anti-health care reform protest was tops on our agenda. In the days leading up to the protest, Bachmann had made appearances on several Fox News programs including Glenn Beck, Hannity, and Fox & Friends, during which she promoted the protest. The protest was also promoted on Fox Nation, as well as both Sean Hannity’s and Beck’s radio programs. Her efforts produced results. Several thousand came out brandishing signs, listened to speeches from Bachmann and others on the Capitol steps, then ventured into the nearby congressional office buildings to tell our representatives face-to-face what we thought of the whole healthcare debacle.
Here’s a slide show of that day. It includes a visit to the Congressional offices of Rep. Bachmann and Bill Posey (R-FL 15), and an attempted visit to Speaker Pelosi’s office. We never made it, as Capitol Hill police had surrounded her office after a protester ripped the thousand-plus page health care bill into pieces and trashed her office with it.
Included in the slide show is fellow blogger Lorie Byrd of Wizbang and Media Mythbusters. We finally had the opportunity to meet in person, a highlight of the day.
At the end of it, after a quick dinner at Union Station, we got back into the car and headed south for the long drive back to Florida. Though we were exhausted at its conclusion, we agreed we’d do the trip again, with one caveat: an overnight stay in a motel is a must.
