Scrubs Delivery Rally Hits D.C.

By Michael Swartz | 09/24/09 | 02:51 PM EDT | 2 Comments

Latest national commentaries

more »


Sometimes I follow the news and sometimes the news follows me. On a perfectly innocent trip to our nation's capital to take in the sights (and the ballgames) what should I wander into but this affair, dubbed the "Scrubs Delivery Rally":

I thought this a very odd backdrop to the stage and didn't realize what was going on until after I checked it out.

The idea was to send thousands of medical smocks from various parts of the country to show support for Obamacare. Each of them was supposed to tell its own story.

Please tell me whoever wrote this has no intention of working at a hospital I'm unfortunate enough to be confined to.

We will not deduct for spelling or grammar; honestly I didn't notice how this particular message was written until I came home and went through the pictures for the day.

Given its location, there were some high-powered people slated to speak.

The crowd was breaking up as the rally ended, so it was time to get that sound bite.

Among those addressing the massive throngs were Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Senator "Dingy" Harry Reid. I thought I spied Charlie Rangel in the crowd but I wasn't sure and really wasn't looking to ask. Anyway, whether it was good luck or bad I don't know, but since I purely stumbled onto the aftermath I didn't hear what they said nor did I talk to them. I'm not sure I would have gotten along with this crowd anyway.

A heavy union presence at a pro-Obamacare rally - say it ain't so. At least no punches were thrown that I'm aware of.

According to their website, 1199SEIU is the largest local union in the world with over 300,000 members. Yet they could only get a few dozen to this rally.

What I did find was a couple of flyers being passed out at the event. One shilled for a company called Nova Uniforms, who supported the rally and on the flyer quoted a passage from seiu.org:

"...health care reform is about much more than just politics: It's about peoples lives." Please tell me that they only dress the health care professionals and don't work as them.

The other described the event sponsor, an outfit called "Partnership for Quality Care." It describes itself as:

The Partnership for Quality Care is a national labor-management coalition committed to ensuring quality, affordable healthcare for everyone in America. It includes public, private, religious, teaching, and non-profit hospitals nationwide and integrated health systems and the nation's largest healthcare union, SEIU, with more than one million nurses, doctors, and healthcare workers. Our members care for more than 60 million patients annually.

The flyer was preprinted but had additional hand-lettering in red ink telling people the rally was today and that Harry Reid and Hilda Solis would be speaking (how else do you think I would have known that if I wasn't there?) It also stated that "buses leave at 10:30 a.m." - I'm guessing from 1199SEIU since that's what the woman's shirt above read. They were the ones working on this rally.

Yet, even with this small turnout, the media was fawning all over it. I saw a CNN camera rolling, and here's a Univision reporter wrapping up her interview.

The subject of this interview appears happy to be out of the spotlight. But we'll only see her for 10 seconds anyway.

I did not pay attention to what the interviewers were discussing and probably wouldn't have known anyway since I'm monolingual. But it's noteworthy that a Spanish-language network covered the event, particularly with the entire "you lie" controversy centering on whether illegal aliens would be covered in the Obamacare bill. Had I shown up earlier I may have pulled a Wilson of my own, bet I couldn't have helped myself.

The point is that this tiny rally was necessary to provide a so-called show of support for Obamacare and counter the 1 million-plus who showed up a week and a half ago on the other side of that very building.

Perhaps the dichotomy in rally size and location is a perfect metaphor for the issue we're all facing.

 

Print | Email | Share
 

2 Comments | Related Topics »Wicomico County (MD) | National

 

Comments

 
Looks like a "huge" crowd

Looks like a "huge" crowd turned out for this. I guess that explains all the media.

Submitted by Lindsay on Fri, 09/25/09 - 12:33 AM » | Print
 
 
My punch line was messed up!

Somebody must have hit the spell check and relocated the apostrophe because when I saw the Nova Uniforms flyer, "it's" was literally spelled "i'ts" - hence the next line.

I have a question for those of you who live in the D.C. area - does this sort of thing go on literally every day?

Submitted by Michael Swartz on Fri, 09/25/09 - 10:54 AM » | Print
 

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
15 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.