Donna Fite of Columbia protests the healthcare bill on Main Street in front of the Courthouse.
By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher
Sitting on the tailgate of a truck in front of the Marion County Courthouse, Columbia resident Donna Fite was practicing democracy in its truest form today.
Clad in a “Tea Party Patriots” T-Shirt, Fite was holding a sign that stated “Kill the Bill,” referring to the healthcare reform bill which is before Congress this week.
She urges people to call their senators and representatives and tell them to vote no on the bill, adding that the majority of the people in Mississippi oppose it.
Fite used a real life anecdote to explain why she is against the health care bill: “I have a grandbaby due next month,” she said. “If that healthcare bill passes, that grandbaby will be paying for it when he’s an old man.”
Fite said she is part of a national organization called We the People that urged its members to take a stand on Main Streets across America and protest the bill.
She even took a day off from her job as public librarian in Lamar County to protest. Healthcare needs to be changed in the United States but not in the fashion that is being proposed, she said.
“We have one of the best healthcare systems in the world,” she said. “I don’t want to see what is being proposed in D.C. to happen, what they call Obamacare.”
As an opponent of abortion, she does not want her insurance paying for people to have the procedure. She said she has talked to people in other countries who have socialized medicine similar to what is being proposed in Congress and they say the quality of the healthcare is poor under the system.
It scares Fite to think that the government would make the decisions regarding her healthcare. She would not want to get into a situation where she had cancer and the government would decide to just let her die.
You go girl!!! Here’s the senate contact info:
Sen. Roger Wicker
Website: wicker.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. Office:
555 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-2403
Phone: (202) 224-6253
Fax: (202) 228-0378
Sen. Thad Cochran
Website: cochran.senate.gov
Washington, D.C. Office:
113 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
District of Columbia 20510-2402
Phone: (202) 224-5054
Fax: (202) 224-9450
Telling your congressman doesn’t do anything. Elected officials are no longer the voice of the people, they are the voice of themselves. They do whatever is in their own personal best interest.
J
Amen….for the 1st time, I believe we agree on something….politicians only looking out for their own interests…
Atta Girl!!! We had better start speaking up and out. Or this will just be the next ‘pill’ we will have rammed down our throats. Do you remember what our president said?….’This is a great nation…Vote for me and help me change it,(paraphrased). And that is exactly what he is doing. The changes he is making with his ‘elite’ squad are taking us right into communism. But, God is on our side! Nothing takes God by surprise. Fast and Pray people, Fast and Pray!
“We have one of the best healthcare systems in the world,” she said.”
Sure, if you’re rich, and don’t get sick.
Harvard researchers published September 2009 in the American Journal of Public Health a study which reveals roughly 45,000 American adults die every year because they are not covered by health insurance.
Thousands more Americans see their policies canceled or denied by private insurers that are beholden to Wall Street’s profit expectations and not patient health.
My biggest fear in getting old is myself or a loved one getting sick and being hit with thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical bills that we can’t afford. This is not the best health care system in the world. It needs work.
Sources:
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/09/study-45000-americans-die-each-year-for-lack-of-insurance/
http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=27994
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/16/stocks-baucus/
J. Would you rather owe thousands of dollars or have no health care at all when you are old?
So who cares, let’s bankrupt sick people, at least be grateful you have insurance?
Is that truly how the “best healthcare system in the world” is supposed to operate?
I’d rather not go bankrupt if I get seriously ill.
Many other countries have health care systems that work better — the US is ranked 37th in the world by the World Health Organization when it comes to the quality of health care. We can do better.
If Healthcare passes, you don’t have to worry about getting old! Heathcare needs reform, yes! But at least we have choices now. If this bill passes, say goodbye to your choices!
Finally, a Marion Countian speaking with some substance and not “my opinion” or “he said she said”!
kill the bill
In response to J, if we don’t have the best health care system in the world then who does? Be specific please. Also please name one program that the government is running efficiently.
That being said, I believe there is room for improvement. Insurance companies do need to be reigned in and fraud should be AGRESSIVELY pursued and eliminated.
France, Italy, Spain, Canada, Australia, Japan to begin with, according to the World Health Organization.
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
US ranks 37th.
Private health expenses in industrial countries now average only some 25 percent of annual income because of universal health coverage (except in the United States, where it is 56%).
Here’s preventable deaths percentage rates. Note the US is at the BOTTOM of the chart:
http://www.allcountries.org/ranks/preventable_deaths_country_ranks_1997-1998_2002-2003_2008.html
If you read further it’s likely this is because of the high uninsured rate in the US.
I don’t see the rest of your point though. You don’t want the government with a stake in health care, but you don’t want insurance companies to have a part of it either. Seems like hyperbole so I’m skipping that part of your argument.
I think it’s pretty common knowledge that our health system barely stacks up to other developed nations. Those Tea Party people tickle me. They’re just so very self-important.
Actually Tea Party Members are all ages, all races, all levels of American Society who care about our families and our nation’s futures, And we want what our original founders wanted: freedom from oppression. Seems we are at that point again.Hmmmmm
I’ll take coffee rather than tea, thank you very much.
Nothing like preachin’ to the Mississippi choir!
Where was the outrage just a little more than a year ago when the financial industry was essentially socialized? I say social heathcare too. (Wouldn’t have said that two years ago, but since our lawmakers crossed the line,they might as well do something that will provide equal access to healthcare for the masses).
I saw her and wanted to stop but did not know what she was protesting for. Now I know. Go Girl!! Somebody needs to stand up for something because now days people are falling for just about anything.
Like this whole tea party thing.
A recent CNN poll on who really makes up the “tea bagger” movement found, unsurprisingly, that the majority of self-identified tea-baggers were white, older, rural and financially well-off adults who protest government support for other Americans.
These tea-baggers themselves are the generation that received high levels of government support: from subsidized college educations back when public universities and colleges enjoyed broad government funding to the steady federal funding of agricultural supports in rural America. Tea-baggers — many of whom enjoy Medicare and Medicare Advantage — actually represent the America that enjoys extensive federal financial assistance.
Thus it is not socialism that the average tea-bagger opposes. In reality, tea-baggers like their own federal welfare programs just fine and solely want to prevent younger Americans, urban Americans and Americans of color from enjoying the benefits they so readily accept for themselves.
I agree completely.
First of all it was CNN News.Liberal Media! Second: I was in D.C. on Sept 12, 2009, when 2 million plus Tea Party Members marched on the Nations Capital. I saw young adults with their tatoos and nose rings. I saw families from Grandpa and Grandma to sons and daughters and the grandchildren in their 20’s. I saw black,yellow,red, and white skinned people from ALL walks of life! Wealth nor poverty had anything to do with it! These were ordinary people, like me, who love their country and do not want its destruction!
More like 800,000… gotta love these Tea Baggers ignoring facts and worshipping at the altar of Fox News and Glenn Beck.
http://www.statepress.com/archive/node/3654
Wonder how many of ‘em like Fite have a soft public service job rather than one in the private sector, you know—like businesses and industry and all that stuff that made this nation great? My guess is most of these work in some way shape or form for something that’s government related—-then have the balls to gripe about a socialist healthcare system!!!
Facts are facts, Donna, regardless of the source. You can’t change a fact.
Kill the bill these older well off people you refer to worked their butts off too get that way this bill only benefits lazy people
NEXT TIME SHE HAS A PROTEST, LET US KNOW AHEAD OF TIME AND MAYBE WE CAN JOIN YOU. KEEP IT GOING!!!!!!
I will! I am trying to re-establish the Columbia Tea Party Group. I will get the information out to the Informer and the other media in the area. We need more voices out there besides mine! All ages, all races, all concerned!
Many of us end up paying out the … due to the medical profession passing on the non-paid buck to us. Many families survive from paycheck to paycheck and 1 illness could mean disaster for a family. If a person can not work due to an illness and does not have the ability to receive quality medical care (lack of insurance), who will pick up the bill when that family has to rely on public assistance (food stamps/welfare) in order to survive?
Oh, those “facts”. There is no provision in the health care bill for abortion payments. We are 37th in the world in health care. The government “death panels” don’t exist, if you’re worried about being denied care then look at your health insurer! As for “pills being rammed down our throats”, you can than Dubya for the prescription drug bill that is MANDATORY, whether you take any prescription drugs or not…
I say “Go President Obama” and for OUR Senators to vote YES for the health care reform bill! We need somebody looking out for ALL people.
I say we need health care reform, but more than anything we need welfare reform!!!! Lazy a.. people need to get up and get a job and stop milking the government.
It is so easy to argue with people when you have no face and no name.
Donna, I am glad you have enough courage to put your name and face with what you believe. I have found that cowards hide behind the anonymity the internet.
@Concerned: “Facts” are not “facts” regardless of the source. This is particularly true when statistics are involved. “Facts” are misrepresented and skewed to support opinions every day.
That’s my opinion, and I put my name on it.
Wow!I have started something and am proud of it! Whether you agree with the my views and the stand of We The People, or with Obama and J and some of the others, KNOW the facts (which, yes I DO!) – from all reliable sources. Then make a stand for your own beliefs! I have and I challenge each citizen of Marion County to learn what is going on in our Nation’s capital! Monday many people pulled over, out of traffic, to ask me about my sign and I shared my opinions. The majority agreed with me and supported my stand. It will take the now-silent majority to make a loud voice to quiet the minority of Progressives who are changing the basis of the USA. Be brave and stand up and be counted with me! It is your Right!
wow. the debates were excellent. looks like they’re finally going to pass something that’s been in the works for decades. personally, i consider this a real step ahead for out country. two years ago, i would have been upset at the prospect of socialized healthcare. but when our lawmakers voted to socialize the financial industry, i changed my mind. what’s good for banks has to be great for all Americans.
i’m particually encouraged about what this might mean for people with preexisting conditions and also for small businesses.