Health care protest spurs counter-demonstration

On one side, speakers, placards and a bus that played country music. On the other, a band, chanting and banners.

The site of Charlottesville’s latest showdown on health care: a parking lot outside U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s office.

Of course, Perriello, D-Ivy, wasn’t actually in his office for Tuesday’s show, which started as a protest organized by Americans for Prosperity and ended up spawning a counter-demonstration by local health care reform proponents. Approximately 200 people turned out.

Lloyd Snook, a Democrat, said he sent out an e-mail to some folks urging the public thanks, but the message had apparently spread far beyond his address book.

“We just want Tom to know that we realize [the rightness of his vote] and we’ve got his back,” Snook said.

Perriello squeaked into his seat last year, and Republicans are hoping his vote for the Affordable Health Care for America Act will help them push him out in 2010.

The protesters unhappy with Perriello’s Saturday-night vote for the new health care bill set up in the parking lot’s far corner with the Hands Off My Health Care bus.

A variety of speakers addressed the crowd.

Tito Munoz, a Colombian immigrant, told the crowd that the new bill is repressive and would impinge the individual liberty that he so loves about the U.S.

“Class warfare is a well-known communist tactic,” he said.

He added, “They always complain about ‘Somebody has more money than me, and that’s why I don’t make it,’” Munoz said.

Ben Marchi, state director for Americans for Prosperity, urged the crowd not to give up.

“We have a chance possibly to still kill this bill,” he said.

He urged his political allies to write polite, brief and factual letters to the editor to pressure Virginia’s senators to oppose the care reform bill.

“Don’t put everything you get in every forwarded e-mail that said Obama did this or that,” he said. “A lot of that’s probably true. A lot of it’s not.”

Dr. Clara Belle Wheeler, an Albemarle County resident, said that freedom of choice was what made the American medical system great.

She also condemned the American Medical Association, which ultimately backed the health care proposal.

“The AMA is a shill and a sham and a shame,” she said.

As the protesters gave speeches, Perriello’s supporters across the parking lot raised chants such as “Thank you, Tom” and “Health care yes!”

And of course the band struck up a few tunes.

“I think that Tom’s vote was really courageous, and I really appreciate him voting yes, so I wanted to show my support,” said University of Virginia fourth-year student Leslie Welsh.

That was typical of the difference in discourse:

Supporters called the man Tom and his actions courageous. Opponents referred to him as Perriello and called him a liar.

Perriello spokeswoman Jessica Barba said Perriello met with and respected those who oppose the health care bill but ultimately made the decision he deemed best for his district. Perriello’s 5th District stretches from Charlottesville to Danville.

“A lot of the political pundits and all the conventional wisdom is saying that this is going to cost him the election next year,” she said. “He didn’t come to Congress to get re-elected.”