Protesters head to Bozeman to send a message
A group of about 15 Flathead Valley residents leaves for Belgrade this morning to be sure they're on hand when Barack Obama lands at Gallatin Field Airport Friday.
The Freedom Action Rally's health-care group wants President Obama to know of their strong opposition to his plan for health-care reform, which the president is stumping for in town hall meetings in Belgrade as well as New Hampshire, Colorado, and elsewhere across the nation.
"The ones that vote for it, they should be putting them in brown shirts and swastikas and say, 'These are the people who did this to you,'" Terry Compton said after reading the text of HR 3200, the health-care-reform bill being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Compton chairs the health-care group that formed out of the Freedom Action Rally in Kalispell in late July. He helped organize the "tea party" style group to raise awareness of what he considered personal freedom threats posed by cap-and-trade, the clean-water bill, and bills dealing with property rights and gun rights.
"We're being attacked on all sides," Compton said.
But health-care proposals hit him the hardest, so last Friday he hosted 18 people at the sub-group's first meeting, where those attending formed their Belgrade travel plans shortly after the president's visit was announced.
"Joe Blue Collar is what I call them," he said. The Flathead Valley group includes retired Air Force and Federal Aviation Administration officers, business owners and working couples.
Compton himself cannot make this trip, but Dr. Annie Bukacek will be among those carpooling to join what's expected to be thousands on the streets of Bozeman.
Bukacek, of Hosanna Health Care in Kalispell, will also be a panelist for a Montana Policy Institute meeting on health care also scheduled for Friday in Bozeman.
The Free Market Health Care Forum, billed as "your antidote to government-run health care," is from 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Best Western GranTree Inn. The $15 registration includes lunch.
President Obama's town-hall meeting on health care will be held at the Bozeman airport in Belgrade at 12:55 p.m.
"We don't want to disrupt and become like some I've seen where it's very hostile," Compton said. "We're trying to raise awareness so Sens. Baucus and Tester realize we are not in that fringe group being funded by right-wing conservatives. The funds are coming out of my pocket, out of Annie's pocket "
He urged people to read the proposals for themselves. H.R. 3200 is available online at the Library of Congress' Thomas site (thomas.loc.gov).
"Go on the Internet and look at this bill," Compton urged citizens. "They'll realize there's no hope for them Then start speaking up."
Compton said people may contact him at 752-7567.