Exciting Story from Capitol Hill Visit during Health Care Vote
Posted by Bette Anne Starkey on April 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Sent to me from a high school friend about their experience.
I just wanted to let you all know that Ron & I just got back today after a visit to the US capitol in Washington DC. We were there participating in the rallies opposing the healthcare bill. I know a lot of you are extremely concerned about what is going on in our country right now and are saddened today about the passing of this bill last night. I just want to encourage those of you who might need it today. They just won the first of many battles, but it is definitely not over. Keep praying for our country. I also want to let you know what was actually going on there and, while I can’t begin to share all of the experiences we had, I will try to hit some highlights. You won’t hear it in the news. When we got home we were surprised at the way the news media reported what was happening there.
First of all, it was definitely the most exciting event I have ever been to in my life. You have no idea the excitement you feel when you are in a massive crowd of people of the same principles and values that you share, the “I’m proud to be an American and I will fight for this country” attitudes. It was awesome. Let me tell you the crowd was massive. At one point we built a human chain of people around the Capital and still had so many people left over that we could have done it several times.
There was an elderly gentleman there that I saw several times throughout the day. I never got to speak to him and I didn’t ever see anyone else speak to him and that was because he spent the entire day Saturday on his knees with his hands lifted to the Lord and praying. I would see him alone at times and I would see him when others might join him. The most exciting time was while we were building the human chain around the Capitol, people were joining him one-by-one until they formed quite a crowd of people on their knees. It moved me so much that it brought tears to my eyes. People not ashamed to pray to our God in the open at our nation’s Capitol. Oh, how proud the Lord must have been of his sons and daughters. While we were in the human chain around the Capitol, news media from a conservative talk radio station out of Orlando, Florida wanted to interview us for a live broadcast so we were live in Orlando Saturday afternoon. They asked me why we were there and I got a chance to explain my reasons for being there. That was pretty exciting.
I met people from all over the place. The people on one side of us in the chain around the capital were a couple from Georgia and on the other side was a couple from Indiana. I met a great lady from Florida, a wonderful elderly couple from Minnesota, a wild guy from Michigan just to name a few. They were all great people. I met black people, oriental people, and Hispanic people.
I stood next to a young black girl probably in her 20’s on the steps of the Canon Building. I wasn’t aware of who was next to me at first because we were so into our “rally shouting” (I call it). When we turned and looked at each other, I hugged her and told her how proud I was to stand next to her and she told me how much she has gone through from her family and friends because they see her joining “the white people” as a disgrace and a traitor, but she told me it is worth it because she seeks the truth and it has no color. That brought tears to my eyes to think of the courage it takes for a young person to go against what society still thinks these days in search of what party actually agrees with your beliefs. What an inspiration she was to me. I was so extremely proud of her commitment and I told her so, but I was so saddened to think that this has become a racial thing to a lot of people. Why can’t we forget color and look to the Bible for how our Father would want us to vote. This is not a black, white, brown, or green issue. This is a moral issue.
We tried to visit the offices of our representatives on Saturday and did visit some, but the most impressive and welcoming office was Joe Wilson’s office (he’s the one that hollered out “liar” when president Obama was saying something in one of their meetings that wasn’t true). He had snacks there for visitors and tea and lemonade. He removed the door to his office when he took office because he said “this is the people’s office and there is nothing private here”. He’s the only one I know of that has done that. All of his aides were extremely professional, polite, and welcoming.
The least welcoming office was that of Timothy Bishop. He wouldn’t come out of his office within his office and talk to us even though we knew he was there. His aids lied and told us he wasn’t there and we could leave a comment and pointed to some paper and pens. They were very cold and rude.
There was one thing that I noticed the most and, when discussing it with Ron later, he noticed the same thing. There was a huge difference between the two parties. You could tell which party they were from whenever they would leave their building to go to the Capitol building or anywhere else in public. The Republicans wore their jackets displaying their party pin on the lapel. The Democrats didn’t wear their jackets (they all carried them over their arms). The Republicans smiled and greeted people and the Democrats didn’t smile, looked straight ahead, and didn’t speak. The Republicans were approachable by anyone (no matter the party) and most of the Democrats asked for police escort before they came out of their offices. I found that really strange because I didn’t see anyone displaying any bad behavior until late Sunday evening before the vote when some young radical people showed up and started trouble and that was after Jesse Jackson showed up. Someone told me they were trying to rally their base in opposition to what were doing. Everything was peaceful until then. After the police arrested one girl, things settled down.
We were so loud that our representatives had to change rooms because they couldn’t hear because of our noise. They moved their meeting to another part of the Capitol.
We got to see Michelle Bachman (representative from Minnesota) and Jon Voight (actor) who made a special effort to acknowledge Ron & me when we were on the side of the Canon Building. They were awesome. We got to see Carl Cameron and Greta Sustern from Fox news. We were getting good pictures until the battery in the camera went dead. Figures, huh?
On Saturday night on the back side of the Capitol, several of the Republicans representatives came out to speak to us and they wanted to thank us for our support and encouragement. They wanted to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance, Singing of God Bless America, and then one of the representatives led us in an awesome prayer from the Capitol building. After that there was a candlelight vigil in front of the Supreme Court Building. We didn’t get back to our hotel until after 11:00, then up early Sunday. There were church services at the Rotunda in the Capitol Building and several of the Congressmen had their families with them. We were all invited.
Ron & I went to different areas at different times throughout the weekend. I told him he could always find me near the “big sign” that read “Kill the Bill” (it was the biggest one there in the middle of the crowd so I knew he could spot it easily). During one of those times, Ron was on the sidewalk between the Canon Building and the Capitol where the Congressmen and women were walking back and forth and a girl stopped one of the Congressmen to talk about why he didn’t support the healthcare bill. Ron had no idea who the Congressman was at the time, but he said he listened to the whole conversation and he was extremely impressed with this Congressman. The girl and her husband were born in Denmark and spent a while in South Africa as teachers and then moved to this country. They were in favor of the healthcare bill. The Congressman listened to the girl and then spoke to her about our founding fathers, our freedoms, and that our rights are given to us by God and not the government and that is what sets us apart from other countries. He explained to her that this bill would be taking our God-given rights and putting them in control of the government. He said he understood her concerns for healthcare, but felt it could be handled in a much better way and that, though there are millions of Americans without healthcare, there are actually only 4% of legal Americans without insurance and this bill would put the burden for this 4% on all other Americans and force them to carry government approved insurance. Ron said the thing that impressed him the most is how he spoke to her in with so much compassion and love and he wasn’t doing it for recognition because there were not more than 5 or 6 people there listening. During the conversation, the girl was so moved by what he was saying that she hung her head and was emotionally choked up. Ron said that was the most impressive thing that happened to him while there. He found out the Congressman’s name; he is Steve King, a Republican from Iowa. He found me to tell me about it and had tears in his eyes. We never see that side of our Congressmen in the news, but they do exist. We need to be praying for the Godly ones that are truly standing firm in their Godly convictions and doing their best to represent us. It is so refreshing.
Please get involved. We’ve got to do all we can to protect our God-given rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and keep this country free with smaller government and not a government that wants to control every aspect of our lives. Be encouraged; there are those still fighting and praying for our country and our freedoms.
We will win.