I'm sorry, but I really must protest

The call went out Monday that there was going to be a pro health care reform demonstration the next day in my fair city. I saw it on my friend Rev. John Shuck's Facebook wall and since Shuck is one of the two ministers of the Christian faith who I have any respect for, the fictional Father Ted is the other, I knew I had to get out on the firing line to do my bit and help with the cause. So Monday evening, after arranging a ride to the demonstration, I went to the craft store and I bought a foam core poster board and a big ass marker, and Tuesday morning I made this sign to brandish at the unsuspecting citizens of east Tennessee:
My friend and partner in protesting, Snad, picked me up Tuesday afternoon and we hit our target area, one of the busiest intersections in town.
The weather was perfect and about 3o some other health care reform supporters showed up and we waved and held up our signs for all the folks to see for about two hours. Besides Snad, Shuck, and myself, there were a bunch of other great folks who stuck their necks out to show the area that there are indeed people who want health care reform and who support everything from Medicare for all to the public option to single payer national health insurance for all. Some of these fine folks got their picture on the website of the local conservative daily paper:
And this gal who works for this organization was there was well:
And these folks were with the local media or the Department of Homeland Security, or maybe both, were there:
Also in attendance was the blogger Southern Female Lawyer, who is not only a lawyer with liberal political leanings, she's also a damn fine cook and singer as well. It turns out Snad knows her and she pointed her out to me. After getting the courage up to go introduce myself to her I began to cross the busy street only to see her and her son walking towards their car. Curse my bad timing! However I did get a chance to shout at her as she sat in traffic, "I'm Dr. Monkey!" I'm pretty sure she flinched and threw a protective arm around her young son, but when she saw how human I looked she waved and said something that I couldn't make out. One day perhaps our paths will cross again and I'll be able to introduce myself properly, and to perhaps beg her to cook something for me.

Now, as far as reaction to our demonstration went, it went surprisingly well despite the fact that God hates protesters. (Fez tip to Tumble Dumble that link.) As I have found during these kinds of protests you get three reactions, those who are positive, those who are negative, and those who would rather chew their own arm off rather than acknowledge you and I'm proud to say that positive reaction beat out negative reaction by a margin of 70 % to 30 %. The number of people who told us we were number one in their hearts and minds by showing us their middle finger during this demonstration was two. The number who scowled at us or gave us the thumbs down was about fifteen. And the number of folks who gave the the thumbs up, honked, waved in support, or shouted nice things to us as they passed was way over one hundred. So not bad at all for a two hour demonstration in this politically conservative area of east Tennessee, which leads me to believe that despite what Fox News would have you believe, rank and file Republican party voters want health care reform.

It felt good to exercise my free speech rights today and to stand with my fellow citizens to show my support for this great cause.