This morning, things started out like a normal day. I got up at 9 am and went for a walk with my mom around Lake Zorinsky. That's a story unto its self, but let's get to the point.

Anyway, after the walk it was around 10:30 or so. Mom and I picked up our protest signs and headed to Pacific Street to join several others in front of Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson's office.
This was a small, intimate event, but I met some really nice people.
To make a long story short, we stood on the side of the road, waving to cars as they passed, holding our thoughts out for all to see.

My sign protested the size of the Health care bill. 2000 pages is suspicious to me, and I wanted to point that out to everyone. We got a lot of thumbs up from drivers... a couple fingers up too, if you know what I mean. There were a few fanatics who drove by cheering and waving at us. I'd say we got 5 or 6 positives for every negative we got.

The one that really made my day was a man who drove by us at a slightly slow pace, asking repeatedly and very loudly, "Do you like the cost of Health Care?! Do you like the cost of Health Care?!"

... Pfft. What a drive by question. And it's even more commical because he was driving by as he asked it... over and over...
We laughed long and hard after he passed. The elderly man next to me, who was having a very intelligent conversation with me before hand, yelled back at the passenger who was bashing us. "You're the one who's going to be paying more, not me!", he said as the luxurious sedan continued down the road.

My answer to the anonymous drive by debater is as follows-
No, we do not like the current system of Health Care that we have. I broke my hand a couple years ago and it cost me over 2,000 dollars without insurance. Why? Because doctors need to raise prices in the current system. Why?
a) They give free health care to so many individuals already... namely illegal aliens. Someone's gotta pay the difference, right?
b) They have to pay for protection from malpractice lawsuits. It's not cheap being a doctor, and though they generally make a lot of money (and rightly so, they save lives), believe me... we're the ones who get jipped in the end.
BUT, we also do not like the liberal plan in place for "fixing" it. It fails to address the real issues behind cost and puts into place over 100 more bureaucracies that will only make the system more complicated. Instead of handing the Health Care industry to the government, we should be lightening their load and letting them run it the way they would like. Then the free market will take care of the rest. Doctors will lower their prices in order to be more competitive and we won't have to give control to the most incompetent government in national history. We already have enough regulations as it is. Regulations aren't always bad, but mandating that every American buy insurance from the government is just wrong. They would then have yet another monopoly. Not to mention the cuts to Medicaid, which we currently cannot afford to have.

And did I mention the bill is a whopping 2000 pages long? No senator or congressman/women wants to read it!!! Would you?! It's more boring to read than Twilight and The art of War combined! Ok, maybe some of you think the Art of War is good... you put your own boring book there, if you want. My point is it's way too long. Obviously they are trying to hide something big in it. Why else have so many pages? Hmm? We could just, durrr, split the bill into tiny, 50 page fragments and pass one at a time. That would make everything more transparent and way less suspicious. They might even garner the support of people like me, assuming there's nothing evil in any of the parts... But, wait. There's the problem. There obviously IS. Otherwise they would have a smaller bill! And the bill its self isn't even the largest bill... No, that would be your next doctor visit, if this passes.

Well, anyway, I have to say the majority of people that passed us were in the same boat as we were. Next week we're doing it again and I am going to stress the size of the bill some more. Even Liberals have to agree it's too long. C'mon.