- FAST FACTS:
- Sen. Bob Corker Holds Town Hall Meeting in Oakland
- Hundreds Crowd Inside a Small Church
- Some Left Once Church Reached Capacity
tom.powell@wreg.com
twitter.com/tompowell3
(OAKLAND, TN August 11, 2009 9:22 PM) -- Hundreds of people lined up Tuesday night to attend a town hall meeting on health care reform put on by Senator Bob Corker in Oakland, Tennessee.
The line of people wrapped around Holy Spirit Luthern Church before the door even opened. Around 5:15 p.m. there was simply no more room inside the church, leaving dozens of people waiting for a seat to open up so they could get inside and express their views.
Senator Corker spoke first, then opened the meeting up for questions and comments. He calls this his listening tour, and he had plenty to listen to Tuesday.
"It's time for people to realize this is our government," said Naja Dollar who carried a sign warning against over-spending. "I'm upset. I don't trust the government anymore."
A woman carrying a baby stood to tell the crowd about her husband and five children. The crowd cheered after she said her husband works hard to pay for his family's own health insurance. "Because he's white, because he considers the Constitution the law of the land, we are now considered terrorists in our own country. " She expressed concerns that health care reform could lead to nurses coming into homes, forcing women to have abortions.
"We're considered domestic terrorists, everyone in this room, in the eyes of our own government, if someone gives the word we could all be rounded up," she concluded as the crowd cheered again.
"A bill that gives the government the ability to come into people's homes ... is not a bill I will ever consider supporting," responded Senator Corker.
Outside the church, Ray Gronski held a rubber chicken with a sign saying, "Keep your plucking hands off my health care." He says the meeting went well, and he was pleased to hear Corker's views.
The crowd was mostly conservative, but there were those who came to support President Barack Obama's Health Care Reform. A woman outside rolled her son in a stroller while he held a sign that said, "We support the President's plan."
The Tennessee Health Care Campaign was also on hand, along with folks who told personal stories trying to illustrate the need for reform. "Health care is something that we have to do, and we have to do it fast," Dault said. "I wish they would be as eager to help out the common man as they were to help the bankers and fat cats."
