PORTSMOUTH — Health care reform sparked a loud, but peaceful, demonstration outside Portsmouth High School yesterday as more than 1,000 people without tickets to see President Barack Obama threw their own town meeting outside.
Police cruisers blocked Andrew Jarvis Drive to traffic as demonstrators squared off across the median. Officers had marked off areas where demonstrators could stand behind yellow crime scene tape. The demonstration area ended about 70 yards away from the president's location, Portsmouth police said.
On one side of the road, yellow Gadsden flags with painted rattlesnakes swirled over the crowd. On the opposite side, the pro-Obama crowd held up posters and a few homemade signs, and sang Civil War-era songs to send the message that they want health care reform.
Both sides shouted at each other over bullhorns and banged drums. But despite the decibel level, both camps also said they want to let the president know this is an issue many are taking personally.
Patricia Fennelly of Derry supports health care reform and said she has a stake in the outcome of this debate. As a mental health professional, she said she sees the emotional toll the current system is taking on vulnerable people whose insurance plans do not cover psychiatric and emotional illnesses.
Also, as unemployment continues to climb, even people who once had health insurance are losing their benefits when they lose their jobs, Fennelly said. If the status quo continues, they won't have a way to pay her and she won't be able to treat them, she said.
Across the street, Regina Johnson of Newton held a red, white and blue parasol up against the blistering sun and took the heat with opponents of Obama's reforms. She said she hopes her granddaughter will live in a country where people work and can still pay for their own health care.
"We're old Yankees," she said. "We believe in the value of hard work."
Johnson said she fears the cost of changing health care will crush private businesses and families.
"I'm concerned about the elderly," she said. "My father died of Alzheimer's. I've been taking care of my mother-in-law for four years."
She said she doesn't know what will happen to Alzheimer's patients if health care is changed.
"Where are they supposed to go?" she said.
Back on the opposite side, John Gutta of Groveland, Mass., said the truth is that government health care is affordable and would be cheaper than the current private health care system. His wife, Patricia Gutta, said the bills before Congress may be complicated, but she does understand the controversial issues, such as the public option. She also said she believes private insurance, in reality, is costlier than Medicare and thinks everyone is entitled to health insurance.
Allen Tanner of East Hampstead came out against Obama's plan because his father, Herb Tanner, also of East Hampstead, has a bad experience with the Veterans Administration.
"My dad is a Navy vet and he's dying of cancer," Tanner said. "It was curable. They could have cured it, but they made him wait. Now, it's terminal."
Allen Tanner said Obama's plan will essentially put everyone on a plan like the VA plan.
"It's basically for everyone to end up with the VA, and the VA is killing my father," he said.
Maggie Jackson of Andover, Mass., said health care reform is overdue, although she is not sold on any plan. Looking at the proposals before Congress, she said she would favor a single-payer plan. She said she's not against the public option, but doubts Congress will pass it.
Although health care was the main topic, some demonstrators also brought up other issues.
"Global warming is the greatest issue facing our country," Jarred Cobb of Atkinson said.
He came with a group of activists who trucked an ice sculpture to the rally. The sculpture melted in the heat. Cobb said the president is the one person who can do something to make the global warming threat disappear.
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