I’ve been working more in Charlotte on my project about health care. I’ve been narrowing my focus on the have-nots of health care, meaning those who are either under or uninsured. Most of my focus is on government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, and I would like to show where the programs are failing, as well as succeeding. The first photograph below is from a Tea Party protest at an intersection in Charlotte. The group waited at the intersection for President Obama to drive by after his visit to the Celgard plant in Charlotte to protest the recent passing of the health care bill. Tensions were high between pro-health reform, who stood on an opposite side of the intersection, and anti-health reform protesters.

 

There seems to be three groups, the Tea Party, Americans for Prosperity, and FreedomWorks, which overlap in some ways, that are funding and organizing these protests. It is interesting to see organized protest for a cause happening around the country, but it can be misleading. Who are the organizers of these protest and what are their motives? An article in In These Times about Dick Armey, a former opponent to HillaryCare in 1993 and current de-facto leader of the Tea Party, offers some interesting background information about Armey. There seems to be a difference in historical movements, such as the civil rights and women’s rights movements, than this new, extremely conservative, movement. Is a movement floating on a river of money from big business really a movement of the people?

The second image is from a gathering of Tea Party members in Raleigh to encourage members of the North Carolina Attorney General A.G. Roy Cooper to join other states “in a lawsuit against ObamaCare and stop the federal powergrab!” according to the Tea Party website.