RC Pirate Forums
We Surround Rochester
Aug 28, 2010, Washington DC
On Friday, March 19, 2010, Wendy T. from We Surround Rochester emailed a “call to action” to rally in front of Rep. Dan Maffei’s (NY 25th) local office, that’s located in the Irondequoit Town Hall. Maffei supports the Health Care Reform bill. Here’s Wendy’s call to action:
This weekend is the culmination of so much corruption and so many lies. This weekend they will vote on pronouncing the death penalty on America.
I, as an individual citizen who is sick of this crap, will be standing on the sidewalk with a sign tomorrow in front of Irondequoit Town Hall, 1280 Titus Avenue at Kings Highway, 14617. This is Dan Maffei’s office, Dan Maffei who is selling us out by voting ‘yes’ on health care. I’ll get there at Noon and stay until 3pm – anyone and everyone is welcome to join me for the whole time or a half-hour or whatever you want. Please don’t let me be there all alone for 3 hours!
Heck no, we weren’t going to let Wendy stand alone and on short notice, over 50 people showed up with signs and flags to rally against the Health Care Reform bill!
There was also a group of folks driving down with Ron C., to participate in the rally outside of the Capitol in Washington DC. Yes, we covered the bases and both rallies were highly successful and there were 50,000 who made the trek to Washington DC to rally against the Health Care Reform bill!
Lisa G. was in communication with Deb M., who was with Ron C.’s group, reporting on the National Rally and Lisa was passing on information and photos to Deb M. of our Irondequoit rally. Deb M. reported to Lisa G. that they were also visiting Dan Maffei’s office in Washington DC, to urge him to vote “NO” on the Health Care Reform Bill and also to show him the photo’s of our rally against the bill in Irondequoit. Ain’t modern technology grand! 
I made a point to be there and I brought my historic American Flag that’s led all of the Rochester Tea Parties and also the Rochester Tea Party Sign and the Sam Adams quote sign. I had to replace Eric Massa’s photo with Dan Maffei’s photo.
I got to the Irondequoit Town Hall at about 12:10pm. I was met in the parking lot by an Irondequoit PD officer who was the shift Sgt. and he asked about the rally and how long we were going to be there, so he could tell his officers. I told him that we were planning to be there until 3pm and that we meant no harm and were rallying against the Health Care Reform bill. He was cool with that and we had a pleasant exchange. It’s important that we cooperate with the Police on our rallies as that way, there’s no surprises or disruptions to broadside Law Enforcement.
I made my way around the Town Hall Building to the front sidewalk that bordered Titus Ave. and it was a perfect spot to hold a rally! There was a lot of traffic on Titus Ave. and we got a lot of honks and thumbs up! We also got a few middle fingers, with one young “lady” hurling the “F bomb” at us, while flipping us off, and almost rear ending the car in front of her! 
There’s was about 30 people there when I arrived and people kept on coming.
There were families and young people that came:
There were “seasoned citizens” that also joined us:
There were several Veterans that participated:
As usual, people brought some great and original signs to the rally.
I wonder if Rep. Maffei will listen to our urging to reconsider and vote “NO” against the Health Care Reform Bill? We’ll find out soon, as the House of Representatives will vote on the bill either today or sometime overnight. If Maffei votes for the bill as he’s previously stated, we will vote him out of office on 11/2/2010!
Many thanks to Ken H. for providing the great photos!
All POW-MIA
10 responses so far ↓
1 james pittenger // Mar 21, 2010 at 2:22 pm
vote him out -make him get a real job for the first time in his life
2 jill Knapp // Mar 21, 2010 at 3:17 pm
Thank you for speaking for us all!!! I am deeply offended by this bill. Pray it does not pass.
Offended in California
3 Wendy Ann // Mar 21, 2010 at 6:15 pm
We were very hopeful yesterday down in DC, but I fear with Stupak caving, the fix is in. It was said many times yesterday at the DC rally that win or lose, this is just one battle in a long fight – Keep your boots on the ground and your eyes on November. This will all be corrected with a clean sweep at the polls.
4 Mary Lou Welz // Mar 21, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Money bomb to Dr. Benishek(R) running against Stupid Stupak http://tinyurl.com/ygm9cxf
5 howardroarke // Mar 21, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Great job!
6 rochester_veteran // Mar 22, 2010 at 6:30 am
Maffei and Slaughter voted for the bill. Time to get to work in voting those two out!
7 Helen R. // Mar 22, 2010 at 6:57 am
Hi Guys:
I wanted to fill you in on my trip. I got to my ride’s house, Ron, in Webster by 7:30. We left around 8:00, stopped at the Starbucks, then continued on. I was sitting in the middle in the back seat. He owned a Big, big, Silverado truck that could fit three people in the back. The only problem is the middle was not made for a tall person, especially for the long trip. I stayed there for about 3 hours, then we stopped at a rest stop. I switched places with someone and that felt better. We made it to the rail station at 7:00. We took the metro to Union Station. We walked to the capitol and stood in front of it. It is an awesome sight. While we walked, we saw a black suv coming towards us so Deb showed her “Kill the Bill” sign and I looked in and it was Michele Bachman! She waved at us and we chased the suv like a couple of teenagers after a rock star. We yelled at people that Michelle was in the car and everyone ran after the suv. Of course, it drove away but she is one of our heroes in our cause to save freedom and liberty in this country.
We had some time to kill, so we went to the a museum (that was free and had bathrooms). It held flowers from everywhere. It was beautiful. At 10:30, we went join the crowd on the West side of the capital. WendyAnn and I ended up in the middle of the crowd and we could see the speakers ok. Gail and Debbie hung behind by a wall. Ron, who is a professional, went to take pictures by the stage. The speakers were great and we all had a great time. We stood there from 10:30 until 1:30. It was in the seventies, with no clouds so we really got tired from the sun beating down on us. There were great speakers, especially Joe Wilson, Michele Bachman and Jon Voight. After Jon, we decided that it was almost done so we trekked off to one of the HR buildings that had a café. They were almost closing, but I managed to get a salad and cold drink. We decided that we were going to visit more representatives in their offices, although most were not there. We first went to Michele’s office. She wasn’t there but that was ok. Wendy and I hung outside her door as Ron went in to show a picture he took and was going to give it to her. Gail and Deb went off to bother other Congress people. As we were standing there, we saw Jon Voight. Like teenagers, we ran down the hall and Wendy tried to take a picture. I hung back and just stared. He looked at me and I said hello. He said hello and noticed Wendy. We had our We Surround Rochester shirts on and he was starting to walk towards us. He then got shooed into an office. RATS! Almost meet him personally. Anyway, we continued to be Michele’s groupies in front of her office when Wendy yelled, there’s Michele! She came up to us (she probably recognized me out on the street) and shook my hand. She shook hands and hugged Wendy. So then I got a hug. It was fantastic! Michele for president!! Well, I don’t know, but that’s how I felt. She praised everyone that came out and she was ready to vote no. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me.
Later, there was a human chain that stretched out around the capital. After that we headed back to the station and the truck. We took our 6-8 hour journey home. I didn’t get home until 5:00 Sunday morning. The first thing I had to do was feed my cats. Then I went to bed. I’m taking off from work today. I’m still recovering, my voice is still off and my legs and feet are still aching. I’ll be in tomorrow.
I heard that the bill passed by a few votes. He took out the abortion part, which he plans to put back in by executive order. 1/6th of our economy is now run by the government. I don’t know what is next but I’m sure I’ll be back in Washington pretty soon.
For now, I need coffee. You guys take it easy today and don’t forget our country in your prayers.
Helen
Fellow patriot
8 Chad Hummel // Mar 23, 2010 at 1:13 pm
I went to Wash on sat…it was truly an inspirational display of American patriotism. It is great to hear that there was also the local gathering. I must have just missed you guys as I left Irondequoit with my son around 1pm on Fri, and drove right past the Town Hall about an hour before that.
I sent Mr. Maffei a ‘fax’ yesterday at his local office and urge you all to do the same.
I told him…”You did not listen, but we ‘heard’ your vote, and you are fired”
Look forward to meeting you all at future events.
Chad
9 rochester_veteran // Mar 23, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Chad,
Thanks for your report! Please post some photos. Standard html code is fine and the width no larger than 500 pixels.
Were you and your son anywhere near where the proported “N” word incident supposedly happened with John Lewis?
I have a short piece of video here, but it shows no hostile behavior from the crowd and I heard only “kill the bill” being yelled. Methinks John Lewis manufactured a racial incident to malign Tea Partiers. What else is new?
Here’s the video that I found:
It didn’t look like anything happened. Was Lewis hallucinating?
10 Chad Hummel // Mar 24, 2010 at 1:37 pm
RV:
I was on the lawn and walking all around from 10am until about 2:30pm. I literally saw and heard nothing but pure patriotism. There were hundreds of young kids with their families and I liken the who thing to a super-sized 4th of july day parade. 40,000 strong even prayed aloud for the Representatives and the President.
I am deeply disgusted at the media’s reporting. Even if the allegations are true, that means there were 2 out of 40,000 over a 2 day span that acted inappropriately.
5 people were actually arrested at the war protest that was going on at the same time and the Rochester D&C reported that rally as “peaceful” and the rally I went to as “flat out ugly at times”
Fine…the misinformation fuels and inspires me more!!!
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