When Jerry Williamson took hold of the microphone at Saturday's health care town hall meeting, all the stinging hisses and jubilant yells that had been bouncing off the walls of the Santa Fe College's gym faded to a suppressed murmur.
With his calm eyes locked on the assembly's ringleader, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., Williamson asked the one thing that had been bouncing around his mind for a long time.
Why?
Why, the former marine and technical director of clinical chemistry at Shands at UF wondered, were the people he met at nursing homes allowed to waste away from debilitating diseases? Why were politicians in Washington more focused on tearing down opposing parties instead of building up the sick? Why were the government financing projects deemed essential while turning a blind eye to man's greatest needs - his health?
For Williamson, who obtained his undergraduate and master's degrees through government military funding, it just doesn't make sense.
"Our health care system is basically a Band-Aid of hodgepodge ideas that don't work," he said. "I never get tired of speaking out against injustice."
For many of the hundreds who gathered to hear Stearns speak, Saturday's town hall meeting was a chance to find out more about legislation that, according to Stearns, will most likely be on the congressional floor by the end of the year.
Some, however, already had their minds made up before Stearns took the podium.
"Show us any private entity that the government has ever taken over that has worked," said Keith Westbrook, a financial services professional for Westbrook Insurance who describes himself as a conservative libertarian. "This isn't the America that I knew and grew up in."
Westbrook, who has two Ph.D.s, has 28 patents and runs a political blog that he said has been used by conservative pundits Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. He said the threat universal health care poses to the country is bigger than most citizens realize.
"You're damned right I'm scared," he said. "I am an American who doesn't want to see a hammer and sickle hanging over the White House."
Using illustrations such as a bank note from Zimbabwe, a country that has seen its monetary value inflate by the trillions, and the monumental stack of paperwork that composes HR 3200, Stearns warned the emotionally charged crowd, which was mostly composed of those opposing universal health care in America, how expanded health care coverage would mean more government intrusion and fiscal waste.
"This bill is not budget neutral," he said. "You look at the government-run health programs such as Medicare and you'll see that it's bankrupt. That's where we'll be heading if this passes."
Instead, Stearns argued for a plan that allows small businesses and organizations to band together and increase their purchasing power in order to negotiate lower health care costs.
The Gainesville town hall meeting was one of four conducted by Stearns Saturday. Stearns, who estimates that he has done nearly 550 assemblies concerning the health care debate, said that the assembly was a great example of citizens getting involved and expressing their viewpoints.
"It really gets me energized to hear from the constituents," he said. "It's wonderful to have a bastion of free speech where you can hear both sides."
"At the end of the day, in my heart of hearts, I want to say that I protected the taxpayers' money."
