Members of local Norman churches along with other members of the community gathered at Andrews Park Tuesday evening to remember those who die each year due to lack of health care.
The event is one of several that happened in many states Tuesday inspired by the National Day of Remembrance and Hope, a nationwide event sponsored by Faithful Reform in Health Care.
According to its Web site, Faithful Reform in Health Care is an organization committed to expanding support for health care reform within the religious community.
The Rev. Chris Moore, along with other church leaders, helped organize what was supposed to be a candlelight vigil through his church, Norman United Church of Christ.
“We were going to stand here tonight and light candles against the darkness, and it may seem for those of us trapped at this point in the health care debate ironic that we can’t even light the candles because of the wind,” Moore said. “But the truth is the candles were only a symbol of our light against the darkness, and the light that really matters is the light within each and every one of us.”
Amy Venable, pastor of St. Stephens United Methodist Church, said the vigil was not held to support of any political stance or piece of legislation, but only those who are suffering within the current health care system.
“In the midst of our nation’s intense debate about health care reform, 45,000 people will die this year because of a lack of health care,” Venable said. “They are not statistics. They are our mothers, our fathers, our sisters, our brothers, our neighbors and our co-workers.”
Venable said the current health care system is immoral by the standards of many different faiths.
“As people of all different faiths, we must state that in a nation as affluent as ours, having people go bankrupt for medical charges, being denied health care because they are already sick, having to choose between eating or buying medicine, is immoral,” she said. “We come together to raise a common voice calling for a moral vision for reform in our health care system.”
T. Thomas, a minister at North Haven Church in Norman and head of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Oklahoma, said he lived in France for several years and prefers France’s health care system above the United States’ system.
“I think universal health care is a human right,” Thomas said. “I’m just totally disgusted and, especially in front of my European friends, embarrassed with our health care system.”
Phyllis Mattek, a member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Norman, said she has had a long commitment to health care reform since she began work 20 years ago as a social worker.
“I soon figured out that the people that I saw had to file for disability in order to get treatment just for their diabetes,” Mattek said.
Mattek said her daughter-in-law, who lives in Kansas, is struggling with medical bills after a back injury, even though she has health insurance.
“They have insurance but somehow their medical costs are so high that they are trying to avoid filing for bankruptcy,” Mattek said.
An estimated 45,000 people will die this year for lack of health care, according to a September 2009 study published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The vigil coincided with the National Day of Action on Health Reform, put on by the Democratic National Committee’s community organizing project, Organizing for America. The event encouraged people in all 50 states to reach a goal of 100,000 calls to Congress in support of health insurance reform.
Over 200,000 calls were made to Congress, according to President Barack Obama’s Web site.
“Tonight I challenge you to call your representative, or to pray, or to write a letter, but do something, and do it soon,” Moore said.
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