Come for the T-Shirt, Stay for the Protest
By Elissa Silverman and Yolanda Woodlee
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 16, 2006; Page DZ02
Monday’s D.C. Council hearing on financing the proposed $412 million National Capital Medical Center left those in the audience with lots of questions: Who would run the hospital? Who would decide what services it would provide?
And who was responsible for the T-shirts?
Worn by approximately 25 people wandering in and out of the council chamber all day, they bore bright red letters:
"NCMC. N=No. C=Charitable. M=Medical. C=Care.
"NCMC Stands for No Charitable Medical Care=If you do not have insurance the NCMC will not treat you like D.C. General would."
Although at first glance the shirts looked supportive of the proposed public-private partnership between the city and Howard University, the message mimicked the mantra of David A. Catania (I-At Large), a hospital opponent who chairs the D.C Council’s committee on health and who repeatedly said during the lengthy session that the NCMC would not be a replacement for D.C. General Hospital. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) ignited a firestorm when he decided to close the city’s public hospital in 2001. Though the hospital was beloved by some city residents for caring for all regardless of ability to pay, Williams put a do-not-resuscitate order on the facility, arguing that it was hemorrhaging money.
It was difficult to get an answer to the T-shirt question, even from some of those wearing the shirts. A few people said they were simply volunteers interested in the hospital issue. Others said they had been given the shirts and told to put them on.
Rodney Riley said he didn’t know who had paid for his. Nor did Riley know who had been responsible for sending a van to his house that morning to bring him to the John A. Wilson Building.
"I just come," said Riley, who sat quietly through eight hours of testimony. "I don’t have anything else to do."
Rose Hamilton , who lives in …
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031500845.html
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