Public Option Advocates Rally for National Health Care on Labor Day

BOSTON/Boston Common - Over 5000 members of labor unions, Democratic Party chapters and health care advocacy organizations gathered on the Boston Common for a Health Care Rally on Labor Day. The event was called to shore up regional support for a public health care option - though not a single-payer option - in the proposed national health care reform plan being pushed by President Barack Obama and Democratic Party leaders.

According to Rocio Saenz, president of Service Employees International Union Local 615, " Unaffordable health care is holding back to many hard working families, keeping them from achieving the American Dream. Health care reform can't wait. Across Boston, across New England, across these United States there are millions of stories of ordinary men and women, struggling to achieve their American dream. Affordable health care has meant a more prosperous life for these hard working families."

"Today, we have come together, from all walks of life, from across this great city. We come together because we share the ideals of the late Senator Edward Moore Kennedy. And his brave words, spoken a generation ago, will bolster us weeks ahead in this campaign for affordable quality health care for every American. 'The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.'"

A number of politicians also addressed the crowd including Mayor Thomas Menino, and Reps. John Tierney, Edward Markey, Michael Capuano and Stephen Lynch. Of note was the fact that Lynch - who does not support a public option health care plan - was essentially shouted from the podium by cries of "public option" from hundreds of members of the crowd.

The rally concluded with a march to Copley Square. There was a light police presence, no counter-demonstrators and no arrests.