Candlelight vigils demand: Don’t kill public option

The grassroots organization, MoveOn sponsored the vigils including a gathering in Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill. Other vigils were held near the Washington Monument and in Baltimore, in Ridgewood in Jersey City, New Jersey and hundreds of other cities and towns across the nation. "Conservatives are pushing to bargain away the heart of real reform-the public option," MoveOn charged in a statement posted on their website. "We are organizing emergency vigils nationwide to send Congress a powerful reminder that a majority of Americans want a public option and we won't let it be bargained away."

Health Care for America NOW, a broad based coalition that has fought for the public option was gathering signatures on an online petition headlined, "Say No to Joe!" which denounces Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's "outrageous demands" that the public option be stripped from the Senate health care reform package. Lieberman has long been regarded as a stooge of the wealthiest insurance companies headquartered in Connecticut.

The petition states, "A public health insurance option that is accountable to voters and Congress and available nationally from day one is essential to lower health care costs and to keeping insurance companies honest. Otherwise, the insurance companies win. Health reform cannot be held hostage by Joe Lieberman. We the American people, reject this so-called compromise."

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