Douglas Ducharme, 50, a dispatcher from Tempe, was dressed like the grim reaper in a black hood and gray cape, standing on the corner of Second Street and Adams.
Holding a sign that said AARP NOW RIP, he was
protesting any changes to the current health-care system. "This is America. We have the right to choose and the freedom to choose," he yelled.
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"Because I can do it," he said when asked why he was armed.
"In Arizona, I still have some freedoms."
Two police officers were staying very close to the man.
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Elaine Gangbluff,
73, of Phoenix, held a sign that read: "If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it's free."
"
I'm strongly opposed to government running health care. That should be between my doctor and myself," she said.
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Standing on the corner near Third and Washington streets, he stopped and said those opposed to health-care reform were
only doing so because the president "is Black."
Immediately, a group of people opposed to the president's plan surrounded him, yelling "race baiter, race baiter, race baiter" at the top of their lungs.
Doug Ducharme, of Tempe, was one of those yelling.
"This has nothing to do with the president being Black," he said. "My ex-wife is Black."
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Jim Mariman, a veteran from Idaho who served in the Korean War and the Vietnam War, was spending his time outside the convention center rather than in it.
"What we are seeing here is people speaking their minds and their hearts," Mariman said.
Mariman is opposed to Obama's health-care reform plan, but enjoys the fact that those who disagree with him, can disagree with him openly.
"These people can protest because I gave them the right."
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Another protester, 12-year-old Micah Vandenboom, was there with her parents.
She held a sign that made clear her opposition to the president's health-care reform plans.
"Under Obama, everyone will get the same health care, that's socialism," she said. "
It has failed in other countries, you know, like Europe."
Obama: 'Honored and humbled' to speak before Valley vets
People are Teh Funneh