Published: September 10, 2009 12:19 am      

Opponents of Obama, big government gather in Johnstown

JOHNSTOWN — A crowd packed Johnstown’s Central Park on Wednesday evening to welcome the Tea Party Express and to tell lawmakers and the president that the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The Tea Party Express is a group touring cities to speak about what they feel is irresponsible government spending that would increase the national debt. The tour across the nation began Aug. 28 and will conclude Saturday in Washington.

Several thousand people attended the Johnstown event, which began at 6 p.m. with an invocation by the Rev. Bill Triebe, a Lutheran minister from Somerset. Richelle Horne and Max Fedore of the Aubrey Singers of Johnstown sang the National Anthem. Nichole, Reed and Lane Uhler, siblings from the Johnstown area, led the Pledge of Allegiance.

Vivian Berkebile, co-coordinator of the local event, told the crowd that folks from Cambria and Somerset counties have fought adversity through the Flight 93 tragedy and the rescue of the nine Quecreek coal miners.

She said the people here live within their means and that it’s time to tell the government to do the same.

Carol Pruchnic, one of the organizers of the local Tea Party, said attendance was great.

“We the people want to take our country back,” she said, adding that she was glad to be a part of the event.

Dr. J. Michael Moses, a Johnstown physician, told the crowd that the country is working its way toward socialism, a system that will kill peoples’ will to succeed.

In an allegory, he explained that students of different academic levels were told by their teacher that they all would receive the same grade, no matter how well they did, by averaging their grades. Soon, the students who worked hard stopped doing so, he said.

Moses said health-care reform is necessary but should not be done at the expense of taxpayers.

He said what needs to be done is to lower the cost of health care, have positive reimbursement for services and have tort reform.

The country also must stop providing medical care for illegal aliens, he said, which drew applause from the crowd.

The Tea Party Express caravan was held up by traffic and did not arrive with entertainers and speakers until around 8:40 p.m.

Mark Williams, vice chairman of the Tea Party Express, said that while traveling across the country, he saw working people being abused by the government.

“We’re here to celebrate the system that made this nation great,” he said. “Protect it from people in Washington who are tearing it down.”

Williams said people have to say ‘no’ to socialism.

“ ‘Obama care’ has got to be buried,” he said. “We are the death panel for Obama care.”

He said government spending must be reduced, and lawmakers such as Rep. John Murtha, D-Johnstown, have been responsible for the excess spending and must be stopped.

Before the event started, Kim Hunt of Richland Township said she attended because the government is out of control and is not fiscally responsible.

Jim and Krys McCabe of Vinco were carrying a sign that said “To Dems. and Reps., It’s in God We Trust and It’s We the People, Not You the Government.”

Krys McCabe, a Republican, said she is planning to become an independent because she is disgusted with both sides.

Jim McCabe, an independent, said the country needs to help military members, not illegal aliens.

“People should have health care, but you don’t ruin a system that is already working,” he said.

Dave Ninehouser, an organizer with Pennsylvanians for Health, which is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union, attended with about a dozen other members of the group.

He said that members of his union are in the same boat as everyone else when it comes to health care.

“We have an ideological divide and that’s unfortunate,” he said. “We need to be sticking together.”

“They’re angry about the same things we are.”