On Monday night’s All Things Considered newscast on National Public Radio, reporter Joseph Shapiro recounted the sympathetic story of Regina Holliday, who lost her 39-year-old husband Fred to kidney cancer. Holliday painted a mural in Washington demanding "We Need Health Reform Now." (It’s headlined "A Widow Paints a Health Care Protest" and it's the most popular story on Wednesday at NPR.org.)
But Shapiro’s story actually skimmed over just how passionately ideological Holliday’s mural is. She's amazed anyone could possibly be against health reform. On her blog she explained that she painted her opponents as a little girl in a red, white, and blue outfit: "I wondered 'How can you be against this?' Then I realized they were acting like people who have been abused. She is a pretty little girl with welts on her legs..." [Italics hers.]
On air, NPR stuck to the heart-tugging narrative. The politics emerged late in the story:
SHAPIRO: Over the next two months, Regina would see her husband go in and out of hospitals. But there was nothing doctors could do to save his life. Six days after Fred died, Regina picked up her paintbrushes and started the mural. The brick wall is tucked off of a busy avenue. Important players in the health care debate drive by every day.
HOLLIDAY: Well, I mean, of course, it's a wonderful therapy and release to get to paint. To get to do this has been a wonderful dialogue with the public. I mean, people often come over here. They look at the mural. They want to talk about it, and they often share their health stories.
SHAPIRO: She climbed down from her scaffold to hear other people speak with anger and sadness about their own run-ins with doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. As summer turned to fall and the battle over health care heated up, Regina's mural got more political. She added details, like a doctor holding a sign that says: Health Reform Now. [music]
The other day with the last paint dry, there was a nighttime dedication of the mural. A few dozen friends and lots of kids gathered in the parking lot. They held flashlights to shine on the painting. People sang. And Regina answered questions about all the symbolism in her mural.
The clock with no hands: because normal time seems suspended in a health emergency. The nurse at a computer with the dark screen: because records aren't shared with patients. The doctor with her hands tied: because one part of the health care system doesn't communicate with others. [Soundbite of applause]
Ms. HOLLIDAY: Okay, that's my question for all of you, is what do we do next? Thank you so much for coming tonight. Thank you so much for being part of Fred's life and my life, and spreading the word. And please, go out tonight and Facebook and blog, and post and tweet, and do not stop! Do not give up until we get change in this nation! Until people get taken care of, and we all have the right to see our own information! Thank you guys.
SHAPIRO: Regina Holliday is looking for new walls to paint, but not now. The cold makes the paint too brittle. In the springtime, she'll take out her colors again. Maybe by then, there'll be health care change signed into law. But there will still be stories to tell. This time, she will paint the stories of others, of the people who watched her work and told her about their own struggles as caregivers and patients.
The promotional video at NPR.org is also more openly political than the radio story. On her blog Regina Holliday's Medical Advocacy Blog, she explains her abused little girl:
The little girl America stands to his right. This image came into the mural as the health care debates began and I saw kind, well-meaning people oppose health reform. I wondered "How can you be against this?" Then I realized they were acting like people who have been abused. She is a pretty little girl with welts on her legs, and she is standing next to a switch. She clutches the caduceus. Most Americans equate this symbol with medicine, but it the staff of the god of profit, thievery, and death. In using this symbol I am pointing out that little girl America is clutching that which is abusing her. She stares out at you with a sad countenance. It seems as if her eyes are asking "Do you see what is happening to me? Can you make this right?"
She also explained the doctor in a turban holding the "We Need Health Reform Now" sign:
To her left is a physician holding a sign for reform. He wears a turban. He looks out at us with kind eyes. He is the other, the foreigner who embraces reform as a right.
She pointed out the figures in private industry who are evil (again, italics are hers):
To his left are three figures at a desk. First we have see no evil (insurance). She is an angel/Roman god wearing a blindfold and carrying a blue cross and blue shield. Money pools at her feet. Next is hear no evil, a man representing small business with his hands over his ears and his posture in defeat. His desk is strewn with papers while time is running out. Finally we have speak no evil, a pharmacist figure who talks into a phone with a mask over her mouth. Pills pool at her feet.
Oh, but National Public Radio doesn't have a liberal bias, we're told.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.





SHAPIRO: She climbed down from her scaffold to hear other people speak with anger and sadness about their own run-ins with doctors, hospitals and insurance companies. As summer turned to fall and the battle over health care heated up, Regina's mural got more political. She added details, like a doctor holding a sign that says: Health Reform Now. [music]
To his left are three figures at a desk. First we have see no evil (insurance). She is an angel/Roman god wearing a blindfold and carrying a blue cross and blue shield. Money pools at her feet. Next is hear no evil, a man representing small business with his hands over his ears and his posture in defeat. His desk is strewn with papers while time is running out. Finally we have speak no evil, a pharmacist figure who talks into a phone with a mask over her mouth. Pills pool at her feet.














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Whats amazing is............
November 11, 2009 - 15:31 ET by Patriot IIHow completely ignorant people can be....they never look into anything, never read what this crap consists of , never give a thought to what they give up, never pay any attention to countries that already have this garbage...and it sucks!!!! All they see is "free" in front of it.........a slave mentality already!!!
<sound of duct tape ripping off roll>
November 11, 2009 - 16:11 ET by motherbeltHer husband was in and out of hospitals for months, and this translates to a problem of lack of health care.....exactly HOW????
→ Next step
November 11, 2009 - 16:13 ET by Cool ArrowGovernment funded Health Cure.
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
the foreigner who
November 11, 2009 - 16:05 ET by Snappythe foreigner who embraces reform as a right.
Ignorance at best. Once again instead of embracing what made this country great, lets change it to match what we fled.
And NPR, well, I really cant say anything good about that non-partisan tax dollar sinkhole.
Snappy
November 11, 2009 - 16:10 ET by MrShyOnce again instead of embracing what made this country great, lets change it to match what we fled.
Exactly! You win the latest Mr. Shy's Facebook Status Award for excellence in great, spot-on NewsBusters posts. :)
How true, Shy...
November 11, 2009 - 21:00 ET by JerHow true, Shy. Who among us can ever forget the stirring tales we have heard since childhood....how early American colonialists--our ancestors--fled religious persecution, political intolerance, and the evil grip of universal health care.
Jer
And frankly I am sick of
November 11, 2009 - 16:09 ET by motherbeltAnd frankly I am sick of hearing proclaim people's "rights" with ZERO regard for who pays to provide these rights.
Oh, and BTW, that compassionate "foreigner" who sees a "right" to health care will not have a "right" to dialysis after a certain age, or surgery, or whatever else the government deems is not "cost-effective."
So much for "rights."
Now, are you saying
November 11, 2009 - 17:00 ET by Willis_Leon_JohnsonNow, are you saying that they should have the same "RIGHT" to pay for their own healthcare as I do?
http://gjresult.com
How to kill that sily argument
November 11, 2009 - 19:44 ET by UnsaneVery simply dealt with.
If people truly believe that health care is a right, then truly they believe that food, water, clothing, and shelter are. Why? You need those four far ahead of a doctor. And you need them every single day, and it is non-negotiable.
I haven't needed a doctor in close to a decade, but in that decade, I have needed food, water, clothing, and shelter every single day.
Are food, water, clothing, and shelter now rights too?
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
Agreed, And last I
November 11, 2009 - 20:38 ET by SnappyAgreed,
And last I checked it really wasnt the Governments duty to grant us "Rights" in the first place. It has always been my understanding that instead it is their place to get out of the way and allow us the ability and freedom to pursue them through our own labour (that whole Inalienable Rights thing). Which will get me started on the whole property ownership and personal responsibility thing, so I will just leave it at that.
Well snappy, it is pretty
November 12, 2009 - 09:40 ET by Willis_Leon_JohnsonWell snappy, it is pretty obvious that you wrote a letter to your 'representative' and demanded your properrty be taxed.
Unless the various levels of government decided that the government actually owned your home and land and you only rent it?
Try not paying that rent and see how long you 'own' your home.
http://gjresult.com
Not sure I follow you there,
November 12, 2009 - 10:03 ET by SnappyNot sure I follow you there, but can say that the only letters regarding property taxes I have written have been of the "Lower it" nature.
I'm just trying to get
November 12, 2009 - 10:47 ET by Willis_Leon_JohnsonI'm just trying to get you fired up.
"Which will get me started on the whole property ownership"
http://gjresult.com
Illogical
November 11, 2009 - 16:20 ET by iveseenitallThe sneaky "liberals" have been using these illogical arguments for decades---and getting away with them. Looks like the king of them all: "You are so Mean-Spirited" has seen its day. Thank God many people finally are waking up to their tricks.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
Wow, once we get government
November 11, 2009 - 16:25 ET by Radical1979Wow, once we get government health care people won't die of cancer anymore, isn't that wonderful! /sarc off
You can bet that blindfold will come off the Roman Angel figure with government health care!She'll be moving white and middle class people to the back of the line! They'll be behind prisoners, illegals, and the unemployed by choice.
Lord I've had my fill of
November 11, 2009 - 16:26 ET by bigtimerLord I've had my fill of this propaganda...I'm just thanking this is backfiring on the left...they just don't get it yet...at all.
They will on '10...people are waking up and angry as hell, not going to take it anymore!
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
Shouldn't that little girl
November 11, 2009 - 18:29 ET by ckc1227Shouldn't that little girl be wearing a red dress with a sickle and hammer on it instead?
EU flag motif
November 11, 2009 - 19:46 ET by UnsaneI was thinking she should be wearing something that reflects the European Union flag. After all, Leftists are only proud of Europe and want to do exactly what the Europeans do here in this country. And they are so deeply embarrassed of this country...
"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)
→ Unsane
November 11, 2009 - 20:00 ET by Cool ArrowI believe the mural was modified for the camera.
In the original, the little girl has made a skimpy bikini of the American flag, and dances erotically around the flagpole for her Chinese masters.
PBS didn't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet. /s
LYDSEXICS UNTIE!
Widow's pity mural
November 11, 2009 - 19:55 ET by lgeubankOh, great! Because of her husband's untimely death (which had nothing to do with either private or collectivized medical care), the WHOLE WORLD is supposed to change, to get in line with her wishes.
The glitch with the records had nothing to do with anything. It's what's called a MISTAKE, a bureaucratic snafu. Those things will decrease after a government takeover? It is to laugh!
People like Holliday just love to boss people around. She can paint her ass Green for all I care -- I don't want to be a serf in Obama's Soviet-socialist medical empire.
<b> OK? </b>
I hope any little girl like
November 11, 2009 - 21:50 ET by ConservativeRexI hope any little girl like her or anyone else hurting at this moment can hold out until 2013, when Obamacare if it is going to, kicks in. What a bunch of malarky. They expect the idiots in this country to believe that these people will all of a sudden get well as soon as obama signs this POS bill. Oh well, there will be no cure for stupid.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum