As the U.S. Senate starts to consider health care reform, four graduate students from the University of New Mexico sought to educate their peers with a rally for the public option last week.
 
The students, Justin Thompson, Erica Martinez, Amber Whiting, and Angelica Baca, started planning a rally in support of the public option for a class at UNM in order to educate students who were not up-to-date on the issues.
 
“We were able to make a coalition of student organizations, a sort of student front,” Thompson said. “The fact that the issue impacted us so much that we took on a demonstration ourselves is a big deal, and people were glad to see us doing it.”
 
In addition to the planned rally, the students got petition signatures to be sent to Congress in support of the “public option,” and organized phone banks for calling members of Congress.  The rally included several speakers including doctors, UNM professors, and Julie Heinrich, the wife of Congressman Martin Heinrich.

“The four of us came together and decided that this was important to us, and we also realized a lot of students don’t really know the ins and outs of a public health care reform,” said organizer Erica Martinez said. “They don’t even know what a public option really is, and we want to inform them because it is an important issue.”
 
Thompson sees students as an important part of public reform.

“Students are the muscle behind movements. It’s what we do,” he said. “It’s our role as students to participate when we become passionate about things. It’s a historic role and I think it’s sacred.”


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