At the vigil, one wonderful nurse who flew all the way from Arizona brought laminated copies of the patient stories featured on the guaranteedhealthcare.org site, and Katie Robbins of Healthcare-Now brought copies of the murder by spreadsheet booklets she put together. We read stories aloud and shared our thoughts on people we’ve met along the way and patients we know are suffering. We had nurses, patients, med students, doctors and other concerned citizens quietly gathered as the First Lady held a posh event across the lawn which had created permit problems for our action at the last moment. But no one bothered us.

We shared – as I had heard a hundred times or more on the street yesterday – our disgust as citizens about the unfolding financial bail-out of the big Wall Street firms and financial interests that now threaten worldwide doom if a huge bail-out isn’t forthcoming from our elected officials. "Disgusting" is the word I heard said so many times...

Disgusting that our government can act so quickly in some situations yet allow years and years to pass while hundreds of thousands of American citizens die needlessly from preventable deaths in a healthcare system gone mad with profits and greed very much like Wall Street, folks acknowledged.

From the cab driver who works three jobs to support himself yet still doesn’t have healthcare coverage – disgusting. From the waiter who brought me coffee in a nice DC hotel but who cannot go get his teeth fixed – disgusting. From a homeless man from Michigan who slept in Lafayette Park across from the White House wondering if he could sell his home inching ever closer to foreclosure – disgusting. From the young couple I chatted with as they toured the city and took in all the patriotic sights and sounds – disgusting.

From a small, purposeful group of citizens from all over the nation gathered in the setting sun at the Capital Reflecting Pool, disgusting, truly disgusting. We said their names aloud – patients who are suffering and some who have died. We stood silently looking toward that beautiful domed Capital where we place our hope and our passion and our commitment to make this healthcare system just. We lit our candles in the gentle breeze and sang "We Shall Overcome."

And as we closed the DC activities we all knew that if our Congress can act so quickly when financial doom and gloom come calling, then surely they can act with equal or greater haste to finally put an end to the disgusting lack of attention they have given to the healthcare nightmare in America. We had hoped a few lawmakers would drop by, but after a hard day working on the bail-out, many were attending a special cocktail reception. Disgusting, isn’t it?