Annette John-Hall: A puzzling trip to a political zoo

I took a walk on the wild side the other day. I went to the zoo.

No, not the one with Carnivore Kingdom and the Pachyderm House in West Philly.

I'm talking about the political animal house that broke out at 12th and Arch to protest - or support, depending on which corner you stood on - President Obama, who did a fund-raiser for chameleon Sen. Arlen Specter at the Convention Center this week.

While the president was inside, firing up the Democratic base and helping raise a projected $2.5 million, outside the zoo was fully operational.

Talk about an an exotic landscape.

Teabaggers, reformers, antiabortionists - oh, my!

On one corner stood the reformers, waving signs demanding a public option in Obama's health-care plan and chanting, "What do you want? Community choice! When do you want it? Now!"

Loud and energetic, the reformers seemed to be the kings of this jungle.

On another corner were the teabaggers, the self-proclaimed patriots who had come to protest, as organizer Teri Adams declared, "the fiscal policies of the Obama administration" hell-bent on destroying their natural habitat.

And across the street were the antiabortionists, quoting scripture, with numbers much smaller than the enormous sign they carried featuring a gruesome photo of a bloodied fetus under the slogan: "Choice is abortion."

I'm sure glad no kids showed up to feed the animals.

Ever curious about a different kind of species, I waded into unfamiliar teabaggers territory.

What a relief. No signs depicting the president as Hitler or the Joker or implying Obama be buried with Ted Kennedy, like the shocking ones we saw during their raucous march on Washington last weekend.

These local 'baggers were actually friendly creatures . . . until provoked.

Uttering the words "health reform" in the same breath as "Barack Obama" was like throwing them a heaping helping of red meat to be torn apart and devoured.

"I love my country, and I want my freedom," declared Marilyn Fox of Mount Laurel, holding a sign that said, "Obama putting out liberty light."

But what about those escalating insurance premiums for less coverage? I just signed up for my new plan. The premiums went up, of course. You know, the annual pay cut. Didn't feel liberating to me.

Undeterred, Fox said she just doesn't like the way "he's trying to change health care."

Enter Barbara Marino of St. Petersburg, Fla., insisting that, no, health care is not a right.

"I don't think anybody's entitled to free health care. It's a privilege. It's not in the Constitution."

Oh, you mean that ironclad document with 27 amendments?

This was Marino's first protest. She was in town for a conference, happened to hear about the president's appearance, and came out to say no to health reform.

"It incenses me, this sense of entitlement people have," she said, nodding at the reformers across the street. "We should have tort reform and open the [state] borders so we can buy insurance. But there's too much in the reform bill. There's already help for people like that."

Would that be people with good insurance who could lose their jobs and their health care, or maybe people who work for the small businesses that can't afford to offer insurance, or the people who work every day but can't afford insurance anyway?

For now, Marino has good health insurance through her job at a public utility in St. Petersburg.

The president has assured that people like her wouldn't have to change their coverage under the new bill. Marino wasn't having it.

"I don't believe that," she said.

Why?

"I just don't," she said.

He's been in office only nine months. You're saying you don't believe him, our president?

"Yes. I'm saying I do not trust him," Marino replied, without elaborating.

People like that.