Last Saturday, I attended a large health care reform rally in Fargo, North Dakota. The rally was attended by over 800 people, and featured a rousing speech by former state Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp and music by the popular regional band Low.

(picture courtesy of Joe Geinert)

One of the attendees, Rev. Carter Dary, ELCA spoke to us about why he believes health care reform must happen now:

I was struck by the polite shyness of the crowd. To a person, they were simply demanding that Congress get back to work on reforming our health care system. More than at any other event I've attended this past month, those people who are irredeemably opposed to health care reform seemed starkly out of place, gnashing their teeth in frustration.

(picture courtesy of Joe Geinert)

The message was clear, from stem to stern, from speaker to spectator - no matter the difficulty of the task ahead, Congress had to get back to work and press forward with health care reform.

You can see more pictures from the event here. Help us send Congress back to Washington with a clear directive on health care reform--take part in send-off rallies being held across the country.