Posted on 05/06/2010 7:37:47 AM PDT by Free Vulcan
Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District Republican Candidate and Ottumwa native Mariannette Miller-Meeks is standing up to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Dave Loebsack.
“We need to send people to Washington to stand up to the agenda that Nancy Pelosi and her puppet, Dave Loebsack, are trying to shove down our throats,” she said. “I may be a short Mariannette, but I am nobody’s puppet.”
Miller-Meeks, a former ophthalmology physician and U.S. Army veteran, held a West Liberty meet-and-greet at the West Liberty Public Library last Tuesday night.
Most of Miller-Meeks’ speech centered around the actions and choices of Democrats Pelosi and Loebsack in relation to immigration and health care reform.
“We (Republicans) are not represented in Washington anymore,” Miller-Meeks said to the nearly 15 supporters in attendance. “We do not have representation, and although Rep. Loebsack is a nice person, he does not represent our values.”
Born the fourth of eight children of a Master Sergeant in the Air Force and his wife, Miller-Meeks spent most of her childhood in Texas, learning at a very early age that if you work hard enough, you can, and will, succeed. Her father often worked two or three jobs to support the family, and eventually fulfilled his dream of owning a peanut farm. Her mother, who never finished high school, worked numerous jobs to help support the family until her health prevented her from working.
At the age of 16, Miller-Meeks successfully finished an accelerated program of studies, left high school and enrolled in college, while receiving some financial assistance through a military program. She graduated college summa cum laude and was inducted into Sigma Theta, the National Nursing Honor Society. At age 20, she transferred from the enlisted ranks in the military to the officer corps as a nurse. She earned her Master of Science degree in education from the University of Southern California, and after six years of active duty, she entered medical school in 1982 at the University of Texas and graduated at the top of her class, achieving Alpha Omega Alpha, the National Medical Honor Society.
“That’s the American Dream,” Miller-Meeks said. “That anyone in this room, our outside of this room, no matter where you come from, can come t this country; that you can use your talents and your values of hard work and perseverance and playing by the rules and being tenacious; that you can achieve and you can prosper from your talents, no matter what your talents are.”
Miller-Meeks, however, said the American Dream is becoming an illusion.
“We are over taxed. We are over regulated. We are over wrought. And, each and every one of us is anxious, because we see what our government is doing now,” she said. “It’s like giving the keys to a Corvette that has a full tank of gas to a teenager that just got their license. What are they going to do? They’re going nowhere, and they’re going nowhere fast.”
Miller-Meeks asked which way the government is going to go in the future, and if it is still going to value hard work.
“Or are we going to fall into this abyss of a European social welfare state, where the government decides who wins and who loses and who is going to be prosperous?” she said. “I want to know who’s looking out for the little guy.”
Miller-Meeks said she doesn’t want to be controlled by the government and the agendas set by Pelosi and Loebsack.
Rather, she suggests they step out of the way.
“Stop the regulations. Stop the taxes. Let us succeed,” she said. “We will take this country back to a number one status. We will innovate. We will create. We will make jobs. But we can’t do that as long as they’re standing in the way.”
Her resolution?
Don’t be silent.
“Talk to people, visit people, get involved, send an e-mail, bother your neighbors and wake them up,” Miller-Meeks said. “This country, that in 232 years went from nothing to the world’s superpower, did it because of the liberties we have and to which we are endowed. Let’s all be smart enough to succeed.”
The newspaper is the West Liberty Index should you need or want to change it. Bad copy and paste on my part.
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