Zombies seek human flesh, health care reform at meeting tonight

Image via Wikipedia

As the editor of a college newspaper, I get a lot of weird press releases in my inbox on a daily basis. Recent giggle-inducers have included gems like “We need 31 baby models now!” or the unforgettable name of a new up-and-coming band that’s so vulgar I can’t even reprint it here, much less run a review.

So when I opened my inbox today and found “Living Dead Zombies to Demand Universal Health Care at Jan Schakowsky Town Hall Forum” staring back at me in return, I can’t say I was surprised. But I was intrigued.

As it turns out, the press release is actually legit, and came from a protest movement called “Universal Single-Payer Health Care is the Only Way to Stop the Zombie Apocalypse.” (They’ve done a great Photoshop job to illustrate their point here).

Mixing  street theatre with a heavy dose of tongue-in-cheek sass toward the current state of American health care, the movement calls on participants to dress as zombies and rally for reform outside upcoming health care town hall meetings. From what I can gather, their goal is to rally for universal health care coverage using the motif of the zombie apocalypse, often portrayed in arts and literature as an infectious disease wreaking havoc upon society.

Or in their own words,

…many people who are bitten by Zombies, can not afford to see a doctor who would be able to treat the bite and prevent that person from becoming a Zombie. It seems that the Undead Panels are the Billing Departments of the Insurance Companies, denying care to the poor simply because they can not afford it.

A universal single payer system would guarantee that all are provided medical treatment by creating a national public health insurance, which covers all the needs of everyone. Patients would still have a choice of doctor and hospital, and the cost would be paid by the government.

Odd as it may be, I can kind of see their point. I mean, you can’t always parlay sucking the brains out of the living into a full-time gig in this economy, no matter how many references you may have. Freelancing a tasty morsel here or there can help make ends meet, sure, but all those part-time scavengers of human flesh must be left without benefits. And they can forget about dental, I guarantee it.

So if you’re in the Chicagoland area tonight and interested in health care, zombies (or both) stop by Rep. Schakowsky’s town hall meeting. And although theatrics aren’t exactly new to the often-chaotic health care town hall meetings, bringing zombies into the mix may be. What do you think — do the zombies have a good idea with this dramatic, themed style of protest or are they distracting from the politics at hand?