The past two nights, I have attended "Town Hall" meetings organized by a local group,
Citizens In Action (get it? CIA). The head controller (eg, he held the microphone the entire time and appeared to be the expert) was a man named Donn Brown.
A little history. I know Donn Brown because I sat next to him when
Cindy Sheehan spoke at Purdue a couple of years ago. TWICE during her talk Donn Brown jumped up and yelled at her--to her credit,
Sheehan was polite and unruffled. The second time, I told Brown to sit down and be quiet, that it was not his turn to speak (I felt like I was talking to a preschooler). He tried to intimidate me by saying we could take it outside, and when I agreed to that, he decided to shut up. In my opinion, Donn Brown is a bully and an arrogant ass. So, when I saw that Donn Brown's
teabagger group was going to do a town hall meeting, I knew I must go. And not be polite.
I was surprised that the meeting room at the local library was packed--probably over 200 people were there. I was not surprised that it was a totally one-sided affair, with no facts presented, just a recap of the right-wing rhetoric that you can easily find on Fox News, and other right-wing media outlets. I'm not just saying that--their literature listed Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Fox News as sources of information about Health Care Reform.
The meeting began with the Pledge of
Allegiance (did you know it finishes with "Amen"?). Then Donn Brown got up and said health care reform was just another government plot to deprive you of your freedom. That was the highlight of his speech, but he repeated it often. He also educated us on the Constitution, pointing out that
nowhere in the Constitution did it give Congress the right to establish a
healthcare system. He conveniently didn't mention the other beneficial government programs that were also, in his words, "Unconstitutional". The rest of his basic message was, "I work, I have health care, and I don't want to take care of those other people." He was obviously preaching to his choir, because he was applauded many times. There were some state level government officials in attendance, and some city officials as well, but no one spoke about specifics of the bill, and at no time were any facts about the state of health care in this country put forth. Just one man's opinion. He did invite a second speaker, an Independent Insurance agent, to speak about the history of insurance. If she stopped to listen to what she was saying, she probably would be in favor of much of what is in the current legislation. I had prepared for the meeting by doing some information gathering, being careful to select independent studies and opinions. The best article I found was this one:
It makes for some interesting reading. As a disclaimer, the National Coalition on Health Care is the nation's largest alliance working to improve our countries' health care system. The Coalition's Honorary Co-Chairs are former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George Bush. Co-Chairs are former Governor Robert D. Ray of Iowa (R) , and former Congressman Robert W. Edgar of Pennsylvania (D). Needless to say, it's a non-partisan organization. I thought I was truly eye-opening.
But I digress. I kept quiet for as long as I could, until the insurance agent said that in the British system, they take your health care money and dole it out only in the areas of the country that are politically aligned with the government. I said, quite loudly, "That's not true!"
Finally Donn Brown said he would now allow a "Question and Answer" period. I guess you were supposed to ask him a question, and he would give you an "answer" (based on his opinion, not any fact). The first question that was asked was if anyone in the room had experienced health care in another country? The population of this room could be characterized as 1 African American, and everyone else, European American (white). I raised my hand, and said, yes I had lived in another country. The woman asked if I would speak to my experience (remember all of this, as it's important on night two). I told about giving birth, being allowed to stay in the hospital for 5 days, and having major surgery but not being billed for any of my care. I think I said I thought the British system was one of the better in the world, and it was clear the audience did not agree with me. The woman asked how much in taxes I had paid in England, and to my chagrin, I did not know. I had to admit that I had never seen a pay stub while I was there. But, I also pointed out, Donn Brown had admitted that he didn't know how much his employer paid for his health insurance either.
The "question and answer" session went on until Donn Brown decided to lecture some more, and while there were a few in the crowd who tried to dispute his claims, the vast majority were content to hear his opinions with no facts to support them. They were happy to hear, once again, that "they" want to kill granny and all those kids with Down Syndrome. All in all, I was surprised/shocked/saddened to realize that this mostly Christian audience (remember the "amen" at the end of the Pledge?) were quite content to take care of their own, and no one else. I guess they forgot that the leader of their church, Jesus Christ, went out of his way to help the poor, the sick, and the needy, REGARDLESS of who they were. It left a bad taste in the mouths of many--I heard
more than one person say, "That's not the type of Christian I want to associate with. What happened to "Love thy neighbor as thyself?"
So, on to the second "Town Hall" meeting. I put those words in quotations because usually at a real Town Hall, there are exchanges of opinions from both sides, and some facts thrown in. Not just one unelected person, accountable to nobody, who holds the floor for 80% of the time. I came prepared this time, planning to read the following:
Three points: 1) The Constitution doesn’t give our federal government the right to establish a system of education either, but thank god our forefathers decided it was a good idea to set up a system to educate ALL children, regardless of ability. They did it for the common good; if they hadn’t, I daresay over half of us here would not even be able to read the Constitution, and I shudder to think what the state of our country would be. Our education system is a huge government program, but I’d rather give up a little freedom and have educated nation, state and community members. 2)Speaking of doing things for the COMMON GOOD, I’m thankful our forefathers didn’t have the attitude of Donn Brown, or we wouldn’t have roads, bridges, sewers, electricity and so on—it was expensive, and taxes had to be raised to pay for each of these, but I’m sure we could all agree each of those has benefited all of us. I’m glad we all pitch in to fill potholes too. 3) Do we have any good Christians out there? I do believe it was your leader, Jesus Christ, who said to go out and take care of all the poor, sick and needy people. NO EXCEPTIONS. Why? Because the government would not do it! Now, the government wants to help the poor, needy, and sick folks, and you’re all worried about giving up your freedom. I know Jesus spoke a lot about working for the common good. I’m not so sure he said a word about power or freedom. Jesus and our forefathers decided to work for the common good. What are YOU going to work FOR???
Same format the second night but this time Donn Brown allowed another speaker. I have to say this guy was even more opinionated than Brown, and still with no facts. When Brown opened up the floor for "Questions and Answers", two men came forward to the microphone to read their opinions. Not surprising, they agreed with Brown. Then he called on me. He told me to stay where I was, away from the mike, and speak. No problem--you people know I can project! I read my statement, and was shocked to hear the self-identified "good Christians" disagreeing with me about Jesus. Huh? What church do they attend???? I finished, and some guy stood up in the crowd and said, "Last night, you were so the expert on the British system! If it's so good, why didn't you just stay THERE??" I looked at him (no poker face--he probably knew I thought he was an idiot), and told him I was an American. He yelled out again, "So why didn't you just stay?" At that point, I knew there was no reasoning with him or anyone, and just said, "What kind of question is that?" Someone asked what medical experience I had had, but at that point, I knew nobody cared about the answer--the man who had so "intelligently" asked why I didn't just stay in my country of England had just set the tone for the rest of the meeting. No civility, no listening, just shouting at whoever tried to speak on either side. Thanks, butthead.
I stayed around after the meeting to speak to a friend. The butthead came up and said, "I didn't mean to disparage you in there. Sorry." I said, "You DID disparage me, and you set the tone for the meeting. NO civility. You don't know me, and you had no right to ask that question." He said, "Well, you sounded like SUCH the EXPERT last night. You should have stayed there if you loved it so much." I explained, for at least the 4th time, that I am an AMERICAN citizen, and the night before, I was responding to a question, and told of my experience. He said, "Well. You SOUNDED like an expert. Should have stayed there. I know your kind. You voted for Barney Frank." OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....I got it. One, I knew something he didn't and two, I was just one of "those". You know....gay......liberal.......fill in the blank. That's not just paranoia. My friend called him on it, and he knew full well we were gay--couldn't quite figure out who Barney Frank was, and why we couldn't vote for a congressman from Massachusetts, but still, he had our number all right. Don't confuse this guy, or anyone else who came up to speak to us, with facts. If you do, they're going to resort to schoolyard namecalling. I decided to call it a night when some other guy came up and talked about the failure of socialized medicine, and when we countered with what we knew were facts, he said, "I know y'all just listen to Katie Couric."
I don't feel I wasted my time in attending these meetings. I got a stomach ache, I couldn't sleep, but I know I did my best to speak for the other side. I fear for this country if the folks in attendance last night and the night before are the majority, but I don't think they are. I don't know how to address their fears, but maybe you just go on without them, and when things change and they aren't so bad, they'll come along too. Change is scary. But if we can remember to keep it civilized, to talk everyone through the process, to hammer on facts, not fiction, we can make progress. We can do it for the common good.
