My first town hall

I went to my first town hall last night. I didn’t get to go in, but what an eye opening experience. I thought I had met some liberals before, but I was wrong. I also met some very hard right wing characters too. If I have led you to believe that I am a republican, I apologize. I am neither Democratic nor Republican. I would prefer to be part of the Common Sense party. Let me tell you about my experience standing in line.

When we arrived at Lewis and Clark Middle School, the police had the parking lot blocked off. No one was allowed to park at the school. So, we drove four blocks to park at the side of the road along the street in a housing sub division. Now, keep in mind, my mother, who has two artificial knees, is with me. Lewis and Clark is situated on a hillside that is steep enough it has the truck warning signs. Not a fun place to walk with artificial knees. (I wonder what they did about the handicapped people.) Anyway, we start walking back to the school. Immediately a young man and an older woman come up behind us. The guy is already agitated and is looking to pick a fight. He talks to the woman behind us who announces that she is a social worker and a socialist. (I remember a time when people did not proudly proclaim that they were socialists in America.) Mom and I decide to stay away from them.

When we finally climb the hill and the stairs, we see the line. It stretches around the building, down the sidewalk, and past the school. Keep in mind that we are here 45 minutes early. We stand in line and wait. The organizers for Pro Healthcare reform are walking up and down the line handing out stickers and trying to get people to sign petitions. One lady walks by handing out pro-life information about how the healthcare bill will fund abortion. Now truthfully I was as repulsed by her as I was by the others, but as she walked by and said “This explains how the healthcare reform will fund abortion.” A man from the other side walks the opposite direction, handing out stickers as he goes, looking like he just came from Woodstock, and says to the crowd “Yes, and that’s just how it should be.” …. I support a woman’s right to choose. I think we’re stupid if we think we are going to prevent it, but this guy went too far. It wasn’t what his words said, but how he said them. He was not promoting the right to have an abortion; he was promoting everyone having an abortion. It was so creepy.

The two women behind us start talking and engage us. They are pro healthcare, I am not. I stated right off the bat that I will fight for her right to disagree with me, but I will fight for my right to disagree with her too. She made the statement “I don’t know what they want people who cannot afford their medicine to do. Have a bake sale?” At that point I could not keep my big mouth shut. I turned around and said “Yes, that’s exactly what they should do. When someone is hurt the community comes together and helps them out. We attended a benefit Saturday that raised $14,000 for a man who was injured in a wreck and needed help.” She was flabbergasted. She really didn’t know what to say. She finally came back with “Well that’s fine for him, but what about the rest.” We then got into the standard “Why should I pay for your healthcare?” and “Who said your going to pay?” followed by “Is the money going to magically appear? It’s got to come from somewhere.” Thrust and parry.

At some point the guy in front of us jumped in championing Medicare and the Veterans Commission. The gal behind us said her father was receiving wonderful care at the VA and had a direct line to his doctor. I told her about our horror fest of dealing with Medicare and the VA when Grandpa had cancer and how it would take a week to get a return call from the doctor, medicine wouldn’t be filled, treatments were delayed, etc., etc.

We continued this as we moved towards the door. The cops kept warning us “Only 376 people will be allowed in due to fire code.” Fifteen people from us they stopped the line announcing they were now at capacity. Disheartened and disappointed mom and I turned around and headed back to the car. The only heartening thing was that as we walked back we were surrounded by like minded people. Amazing, I just happened to hit a crazy pocket in line.

The whole experience left me saddened for our country that we have proud socialists roaming the street and running our government and people who have been led so far down the primrose path that they believe money will magically appear to pay for everything everyone wants. This has always been the problem with Socialism, Communism, and Marxism. It’s a beautiful theory, until you realize that the food doesn’t harvest itself and money doesn’t grow on trees. I saw a bumper sticker on the way out that pretty well summarizes it. “Socialism is a wonderful thing…until you run out of other peoples money.”