My Town Hall Experience Today

[Little Star]

I attended a town hall meeting on healthcare today with a slew of fn teabaggers! I had written earlier that I planned on going, and I am glad that I did! Here is a link to that post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6216672&mesg_id=6216672

Let me tell you I sat in a room full of far right wing lunatics for over an hour, who could care less about healthcare reform. They only cared about illegal immigrants, their tax $$, killing the elderly, gov’t getting between them and their doctors and the gov’t pulling the plug on people to save $$. They could give two shits about real reform and the entire meeting was pretty much questions from these lunatics. I wanted to ask questions about single payer and lobbyist $$ interests, but that wasn’t to be. No questions about how to fix healthcare or the disarray it is in now and how the reform will address those problems.

The meeting took place at Umass in Worcester, MA and Representatives Neal and McGovern were there to answer questions. They were both very knowledgeable and astute in their answers, but I have to say that I am ashamed that there were so few Democrats in the room. I would say there were three quarters tea baggers and one quarter Dems.

If you have read the Freedom Works tactic sheet, you could recognize the strategy being followed to a T. They were disruptive from the moment the speakers were introduced. They would all yell and scream questions and voice their opposition to everything in unison, trying to create disarray, it was a mob mentality. They even made fake fart noises. They made constant interruptions. They all sighed loudly, booed and were just pretty much nasty people.

I am not sure if I handled it correctly, but I couldn’t bite my tongue. I told all those lunatics that I was there to listen to the answers of questions being asked, not to hear them. At times I yelled back at them that insurance companies are famous for coming between them and their doctors. I also told a lunatic that if she was so worried about paying for illegal immigrants healthcare when they go to the emergency room, then they should be included in healthcare reform. That didn’t go over to well. I filmed the entire meeting and took pictures. I have to say that I think my initial challenge to them did help the meeting maintain some semblance of order (as much as it could) and I think my camera helped as well (they didn't like me filming them). It was bad enough, but truly it was only me and the person that I went with who challenged these creeps.

I do hope more Dems get out there, because I can see now how the message is being lost and how we are losing the battle.

[bbinacan]

1. Why didn't you ask your question? n/t

[Little Star]

3. We had to write our questions on cards and my question did not get chosen.

But then, since everyone was yelling out their questions, I decided to ask why it is we compromised from single payer and that it was sad the way this meeting was going down because people who have legitimate questions were being over run. I was booed and hissed at for that, and.....

At that point I was the only one in that entire room who got a visit from the chief of security of the hospital.

I actually think that the setting of the Town Hall was conducive to allowing more of right wing agenda.

I also forgot to tell you that many were proudly wearing their tea bag buttons!


Don't worry I got my licks in, I told them their tactics came directly from Freedom Works and that they were a bunch of ignorant, rude people.

[ccharles000]

2. I'm sorry you had to deal with that

:hug:

[Little Star]

4. I'm glad I went, my only hope is

I hope more dems attend these town halls, to stop letting these assholes run the agenda. I think that Neal and McGovern were actually happy to have people like me and my friend there to support them.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

5. Wow.

I knew "Liberal Massachusetts" wasn't that liberal. Probably all the assholes who listen to Boston talking points radio, which is overloaded with right wing nuts like Howie Carr, Dennis and Callahan, and Jay Serverino.......in addition to Flush, Kid Diddler Sean, and Michael Weiner.

Jim McGovern is the congressman right over the border from us, along with Barney Frank. Smart man, I guess that's why he was shouted down by these scummy freeps.

[devilgrrl]

6. That means that we must get off of our asses and attend these gatherings.

:patriot:

[Little Star]

7. You got it devilgrrl. There had to be 200+ people there.

There were not seats left and people were sitting in the aisles on the steps and on the floor and standing against the wall.

[Laelth]

8. k&r for a true hero. You made a real difference in the world. Thanks. n/t

:patriot:

:dem:

-Laelth

[Ian David]

9. You should have asked if Obama doesn't release the Area 51 documents because the aliens are Muslim.

[TokenQueer]

10. Absolutely right!

Good for you and your friend. This is outrageous...and these clowns are succeeding. Gotta go find the town halls in my area...

[AllieB]

11. Why didn't the cops on duty arrest them for disorderly conduct?

Of course, this would make them martyrs, but there's a line between dissent and outright fascist tactics.

[MO_Dem]

12. Great idea! Get 'em on tape!

If they are gonna act like lunatic extremists, we need film to show the world just how extreme these thugs are.

[never cry wolf]

13. Everyone should take pics at these meetings

and then someone needs to set up a clearing house to review the pics and identify repeat mobsters, the ones being bussed around.

[felinetta]

14. How old were they? They sound like school children having temper tantrums.

[Turborama]

15. Thanks for the report and well done. Any plans on uploading the vid to YouTube?

The whole thing sounds rather unsettling, they need to be outnumbered.

:kick: & R

[jotsy]

16. You handled it and them awesomely, in my opinion

I've got a town hall here this weekend, knew I wanted to go, but you inspire me to commit myself.

These people remind me of the highschool goons who used to call attention to themselves at every assembly with any tactic necessary to be what gets talked about later.

I'll do my best to do your courage proud, and thank you.

[MassachusettsMadam]

17. I was there...

You didn't help maintain any semblance of order. Your screeching and shoving the camera into the faces of the people around you made us look as bad as they did. Maybe the reason you felt like it was only you and the person with you "challenging" them was that you two were the only ones getting down in the mud with the pigs. If you had stayed quiet and let the security people deal with the situation it would have been all one-sided and they would have been the only ones to be asked to quiet down or be ejected when they continued to heckle the Representatives. As it was, you added your considerable volume to it which kept the security from being able to focus on the real troublemakers. You would not shut up, even when they did, and even when Neal tried to get you to. Which led to you being the one approached by security.

That aside, I have to admit that I was disappointed in McGovern & Neal's answers on some of the questions. Neal went off on this monologue about protecting UMass' "piece of the pie" in research money...wtf? It sounded like he was preparing us for a piece of legislation that will be filled with distracting earmarks instead of focusing on real reform. Can you say "unnecessary media focus on stupid crap"? The good news was that no one in the crowd cared or really understood his convoluted verbal digression so no one said anything for the 8 minutes he rambled on.

And McGovern was about as inspiring as day-old bread.