Town Hall Meeting in Forest City, NC featuring Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC Dist. 10) and about 250 of his constituents.
This is my first diary and my very first experience at a political gathering. I was never really interested in politics until last year. I can pinpoint the exact moment it happened. When I heard Sarah Palin say "I didn't blink" when asked to become John McCain's running mate, I knew she was a complete moron.
Now, I'm in my mid 50s and I know a little bit about having a houseful of children, as my husband & I have 5 of the little darlings ourselves, 4 of which I gave birth to and fortunately they were all healthy. While the children were growing up, I didn't have time to take a pottery class. How on earth could she not even blink before saying yes to the Vice Presidency of the United States of America?! That was it. I was hooked. This past year has been a blur. My youngest moved away from home three years ago and I had been searching for something to fill the empty hole in my heart. I wish I had chosen something a little less emotional, a little more peaceful, a lot more uplifting. This morning, I'm wishing I had just taken a pottery class.
Last month I received a post card announcing the Town Hall Meetings in my district and as soon as I saw it I knew I was going. Naturally, I would have preferred that my congressman was not a republican but, as fate would have it...
I started reading anything I could find on town hall meetings. I agonized over what question I would ask Congressman McHenry. What would I say if I was called on? I would only have one chance. I had to make it count. One evening I saw Lawrence O'Donnell grilling Culbertson while guest hosting Hardball. and just like that I had my question.
I admit to being totally addicted to Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow and anything with Lawrence O'Donnell. I know I've spent way, way too much time on politics. It's not in my nature to be angry all the time. I've always been an optimist. "To a fault", my mother used tell me. My heart and my head have been in opposition with each other this past year. My heart says go cook something (my stress reliever), go take a class, go take a walk, but my head can't let this go. I am so passionate about the health care reform bill. I honestly don't know what I'll do if we don't get the public option. This is the most important piece of legislature to be passed in my lifetime. (I'm not counting Medicare because I was only 13 at the time.) We are all watching history in the making!
My husband and I are real estate brokers here in western North Carolina and I'm sure you all realize that we might as well be unemployed. We canceled our Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance three months ago when I began hearing the horror stories about people going bankrupt because medical bills. We had high deductibles and we were scared to go to a doctor anyway, even for a check up, because if they found anything, they could drop us and we would become two of "the uninsurables". We're lucky though because we're healthy. Both my husband and I are vegetarians and we do yoga most evenings but we're in our 50s and you just never know. I promise you it's not that I want the public option for me. I want great health care for ALL Americans. Even the ones who don't want it.
I had asked a like-minded friend to come to the Town Hall Meeting with me but she declined. Her son had come home to celebrate his 21st birthday. A reasonable excuse. In hindsight I'm very grateful she didn't come with me. You see, my friend was born and raised in this area and surely would have seen several people she knows. She’s not afraid to speak her mind on important issues and it could have gotten really ugly. My husband, Dan, decided to go with me at the last minute. He had heard my stories about the town hall fiascos and knew he would be concerned about me the entire time. He didn't really want me to go but I was determined, so reluctantly he tagged along. I have to explain that Dan works for two of the angriest, southern, right-wing crazies you can imagine and he spends his days listening to their rantings. Yesterday was his day off and he spent the evening with me and approximately 250 angry, southern, right-wing crazies. I'll make it up to him somehow.
The meeting was scheduled for 6:00. I had read that sometimes people didn't get in, so I wanted to get there early. We arrived at 4:45 and signed in at the door with our name, address, phone number and email address. Inside, there were only three people, but my husband, being the wonderful person he is, didn't give me a hard time about it. We sat in the second row, towards the center. The first thing I noticed were three charts in the front of the room, two of which we could see clearly. The first was a pie chart that showed what healthcare would look like in 2011 if the public option bill passed. It showed about 2/3 of Americans would be on the Government Run Health Care Program. I'm not sure how that was supposed to be a bad thing, as McHenry never mentioned the charts. but I can assure you it was bad. Very bad. The second was a bar chart that showed cancer survivors in the US, Canada and Europe. Of course the US bar was higher than the others. The odd thing was that there were no ages listed on the chart but the US bar was labeled Medicare 2008. The bars labeled Canada and Europe said 2002. We really couldn't make heads or tails out of it. But they were nice looking charts. The chart further away was the one I’ve seen time and time again when republicans are trying to make a point on healthcare. It was the flowchart with maybe 40 boxes of various sizes and colors. Of course nobody actually explains it because it’s just for affect.
A very sweet little white haired lady came and sat down next to me. We started talking and she told me that she had seen Congressman McHenry at our local hospital, where she volunteers, earlier in the day. She also said McHenry was meeting with some of the doctors and while she wasn't in the room, she heard them arguing about government run health care. I said, "well the doctors must have been for reform". She said no, that she was sure they weren't. I very nicely said that it would make sense because McHenry definately is not for any kind of reform. She looked confused. I also told her that I think expanding Medicare for all is a great idea. She had not heard anything about expanding Medicare but agreed that it is a good idea.
The room gradually filled up. We heard people behind us talking about the next Tea Party. It's September 8th in case you're wondering. I also heard people discussing the bus trip to DC for the September 12th Teabagger’s March. I was taking it all in. I'm always up for a new experience and I knew this was sure to be a doozy. Poor Dan was not happy. I half expected him to turn to me and say he'd be waiting in the car and walk out. But he's a real trooper and he loves me. The time flew (for me) and before I knew it someone was introducing Congressman McHenry. I had seen pictures of McHenry. There was one on the postcard I had received and of course I had been on his website. I remember thinking, he is not a bad looking person. Those pictures were deceiving. He's a little weasel of a man. That's all I'll say about that.
McHenry spoke for about 15 minutes, as I took notes. He spoke of the cap and trade bill, informing us that every family would pay an extra $1400 a year for energy if Obama's bill passed. Naturally, he voted against the stimulus plan and said that Obama had promised that unemployment wouldn't go above 8%, and that the stimulus hadn't created one single job. He said the Town Hall Meetings had embarrassed Obama, so he was backing off the public option. He addressed the rationing of health care in Canada and Great Britain and said that, of course, our health care would undoubtedly be rationed. You know, all the usual republican talking points. The crowd was getting pretty riled up when McHenry asked for a show of hand and said "How many people here are for single payer health care?" I raised my hand as high as I could get it. Almost as soon as my hand went up so did my instinctual deception meter. I had been duped and I wasn't the only one. Dan raised his hand along with three other "victims". At that point, the Congressman dramatically hoisted the 1000 page healthcare bill over his head and then forcefully threw it to the ground in front of him and declared "This is what I think of President Obama's healthcare reform bill!" The crowd went wild. And Patrick McHenry knew exactly who in that room was for him and who was against him.
It was time for the question and answer period I had been waiting and preparing for for weeks. As it turns out, Patrick McHenry admitted to holding approximately 400 town hall meetings. He is only 33 years old but he’s been a congressman since 2004 and believe me, he’s an expert at working the crowd. His "victims" didn’t stand a chance. He started with the people standing (all but one of his victims were seated). When you were called on you had to stand up and state your name and where you live.
McHenry's first victim, a 60ish, portly man, asked McHenry how he could be trusted since he had taken more than $500,000 from the insurance and pharmacutical industries. His answer was very short. He said, "Because I work for you, not the insurance companies." When the man asked why he should believe McHenry, the reply was "If you don’t believe me, don’t vote for me."
His second victim, was a younger woman in her mid 30’s who said that she has Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance. Her issue is that her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 36 and succumbed to the disease when she was 53. The woman’s doctor stressed that it is imparitive she be tested every year, but Blue Cross/Blue Shield will only pay for her tests every five years until she reaches 40 years old. McHenry said that’s why we need reform and "they" are working on it. I assume he meant the republicans. He looked so sorrowful. Well as sorrowful as a weasel can look.
The third victim was a woman dressed in scrubs, who look around 40. She wanted to know why the republicans wouldn’t approve a co-op system. He started to answer her, but she wanted to clarify her question, so she interrupted him. Big mistake on her part. He became very antagonistic and told her that if she was going to keep interrupting him, he would have to move on because there were more polite people waiting for their turn.
It was probably 45 minutes before he got to me. I confess, I have never been comfortable speaking in large groups. I usually avoid it at all costs, but I was really worked up last night and I found a voice inside me I didn't even know I had. I was loud and probably sounded way too angry. Here is what I said:
"I was a military brat and a military wife for more than 30 years. I had excellent government run health care. My question for you Congressman is this: If you were to vote no on a public option in the form of extending Medicare to all, would you be willing to repeal our current Medicare system and the VA and would you be willing to give up your own government run health care?"
McHenry replied by stating that Medicare could not work because the hospitals and doctors wouldn't get paid as much as they do through the insurance companies. I challenged him by saying that most doctors and hospitals already accept Medicare. He said if the doctor would normally charge $100 for a procedure then Medicare would only give them $80 and they won't accept that for everyone. I said his answer was "doubletalk" and it didn't make sense. He then asked the crowd if they understood him and of course they all cheered and clapped and sang him praises. That was the end of me. He never answered my question. He knows his stuff alright. He had picked us apart one by one, making it appear that we were the stupid ones in the eyes of his devoted followers. I wish I had been calmer and lifted myself above the fear and anger but I found myself ingulfed in it. I was just as angry as they were and I don't feel that I acomplished anything accept maybe, just maybe, with that sweet little old lady next to me.
Here are some of the right-wing questions and answers. One man asked if the government run health care bill would effect his VA benefits. McHenry said "It's not clear, we'll have to wait and see when the bill is finalized". Another man said they should change the name of the Town Hall Meetings to Town Hall Prayer Meetings, and asked what McHenry's prayer would be for our country. The Congressman said he would pray for "active and engaged citizenry on fire for democracy and taking ownership of the government". Word for word, that's what the man said. Another person asked if he would support the United States withdrawal from the United Nations. He said "Yes, I would support that". One woman demanded that we impeach Obama. She stated that she refuses to call him President. A man asked what McHenry thought about them taking $500,000,000 from Medicare to pay for the government run health care bill. Another asked about Obama bowing to the Saudi Arabian Muslim King. Of course there were several questions on the economy. McHenry said that "our economy is getting to the point of European Standards". I have no idea what that means. A woman said something about "Robert Lloyd being a self-professed communist". I had no idea who Robert Lloyd was, so I googled Robert Lloyd when I got home. I found a poet, an opera singer and interestingly enough, a christian songwriter, but no politicians. I guess I'll never know who she was talking about. Maybe I spelled it wrong. One woman asked when McHenry was going to run for president at which point I whispered to Dan that I was going to need to throw up when I got home.
Around 8:45 I realized that the rest of McHenry's victims had left. Suddenly I felt uncomfortable being there and I whispered to Dan that after the next question we should leave.
I didn't think for a moment that I would actually get an answer to my question last night. I'm not really sure what I expected to get out of the event. I left feeling incredibly angry and by the time I got home, I couldn't figure out why I even went in the first place. Dan was happy to hear me say that. He has to put up with it at work and I understand that he doesn't want to put up with that kind of anger at home. I won't be going to another republican anything, ever.
It took me most of the night to write this diary. It was a lot to process. It’s 11:30 the next morning and I have yet to sleep. I tried a couple of times but my head just wouldn’t stop running. Quite honestly this past year has worn me out. I'm taking a long break from politics after the health care bill passes. I know it will pass because I’m still optimistic, even after last night.
Peace to all