This is my first diary ever.... So please be nice to me! I don’t enjoy writing at all, so that’s why I haven’t written any diaries before now. However, tonight I went to an event featuring my local congressional representative, and since I didn’t see that anyone else had written a diary about it, I thought I would at least attempt to write about what it was like and what happened. I’m in CA-12 by the way, and my representative is Jackie Speier.
This wasn’t exactly a town hall. Jackie had a booth at the Hot Harvest Nights farmer’s market in San Carlos. She wasn’t really in the booth, though, she was outside it in the street. The farmer’s market is held in a few blocks of the street that are closed off, and it’s rather crowded. So there were a lot of people gathered around and we had to push in fairly closely to hear Jackie -- she didn’t have a microphone so it was hard to hear. Mostly people were waiting patiently to talk to her, but there were a few people who were not so patient and a couple people who were rather rude... but more about that in a minute.
I had been hoping to thank her for standing firm about the public option. She was one of the members of Congress who signed the July 30 letter saying they could not vote for a bill that does not contain a robust public option. I also wanted to ask her about how she feels about co-ops, and maybe express my feeling about how important the public option is. Not much of this actually ended up happening... I was able to thank her but that was about it.
There were many different types of people there. Some had genuine questions, and I sensed that those were the people Jackie was most interested in talking to. There was one woman who carried a sign that said "Single Payer". She was quite nice. I also saw several people with OFA stickers on. There was one young woman who earnestly thanked Jackie for signing the pledge to not vote for a health care bill that doesn’t have the public option. Jackie corrected her, explaining that she had not signed that pledge but rather she signed a letter to Speaker Pelosi that said any bill that is passed should have a public option. But Jackie said that she feels that health care reform is too important to not pass anything, so she is not willing to say that she would vote against a bill that doesn’t contain a public option.
Right about then, the man standing in front of me (right in front of Jackie’s face) started getting more and more loud. He had a list that looked like it had come from the internet, something about 10 questions. I think it was probably this one: 10 Questions for Supporters of ‘ObamaCare’. Anyway he started spouting off all this nonsense about government takeover and how he has all these friends in Canada and England who absolutely "hate" their health care, and ours is the best in the world, and we don’t want health care to be run like the post office, etc. Jackie tried to engage with him somewhat by correcting his facts – for example, when he said the government can’t do anything right, Jackie said, "I disagree with you about that", and tried to point out good things that the government had done, like passing Medicare. But this only made him more unreasonable. He started accusing those of us who disagreed with him (including me and the woman with the single payer sign and several others around) of being socialists and communists. He actually said: "Health care is not a right, any more than food is. He also threatened Jackie that he would "make sure" that she is voted out of office if she votes for health care legislation. At this point she simply turned her back on him and talked to other people. He also yelled at us to "get a job" (apparently assuming that we could only possibly want to pass health care reform if we don’t already have our own health care).
It was an interesting dynamic... since people were all kind of in a big circle around Jackie, we could see each other’s faces so it was obvious whose side we were on. For example, when the guy threw out the "socialist" label, the woman with the single payer sign said "I like socialized medicine!" And I chimed in "Me, too!" and there were several others around who all nodded and smiled. When he yelled "get a job" at her and me, we just laughed. I happen to be a computer programmer so I have a good job, and I just can’t help but laugh at someone who assumes that I don’t have a job just because I believe that government should actually take care of those who might be less fortunate than I am. It seemed that laughing at him was the best way to intimidate him, after that he went off to the side and eventually left.
Later my husband and I were talking about the attitude the guy had that health care is not a right "any more than food is". It’s very sad that people feel that way... my husband observed that they are probably afraid that if they acknowledge these things as a right, then this would entail an obligation, and they don’t want to feel they have an obligation to care for anyone else. It’s kind of like what Cain said about Abel, "am I my brother’s keeper"?
Since this was my first foray into anything like a town hall, I found it very intimidating. And I really hate confrontation. But I think the health care fight is definitely worth it. I would encourage any other introverts like me who might be shy or hesitant, to try to stretch yourself and go to one of these events. And maybe also take the plunge and write a diary about it. I really think it’s important to encourage each other in this fight.
Update:
Thank you to everyone who commented. You were all very nice.