Congressman Paul Tonko's Town Hall meeting in Delmar, NY Tuesday 8/25 had quite a turnout, about 1,500 people by some estimates. Several diaries covered the details: devtob, Doctor Who, and HylasBrook among them. I would have liked to have attended, but had to be elsewhere. I thought it'd be useful to follow up with some reactions from the local media.
more below the fold.
Moderator Lydia Kulbida has blogged about the experience from her point of view:
There’s a joke in local media circles that the most dangerous place to be is between a camera and a certain New York politician, but I found out tonight that the most dangerous place to be is between questioners and a congressman during a health care town hall meeting. (At least the guy who flipped me off at the beginning of the meeting apologized after the program ended.)
I was asked to moderate tonight’s meeting held by Congressman Paul Tonko at Elm Avenue Park in Delmar. The good news is the turnout was great. The bad news is the shouting from both sides left many people unable to ask questions. There was a gentleman towards the end who pointed out that calling your opponent a racist or Nazi doesn’t add anything to the dialogue. Can we all agree on that?
There's some interesting comments from all directions in response to her post.
The Albany Times Union report by Irene Jay Liu on the meeting covered the drama of the event, as both pro and anti forces made themselves heard.
One supporter, Linda Underwood of Castleton, said that while she preferred a single-payer health care system, she was at the town hall to support a "strong public option."
"I don't think there's a place in health care for profit," she said, explaining that after she was let go from her job last year she had to take retirement at reduced pension so she could qualify for the retiree health care benefits. "I'm a cancer survivor; I have other pre-existing conditions. I knew I'd never be able to get health insurance," she said.
Tonko's event was the third health care town hall meeting Underwood has attended -- the first two were with newly elected Democratic Congressman Scott Murphy, who represents the Republican-heavy 20th Congressional District. Underwood said the town hall in Valatie had the "same tenor" as the Tonko event, but was much smaller with 150 people. The Nassau event had fewer "anti-change" advocates and was "very much more civil," she said.
Ann Rymski of Slingerlands, who opposes health care reform, said she felt her side had been excluded from the event. "The Obama people sent around an e-mail, asking people to come. I found out from a friend at the last minute," she said. "Obviously the word got out and some opinions were expressed here. ... So we get a little loud and yell at each other. So what?" Rymski said.
The Capital Area's alternative weekly Metroland had coverage in their latest issue. (Scroll down to Shouts and Grumbles to Chet Hardin's account of the event.)
Heated attacks and hyperbole drown out reason at Tonko’s health-care town hall
“Are you going to hang tough on the public option?” a supporter of single-payer asked. The crowd broke out into cheers and boos.
“The purpose of the evening is to elicit information,” answered U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-21). “Hanging tough on cutting costs that are excessive, providing for the efficiencies of scale, introduction of technology to avoid duplication, all of that needs to be fixed. And I am going to hang tough.”
According to Bethlehem Town Supervisor John Cunningham, roughly 1,500 people crowded into the pavilion in Elm Avenue Park in Bethlehem to debate, cajole, encourage, threaten, and shout at an unflappable Congressman Tonko. A nearly split crowd of supporters and opponents of the Democrats push for health-care reform echoed the national debate along familiar lines: those who want universal health-care to protect the low-income and uninsured, and those who either don’t want to pay for it or believe it is an overreach in power by the government.
While neither the Times Union or Metroland gave much space to explaining the issues being debated, Metroland's Hardin did go a bit deeper into some of the points Tonko was trying to make, such as how the money really adds up.
If there's a common thread in all of the above stories, it's that the debate and the news coverage is not about the pros and cons of reform - it's about the contention. We can win on the facts - but that's not the terrain the battle is shaping up on. But, as long the pro reform side can come across as impassioned but reasonable people versus mean/crazy wingnuts, it ain't over. If we descend to their level, they'll beat us with experience. If we can beat them on smarts, they have nothing to fight back with. Let's stay classy, but let's be seen and heard too. If it comes down to noise, grease & squeaky wheels.