Well, my family and I went to the Town Hall that Norm Dicks (WA--6th) threw tonight. My Hubby, Brother-in-Law, Mother-in-Law and myself arrived about 45 minutes before it started. But the wingnuts and their ilk had arrived much earlier, some from as far away as Tacoma -- outside of our district. So it appears as though the shills had been sent.
Seats were hard to find but we finally got some in the back. Somehow we lost my Hubby but since we had his motorcycle helmet in the car so he couldn't get far ;)
There seemed to be as many pro-HCR signs as there were anti. However, I saw one sign that pissed me off so bad I had to close my eyes and count to 10; Poor Mary Jo, it said, RIP. Uncalled for and obnoxious.
There was also one of Sen. Kennedy that read Pass It For Him. The balance of the rest were the usual; No Gov. Control and No Socialism on the one side and Health Care Now and (h/t to slouching) Healthcare For Profit Is An Oxymoron, Public Option NOW! (mine)
We started a few minutes early. Rep. Dicks' staffer laid out the rules (which were, of course, completely ignored by the nuts) and introduced Rep. Dicks. He laid out the case for the House bill with charts and graphics. Whenever he said "public option", there was a chorus of Boooos. I think he did a darn good job of making the case for the bill and he was a saint putting up with the crap that was thrown at him.
Somehow his aides managed to hold a microphone up to mostly wingnuts. Almost every "question," and I use that word VERY loosely, was on the order of "oh noes!!! The government is bad!!" Three times, they asked about funding for abortion. THREE times! When Rep. Dicks had answered, quite straightforwardly, the first time it was asked. But, no, he was lying, according to them. The way they would completely discard anything he said was just mind-boggling. Of course THEY knew much more about the bill and the numbers than he did. Well sure... they got their info straight from Glen Beck. A few of them actually used Beck's terminology word for word. Many were actually reading from a script.
Finally, a woman who had a personal story got up and told Rep. Dicks about the nightmare of not being covered. And our wonderful fellow Americans booed her. BOOED her! I could not help but say loudly, "You wouldn't boo if that was your Mother!"
Speaking of Mother.... my Mother-in-law had no idea that there were people like this involved in the debate. She does watch Keith and Rachel (thanks to me) but she had no idea what these folks at the town hall were talking about. She couldn't hide her derision at some moments. She didn't boo, but she had her opinions. And none of them jived with the wingers.
There were a couple of people who had the temerity to berate Rep. Dicks' with admonishments as to who elected him and who he worked for. Well, Sparky, the majority elected him and he serves the entire 6th LD. The poor man does do his best to represent everyone in this District. He's been our Rep over 20 years and he does a good job. It was reprehensible the way he was disrespected.
The meeting ended at about 9:00 and we began to file out. I held my sign in front of me, getting a few dirty glares. We found my Hubby and he was pretty worked up. You see, he (and all of us) believe that making money off of people's illness is morally bankrupt. And he was vociferous in letting the naysayers know it. His best friend died last March due to insurance company greed and now his widow and children are saddled with a huge medical bill. No, Hubby is not tolerant of the greedy insurance companies at all.
At one point, just before we made it to the car, we saw a bunch of women with NO signs. He had to tell them, "Insurance companies killed my best friend." They said they had sympathy but then started spouting the lies; women in Britain are giving birth in hallways, Canadians come here for their care, etc. I had to pull him away...
No Socialism signs before the meeting began
These guys had Medicare... but prevaricated when asked if they'd give it up
The public option gets represented. The sign with Ted Kennedy said Pass It For Him
Oh, and at one point, my Brother-in-Law got a phone call, excused himself to take it. When he sat down, he had some good news; he is going to play bass for Steppenwolf! Isn't that awesome?!
So, that's my report. We did show up. We did make our support for the public option known to Rep. Dicks and to our fellow constituents. We made noise. We made a few points, as well. But the most important thing is that there were four more friendly faces in the crowd. And four more voices for the public option.
Thank you, Rep. Norm Dicks!