I am a mob member

I went to a town hall meeting today so I guess I am a member of an angry mob.

Jackie and I traveled to Lakewood Washington to join other mob members there to hear our congressman Adam Smith hold his town hall meeting. We left our home in plenty of time and arrived at the High School football stadium in Lakewood where the town meeting was to be held. We found a place to park and thought we were some of the first to arrive.

As we walked around a building that was blocking our view we saw that the grandstands were just about full. As we snaked our way to the entrance there were are lot of folks handing our printed materials. Most were in favor of the single payer proposal and some other groups like anti-abortion groups etc. As we tried to find an empty space we noticed that there were many folks in the front with professionally made signs who were in favor of the Reform Now and Single Payer all over them.

They occupied the front of almost all the seats. But there were many other folks with the same signs all through the audience. It was quite obvious that the people with the signs were part of a union turn out. The signs even said they were printed in a union print shop.

Jackie and I found a couple of seats up quite high next to one of the guys with the union signs. He was there with his daughter. Another guy saw my tee-shirt that I have had for some time that said “I Have Issues” in big letters on it and he asked if I would allow his wife to take a picture of us together. His shirt said “Gun toting Liberal” It was all in fun and the crowd got a laugh out of seeing us together. I told him that I am a gun totter myself and that I normally shoot and eat liberals but this time I will make an exception. We had a good laugh over that as well.

The homemade signs were apparently just from, what Nancy Pelosi calls, the Astroturf folks, part of a mob, thugs and many more derogatory names that apparently the folks we have in DC think of anyone who disagrees with them.
There were just normal folks many of which were older but many young folks as well. Some of the signs were very funny but looking back now one advised Ted Kennedy to go to Canada for his care. Of course nobody there knew at the time that he had passed away. It is not so funny in retrospect. There were also some people who had a professional banner that read “ Single Payer and Health Care Reform” on it. In a little smaller letters it said it was sponsored by American Socialists. So I guess Socialists like the government option for healthcare. They were booed very vigorously by everyone.

It was very obvious that the party was stacked with folks who were told to be there by their union. I do not know why unions are in favor of the government option. One of the guys there told me they were paid to attend. After the meeting started the Astroturf mobsters like me were quiet loud but respectful. The others just sat there like they really were not that interested. Maybe they, as union members, are less passionate about the issues than us rabble.

After being in the stands for a few minutes Rep Smith came to the podium on the sidelines of the football field and started to address us. As rep Smith stated to speak someone suggested that we start the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Adam then lead us in the pledge. He then stated a few ground rules and we listened and for the most part followed his direction.

He gave a short speech about many issues and bills he is working on that part of the talk was really quite informative. The last issue he talked about was of course health care reform and the current bill HR 3200 that is in the house.

There were about 3000 folks in the stands with only 2 microphones so it was obvious that everyone who wanted to speak, was not going to be able to do so. People held up there hands and the guys with the microphones tried to get to one person after another. Many just gave comments, but there were some questions as well. Some statements were nonsensical and had little to do with the issue and in my opinion, were a waste of time.

There were other that were very to the point. To be honest I can not remember any of the obviously union folks even asking a question. Even though it seemed like the group was evenly split, most of the questions came from the mob group that I am part of.

I had my hand up and tried to get a question in and the microphone was on it’s way to me but a lady just in front of me got the mic and it never got close to me again during the evening. My question would have been something like this. “We currently have private for profit insurance companies covering many of us. The government is proposing a not-for-profit government plan. Is it not obvious that a for profit company will not be able to compete against a non profit plan, and that they will eventually be driven out of business by the government? A young many who was very articulate asked that question later so I got my answer. I will list what I felt the congressman said below.

All in all it was a good experience. The only blemish on the evening was when some young man held up a large poster with President Obama as the joker on it. The congressman told us to ignore him as that is what he wanted but some others jumped him and ripped the poster apart. There was a short fight and the guy was escorted out by police. We all cheered as he left. People on both sides did not like actions like that and it was uncalled for.

The congressman said or at least left the impression that:

1. He will not support the bill HR 3200 as it is currently written.
2. He will not support a bill with paid government abortions.
3. He feels as the bill is written now, it will in fact drive private insurance companies out of business.
4. Funding must be found that will not cause the deficit to get larger.
5. He will not support the reduction of current Medicare benefits.
6. He does not support the end of life counciling by the government, it should be only between doctor and patient.
7. He does not seem to favor the single payer system, which was applauded by the Astroturf crowed.
8. He stated that he does not feel there is enough support for single payer but we must find a way to cover those who have no insurance.

He talked about many other issues in health care like the need to find a way to provide continuing coverage if a person change jobs, move to another state, or have a pre existing health problem. He is also in favor of price controls for services and medications but said it is a very complicated issue.

I did not see any real mob action contrary to what we have seen on TV news. Maybe us folks here in Washington State are just more polite, I do not know, but we were able to get some answers to our questions and I am sure that rep Adam Smith got a feeling as to what we want.

He said that he knows that these town hall meeting are a truly American way of getting the things we want done. He expressed his thanks to us and assured us that he will try his best to get what we have told him done.