Santa Cruz Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform
I was not sure what to expect before we went to the meeting. I guess I just expected a bunch of very passionate citizens more than willing to express their opinions.
I figured that it might be hard to park and get a seat, so I arrived 45 minutes early and saved a seat for Barbara. As I walked in, there were several groups protesting. There was a group waving signs that had a big picture of Obama with a Hitler-like mustache. There were other groups handing our signs supporting health care reform. Sometimes people would stop to debate the issue. I say debate, but it did not appear that either side was listening to each other. They each had their own "facts", which proved their case to themselves.
I grabbed a couple of seats and looked around. A few rows in front of me, a lady had a big sign that showed Obama pushing his mother in a wheelchair, off of a cliff. As soon as she sat down, several pro-health care reform people with signs sat around her. Whenever she got up and waved her sign, the others would rise and wave their signs. A news reporter came and interviewed her. The others gathered around and waved their signs and chanted "give us equal time". I don't think it was actually harassing, however it did seem kind of annoying.
The room held 500 seated people and it was pretty full with 15 minutes to go. One of Sam Farr's aides got up and asked everyone to scoot together to make more room. He also said that we could only save seats for 5 more minutes. Uh-Oh, Barbara had not arrived yet. Finally, he said that people were not allowed to stand in the back of the room, that it blocked the exits. They could go to an overflow room. Of course no one moved. After a few minutes I gave up Barbara's seat. Later I found out that she went directly to the overflow room. By the time the town hall started every seat was taken, there were many people standing in the back of the room and people sitting in the aisles going forward. They had opened the windows and there were alot of people standing outside looking and listening through the windows. I am told that the overflow room was full as well, but I did not dare leave my seat. This morning, the paper says that 800 people showed up. I can believe that number.
The atmosphere was electric. Alot of anticipation for the meeting. Camera crews roving about. Several people walking around taking pictures with their camera phones. Some debates in the crowd. The debates seemed pretty civil. No one seemed to want to debate with the extremists, so it was mostly people towards the center exchanging their views. The extremists seemed to either sit quietly or to talk with people that agreed with them.
About 15 minutes late, Sam Farr opened the meeting. He asked people to be civil and he said that he expected dissent, but he felt that expressing dissent was part of democracy. Then he started explaining what the health care reform bill was. He asked how many people were currently covered by health care. Most raised their hands, he replied that their care would not change under this bill. He asked how many were employees of the city, county, military, etc. About half raised their hands, he replied that each of them already had government health care.
The crowd seemed to mostly support the bill, however there were some very vocal opponents. During some critical points, many would applaud. During other critical points, others would shout "Your Wrong" or "Thats BS". Immediately, the crowd would respond "Let him talk", "He's right". It seemed that the crowd would try to drown out the dissenter. But it would die down pretty quickly and Farr would continue.
There was a guy about 50 feet in front of me, who was just livid. He occasionally would yell out something, but mostly he just sat there tight lipped and red faced. You could just tell that he was so angry about the whole issue that he could hardly stand it. As soon as he would yell something, others around him would quickly try to drown him out.
Then came the question time. Farr asked people to line up in the aisles and asked them to keep their questions and/or comments to 2 minutes. Most people did, a few did not. I thought most people were pretty reasonable. Everyone was very passionate about the topic, but these people just wanted to express their thoughts to Farr. One guy got up and started out that he thought the bill was Nazi-like. The crowd immediately tried to drown him out. He just kept talking. Since he had a microphone, I could hear some of his points, but not all. A few people personally attacked Farr. Accusing him of being a socialist, unresponsive to his constituency, of being out of touch, will lose his job if votes for this bill, etc. Farr would calmly listen to all of the comments and reply as best he could. And of course there was the lady who wanted to talk about the Iraq war.
At one point, a guy thought it was unfair for the government to be offering health care to everyone. He said, "but it will drive the health insurance companies out of business!" The dissenters yelled "yeah that's right". Then the pro crowd started clapping, because they want the health insurance companies to go out of business. Then everyone started laughing because both sides liked the statement for completly different reasons.
After about 2 hours, I had heard enough. The comments/questions were getting pretty repetitive. About 1/2 of the people were still in the room and there were still long lines of people with questions or comments. But the energy seemed to be dying down. Neither side seemed as passionate any more. I walked past the overflow room and Barbara was there with some friends.
The media has been reporting that conservatives have been trying to shout down the congressmen at town halls. They have been trying to disrupt the meetings. I came away with a slightly different opinion of the Santa Cruz town hall. It is true that some dissenters would shout at the congressmen, but just as many (probably more) supporters would shout down the dissenters. The meeting was not calm and orderly, rather it was rowdy and disorderly, but everyone got a chance to express their opinions. It did not bother me and it did not seem to bother Farr too much.
I figured that it might be hard to park and get a seat, so I arrived 45 minutes early and saved a seat for Barbara. As I walked in, there were several groups protesting. There was a group waving signs that had a big picture of Obama with a Hitler-like mustache. There were other groups handing our signs supporting health care reform. Sometimes people would stop to debate the issue. I say debate, but it did not appear that either side was listening to each other. They each had their own "facts", which proved their case to themselves.
I grabbed a couple of seats and looked around. A few rows in front of me, a lady had a big sign that showed Obama pushing his mother in a wheelchair, off of a cliff. As soon as she sat down, several pro-health care reform people with signs sat around her. Whenever she got up and waved her sign, the others would rise and wave their signs. A news reporter came and interviewed her. The others gathered around and waved their signs and chanted "give us equal time". I don't think it was actually harassing, however it did seem kind of annoying.
The room held 500 seated people and it was pretty full with 15 minutes to go. One of Sam Farr's aides got up and asked everyone to scoot together to make more room. He also said that we could only save seats for 5 more minutes. Uh-Oh, Barbara had not arrived yet. Finally, he said that people were not allowed to stand in the back of the room, that it blocked the exits. They could go to an overflow room. Of course no one moved. After a few minutes I gave up Barbara's seat. Later I found out that she went directly to the overflow room. By the time the town hall started every seat was taken, there were many people standing in the back of the room and people sitting in the aisles going forward. They had opened the windows and there were alot of people standing outside looking and listening through the windows. I am told that the overflow room was full as well, but I did not dare leave my seat. This morning, the paper says that 800 people showed up. I can believe that number.
The atmosphere was electric. Alot of anticipation for the meeting. Camera crews roving about. Several people walking around taking pictures with their camera phones. Some debates in the crowd. The debates seemed pretty civil. No one seemed to want to debate with the extremists, so it was mostly people towards the center exchanging their views. The extremists seemed to either sit quietly or to talk with people that agreed with them.
About 15 minutes late, Sam Farr opened the meeting. He asked people to be civil and he said that he expected dissent, but he felt that expressing dissent was part of democracy. Then he started explaining what the health care reform bill was. He asked how many people were currently covered by health care. Most raised their hands, he replied that their care would not change under this bill. He asked how many were employees of the city, county, military, etc. About half raised their hands, he replied that each of them already had government health care.
The crowd seemed to mostly support the bill, however there were some very vocal opponents. During some critical points, many would applaud. During other critical points, others would shout "Your Wrong" or "Thats BS". Immediately, the crowd would respond "Let him talk", "He's right". It seemed that the crowd would try to drown out the dissenter. But it would die down pretty quickly and Farr would continue.
There was a guy about 50 feet in front of me, who was just livid. He occasionally would yell out something, but mostly he just sat there tight lipped and red faced. You could just tell that he was so angry about the whole issue that he could hardly stand it. As soon as he would yell something, others around him would quickly try to drown him out.
Then came the question time. Farr asked people to line up in the aisles and asked them to keep their questions and/or comments to 2 minutes. Most people did, a few did not. I thought most people were pretty reasonable. Everyone was very passionate about the topic, but these people just wanted to express their thoughts to Farr. One guy got up and started out that he thought the bill was Nazi-like. The crowd immediately tried to drown him out. He just kept talking. Since he had a microphone, I could hear some of his points, but not all. A few people personally attacked Farr. Accusing him of being a socialist, unresponsive to his constituency, of being out of touch, will lose his job if votes for this bill, etc. Farr would calmly listen to all of the comments and reply as best he could. And of course there was the lady who wanted to talk about the Iraq war.
At one point, a guy thought it was unfair for the government to be offering health care to everyone. He said, "but it will drive the health insurance companies out of business!" The dissenters yelled "yeah that's right". Then the pro crowd started clapping, because they want the health insurance companies to go out of business. Then everyone started laughing because both sides liked the statement for completly different reasons.
After about 2 hours, I had heard enough. The comments/questions were getting pretty repetitive. About 1/2 of the people were still in the room and there were still long lines of people with questions or comments. But the energy seemed to be dying down. Neither side seemed as passionate any more. I walked past the overflow room and Barbara was there with some friends.
The media has been reporting that conservatives have been trying to shout down the congressmen at town halls. They have been trying to disrupt the meetings. I came away with a slightly different opinion of the Santa Cruz town hall. It is true that some dissenters would shout at the congressmen, but just as many (probably more) supporters would shout down the dissenters. The meeting was not calm and orderly, rather it was rowdy and disorderly, but everyone got a chance to express their opinions. It did not bother me and it did not seem to bother Farr too much.
posted by Steve @ 5:41 PM
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