Ha, not that, perverts.
Last week I attended a town hall meeting on Obama’s plan for health care reform. Another agency urged me attend, saying that as an employee of a notable non-profit in the area, I should speak up for my community. Great idea, except public speaking is my kryptonite. So I went there to be a warm body and show my support and also to gawk at the guaranteed car-wreck quality of the event.
Now the town hall was very well organized. Hundreds of people showed up and it was moved outside. But there was a lot of anger. I was warned to show up early because the so-called tea baggers would be extremely loud and present, and I wasn’t disappointed. Their chant was, “Read the bill! Read the bill!” The pro-reform side countered with, “Health care for all! Health care for all!” Eh, FAIL on both sides.
I was surprised by the number of people who attended and also by the passion showed by those who do not want health care reform. It just boggles me how much people are freaked out by it. Every time someone says to me that the government shouldn’t run health care, I always say back, “What about Medicare? And Medicaid?” That said, I wouldn’t trust the U.S. government to do a huge overhaul of the current system, i.e., a single payer model like they have in Italy. There are so many simpler things that the government has screwed up/is currently screwing up now. I am in favor of broadening the scope of Medicaid (as in offering the coverage to more people) or the government offering subsidies to individuals to assist them in buying private insurance.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much of a chance for dialogue during the event. People kept interrupting the congressman who organized it all and having a feeling that would be the ways things would roll for the rest of the evening, I ducked out early.
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