Last night I went to the Lois Capps (D-CA) Town Hall Meeting on health care reform. It was held at a beautiful, brand new local church -- hold the jokes about the lightning bolts, please. The reason said church is brand new is because the old one got burned to the ground by some paranoid local homophobe arsonist who didn't like the fact that the congregation welcomed gay people without condemnation. [And there's a special place in hell for you, firebug Church-burner. If there is a Hell.]
So the evening began well enough. As we waited in line outside, one of my compatriots commented that the average age of the crowd was fast approaching Medicare eligibility. I commented that the cute 20-something Capps staffer taking tickets at the front door was probably the youngest person in the whole place. As I handed her my ticket, she noticed my standard uniform Obama t-shirt and remarked, "Hey, I really like your shirt!" Well, things were certainly off to a good start.
We found our seats, second row. The entire row in front of us was already occupied by a wingnut crew sporting stern looks and tight sphincters lips. We settled in, endured a harmless, non-denominational prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance and then got down to business.
We were asked to submit our questions in writing, which didn't sit well with the wingnuts, who weren't really there to learn anything, only to be angry about something they don't understand and to yell and scream and say "NO!" The moderator did a good job of keeping things under control.
Lois spent about 20 minutes going over the highlights of the bill: how it will close the Medicare Part D "donut hole," how it will eliminate pre-existing condition discrimination and frivolous policy rescissions, how it will get rid of lifetime payment caps, how it will extend health care coverage to even the least able among us, and how such an ambitious program will all be paid for. Lots of grumbling and head-shaking from the people with their fingers in their ears, but the lid stayed on the powder-keg.
Lois was join by two other people in a sort of panel discussion, and one of the two, Dr. Rushdi Abdul Cader, an emergency room physician at Sierra Vista Hospital in SLO, provided some of the most compelling arguments I've heard yet for universal health coverage (at best) and the so-called "public option" (at minimum).
He spoke about working pro bono in South Central LA and seeing uninsured patients suffering (and dying) from Third World maladies. He spoke about how caring for the poor and the needy is not just a public welfare obligation, but is also our moral obligation as compassionate human beings. Despite his eloquent plea for mercy and compassion, the wingnuts reacted as if he were promoting a Soviet-run apparatchik, rather than health care reform. The grumbling built and then the wingnut sitting directly in front of me, in the front row, in full view of the doctor, began mouthing the words, "I don't care...I don't care...I don't care...I don't care..." "Well, sir," the doctor said, "You may not care, but I do, and I believe many in this church do, and it is our moral obligation to fix this system before more people suffer and die." Bravo, good sir, bravo.
Interestingly, it was during this exchange that an elderly couple, clearly in their 80s, got up from their front row seats and worked their way to the back of the church. I remember thinking at the time that they must be some of those, "keep your government hands off my Medicare" people. But then, in one of the classic "Is there a doctor in the house?" moments I've ever seen, a young woman hastily approached the stage and summoned Dr. Cader with a "Come quickly, right now!" motion of her hands. The woman had taken ill and needed medical attention in the lobby of the church. Dr. Cader rushed from the dais to give her care and stayed with her until she was taken to....the Sierra Vista Hospital emergency room.
When it became clear to the wingers that they were not going to allowed to blow off any steam, a couple dozen of them got up and walked out in a childish huff. Clearly they were not there to learn anything, only to be juvenile and disruptive. Good riddance to them, I say. No one was going to convince them of anything new anyway.
Yet another classic moment came when Congresswoman Capps was discussing the issue of tort reform. "It's important," Lois said, "that if you are harmed by a medical procedure you have redress through the courts." And then came one of the most idiotic wingnut heckles I've heard yet in this whole debate:
"You just go to another doctor and have them fix it!!"
Ahem. Not if you're dead you don't, my good man.
So anyway, I thought the meeting was very well run, dignified and informative. Lois Capps made a great argument for why the status quo is unsustainable and this reform proposal, with its public option, is an absolute must if our nation is to move forward on the road to economic stability. I'm sure you'll hear differently from the constipated conservative party, but that's their problem, not ours. Lois Capps was re-elected with 65% of the vote; she knows who her constituents are.
On the way out of the church after the meeting there were a dozen or so anti-reform picketers trolling the parking lot. One guy had a sign that said, "Say NO to Obama care." As I walked by I could see that he'd noticed my Obama t-shirt. "Don't worry," I said, "We'll even take care of you when you get sick."