A few weeks ago I was dragged to a ‘town hall meeting’ type of rally in my hometown. At this rally, Congress Rep. Ralph Hall was to speak about the bill introduced by President Obama to reform the nation’s healthcare system. I say ‘dragged’ because I had no desire to attend. My mother said it would be a learning experience and we would know more about the bill. It certainly was a learning experience for me, but not in the way she intended.
Town hall meetings such as this have made national news for weeks now, as frustrated Americans voice their distaste for the way our elected officials tried to shove this bill down our throats. However, this meeting that I attended was not in a hall. It was on a lawn, in front of the courthouse, outside, where it is very hot. Heat was the least of my frustrations.
As Ralph Hall began to speak, I was handed a sign. Since I was not really there to join in a chant or some catchy cry such as “Obama lies, grandma dies”, the sign, I decided, would just settle comfortably next to me. No waving it, no running around with it. Ralph Hall’s people had other ideas.
Some woman decided my sign belonged on the courthouse steps behind where he was speaking. She pointed to me, commanded me up to the steps, I sat down and immediately knew this was a bad idea. Like clockwork, up came more people with signs. They decided there were too many up there against the bill, so supporters of healthcare reform joined in on the party. So there I was, surrounded by bickering middle-aged and elderly people, and the one man I was forced to come and listen to was now drowned out by the many protesting voices.
Did I mention that there were struggles with the signs? Yes, apparently your view is made more boisterous in these political rallies if your sign is up front. Many times I caught elderly people, people I am supposed to treat with respect, acting like children forcing their way in front of each other because their sign had to be in front. It got so bad Hall nearly had his head taken off by one. It was absolutely ridiculous.
What I did hear from our ‘gracious’ and ‘kind’ politician was exactly what I expected: politician talk. There must be a seminar on that on Capitol Hill. He had this way of saying something without really saying anything. All I could ever pick out was the bill was too long and contained something called a public option, but I already knew that. In fact, those words ‘public option’, I believe, are the two words that have many Americans rushing to their congressmen and women in the first place. Way to point out the obvious there, Ralphie.
After Hall had finished his speaking without making a point, it came time for audience members to ask questions. Normally, I would say this was the most productive part of a town hall meeting, as the politician gets the chance to answer concerns directly. I knew that assumption was wrong after the first ‘question.’
Some old lady, a supporter of the bill, walked up to the microphone, and the first thing out of her mouth was not about a public option, not about a change in the current healthcare system and not even about healthcare at all. Her words were about the Iraq war, and how Hall’s support for it was just like support for genocide. What?! Did she even know what he had been talking about for the last half-hour? Later some guy got up there and explained how he was offended by some joke Hall attempted to make earlier. So, again, I learned nothing except old people don’t understand the concept of staying on task.
If anything, this political rally made me worry about how our nation is ‘run by the people.’ Plus, it did nothing to change my opinion that politicians say they work for the people who voted them in and then look out for themselves until the next election comes along. Hall gave the crowd nothing new about the healthcare bill. I went in knowing he was against it and left knowing only that. If this is how all town halls are, I am starting to wonder if they are even necessary. In this instance I would say no, since every single person attending this political rally could only take one important conclusion from everything presented: Ralph Hall is very, very old.