Town Hall Meeting On Health Care

You can see my hair way in the lower right hand corner, hovering above the podium!

Our U.S. Congressman Tim Johnson held a 1-hour town hall meeting tonight at the public library to talk about the subject of health care. Smelling a blogworthy event, I tailed along with Dena who's a passionate follower of national politics. Living here 20 years and having attended a town council meeting and school board meeting here and there, I expected a modest crowd and a buttoned-down event.

Was I wrong! This was one experience that Hollywood drama actually captures pretty well. I didn't know white people could be so raucous without alcohol.

I knew something was up as we closed in on the parking deck and came to a dead stop from traffic so backed up that it crossed a traffic intersection. While waiting I saw every McLean County resident over the age of 60 that I know walk past - yep, toward the library.

As a horde of us slow-stepped shoulder-to-shoulder down the stairs into the basement, various concentration-camp imagery flooded into my head.

Our punctuality saved us. The room had cameras, reporters, and about 100 people more than there were chairs. Not to mention another 100 outside the room that couldn't fit. I guessed about 500 in all, Dena guessed 350. All you need to know is that the opening speaker began by announcing that library management was concerned about fire code violations, and so anyone who felt like leaving early was welcome to do so.

Johnson walked in, and the crowd went wild! On the whole, they loved him. I jotted down a few phrases of his that drew energetic applause:

"You are the root of government."
"Government is best which governs least." (Thomas Jefferson quote)
"We've got the best health care system in the world."
"Four principles I will not budge on: health care for seniors, no increase in taxes, no access to care for illegal immigrants, and no government-run nationalized program."

How to describe it? This was citizenry on the warpath. This was partisan politics at its most fervent. Johnson was a fiery preacher to this congregation, really a fine representative of the crowd. His opening lines claimed this to be the angriest time he'd ever seen in 30 years of politics. Substitute "Bible" for "Constitution," "God" for "the people," and "Satan" for "government" and we could just as easily have been at an old-time religious revival, say, 1800 before air conditioning, when thirtysomethings with weak backs sat on tile floors (but enough about me). Questions were fired from the crowd in a fashion that both lauded Johnson and literally screamed against the nation's direction. "Please go back to Washington and kill this bill," was the message shouted in ten different ways, drawing cheers from the sweating and elderly masses. "Please vote the Democrats out of office" was the implied chorus from the pulpit.

Soldiers spoke and were cheered; Democrats' names, when uttered, were jeered. Some railed so loudly that even Johnson lost his cool a few times. He sits on a "Center Aisle" caucus, which intends to help Congressmen "agree to disagree less disagreeably." Let's hope so!