http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/tmccarthy0/2009/09/congressman-norm-dicks-announc.php?ref=fpdAt an overflowing town hall meeting, Congressman Norm Dicks, 6th district, Washington State, announced he supported a single payer system so that all American's will have the benefit of health care. I think the Congressman was saying he is in full support of Anthony Weiner's amendment to HB3200. He was very clear when he said, "I know most people here support a single payer plan", many folks clapped, and then he said, "I am in full support of a single payer plan"!
When we entered the foray we sign in, the crowd at this point was orderly. There were so many people who arrived early as we did. The meeting was supposed to begin at 7:30 PM, but there were so many people already there the meeting began early. I would say there were several hundred people, but I can't be sure of the exact numbers. Congressman Dicks I am sure has more accurate numbers. It was performance art in its highest form. There were police everywhere. You could see the police presence as we parked our car one block away from the Conference Center. Officers lined the back of the building. We grabbed seats at the back of the overflow room. I left my very reliable husband to hold my seat while I ventured into the room to do some filming. There was a certain air or just all around weirdness going on, so many people were marching up and down the aisles with handmade and professionally printed signs. Pro-Reform, Anti-Reform, Pro-single payer, Pro-Insurance companies, there were many pro-Congressman Dicks attendees. We were some, his office sent me a personal invitation, because no doubt about it the Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Fox News nuts came with their best crazy. They came to disrupt and some of them did disrupt, however, the crowd fought back as well. I will be uploading video shortly to my YouTube account. I will come back and post exact links later, but you can look me up there too, search for terimccarthy at YouTube. There were definitely two distinct groups, although we were spread evenly around the room. We were lucky enough to sit next to an Emergency Room Physician, guess what folks, he was pro-single payer. He told us his nightmare stories of paperwork required by insurance companies, more than 30 man hours a week spent on filling out paperwork over and over again. It was quite informative. There were many on the other side, they were the classic "No Socialism, Communism, Marxism, Fascism", folks. And one absolute moron with his own sign saying Thomas Jefferson didn't believe in Socialism. Yes I know, you know, most people know, Lenin, younger than Jefferson, whatever, facts do not penetrate these folks, not ever. There were a fair number of people clearly on Medicare protesting "socialism". Yes that room was thick in ironies, and at times it felt as though madness had taken over. Poor Congressman Dicks, he had some crap to put up with.
It seemed the anti-socialist-Marxists-communist-etc folks held the floor when it came to asking questions and yelling at Congressman Dicks, but he did a phenomenal job and at times his manner was condescending towards them and fantastic! He clearly had command of the forum. There was one very crazy moment, another elderly person, called the President a socialist, Marxist, communist, fascist, anti-constitution, screaming on and on about taking the country back etc. She was the most insane in the room, she sounded like she was from a Slavic country. It was quite clear what these folks were really complaining about and it isn't health care. One person suggested the election was a coup, so there were clearly crazy people at this town hall meeting.
The questioners asked the same questions over and over again. There was the anti-abortion crowd. Why is it that everything is about abortion with these folks? Then there was the anti-immigrant crowd, with their singular question of immigrants getting access to free health care, and there were those that insisted emergency room care is free so the system is just fine...huh? You can't figure some of this stuff out though because these folks seem to be free of facts.
But the greatest part of this meeting was Norm Dicks, who is in full support of a single payer government run program to which the emergency room physician clapped and was in full support. More people there were for a single payer system than were not, more people in a Kitsap County Washington, were for a SINGLE PAYER GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH PLAN. The others were outnumbered. We have to stand up like we did during the election and ram this thing through.
Check for my videos this afternoon! Rendering takes time!!
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