Newscoma

Well, maybe Chuck Norris, but that’s beside the point.

I have sat on the outskirts this weekend watching the health care debate across the nation. What I say about this will make very little impact but I can’t help but wonder why the shoutdowns keeping going on. I mean I know it’s fear of the unknown and long-term ramifications, but then again, finding out information about the particulars when there is so much derision is pretty hard to do. We are getting to the happenings of the meeting, but not the content of what is going to happen.

My niece said to my sister Homer last week, “no one wins in a headbutting contest.” She was talking about something entirely different mind you, but you can find great wisdom in the words that kids say.

For the first time in my life, I have no health insurance. Last week, my dog Duff tripped me as I was going downstairs to answer the doorbell. I fell about three steps on a very steep staircase but caught myself just in time. If, God forbid, I had broken something, let’s just say I would have been screwed. Needless to say, I’m interested in the ongoing conversation about this particular issue.

So, I watched several folks from Memphis tweeting the event live (I would have loved to have seen a live stream but apparently they didn’t have one for the event) and then read several accounts on the right and the left of what happened.

I think town hall meetings are an odd bird but necessary. Here in Hoots, after covering what seems like thousands of commission, city board and other meetings over the years, I can tell you that they can be somewhat difficult when the crowd is angry. Over the years, I learned that 90 percent of meetings will be about the most boring, inane crap that any person can stomach.

But the other 10 percent is when folks get mad. No one ever goes to a board meeting/town hall meeting when everything is rosy. They only show up when they’re pissed.

During consolidation of the high schools here in Hoots back in the early 90s, townsfolk from six schools showed up at every meeting. They wanted to know which high schools would close. And, in retrospect, they didn’t care if the other one’s closed as long at wasn’t theirs. The main weapon during that period of time here was the use of fear.

I see the same tactics, new issue, being used in the health care debate. And the bottom line is that even with folks I talk to here, many agree that changes need to be made. More people are filing bankruptcy due to paying health costs and with the combined loss of many jobs here, there is fear put into another category. The one consistent argument I’ve heard in the health care conversation is that folks are afraid they are going to lose what they are struggling for now.

Fair enough.

So, I have asked what they are afraid they are going to lose. Many of these people, actually all of them, didn’t have an answer to that question.

When I see elected officials at least trying to answer some very important questions and being shouted over when there were people who were undecided and wanted to learn, it’s disheartening.

No one can hear when people are shouting.

Answers will not be given if people are too busy screaming. Steve Cohen tried to create a forum to listen to his constituents. I think we can agree on that. I wish my rep, John Tanner, would do the same. And, instead of the conversation that should have occurred, today’s story was not about health care per se, it was about the anger and the shouting. People really do want to understand this issue better. Many of us do feel bombarded by insurance and instability.

The most comprehensive idea of what happened regarding the Memphis meeting is at Vibinc’s. And according to Jackson Baker’s account, after the chaos, Cohen actually led a pretty decent meeting where goals were discussed.

Activism, no matter what your issue is, is a great thing. I support it completely. Civil protest is fine.

Let’s remember though, not everyone blogs, not everyone has access to these bills and the American people are pretty up front of wanting to know the summary, and what are the consequences to their day-to-day lives. And as I’ve said dozens of times, some of us are a bit geographically challenged.

Sitting down and having a conversation about these things, even if we disagree, is the only way anyone is going to get an idea about what’s going on in our government in the proposals that are on the table which are laid out quite well in this article from last month from the New York Times.

It goes back to what the blonde niece said, no one wins in a headbutting contest.

And, as you know, it’s much more exciting for the media when the pitchforks come out, but I guess that’s another post for another day. No one shows up to these meetings when there isn’t controversy.

Image credit: Toothpaste for Dinner