Hall Monitor

A series of health care town halls are being planned across
Portland and the state this week to be hosted by Oregon Congressmen
David Wu, Peter DeFazio, and Earl Blumenauer—to gather feedback
on President Barack Obama’s plans for health reform. Well, okay,
Blumenauer intends to do a pair of “telephone town halls,” but I don’t
altogether blame him for retreating from making a public appearance
after the hostile reception Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley got in
rural Madras, Oregon, on Sunday, August 2.

“I was really embarrassed,” says Madras Pioneer News Editor
Holly Gill, who covered the meeting. She says 200 people attended, many
of whom interrupted the senator with aggressive off-topic
questions about immigration, and who booed Merkley’s responses.
“There was just no interest in a civil discourse, people were very
disrespectful. Afterward I apologized to the senator and his staff
because that is not how Madras people behave. Even when there are
differences of opinion they are always respectful.”

“The event was certainly spirited,” says Merkley spokesman Marc
Siegel.

Gill thinks the Deschutes County chapter of teabagging group
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) bussed some of the protesters in
for the town hall—a claim denied by the AFP Deschutes chair, Lucy
Brackett. “I know some of our people were there,” she says. “But it
wasn’t an organized effort. Nobody was bussed in.”

Whether the efforts are “organized” or not, sources say staffers for
the Democratic congressmen are nervous about their town halls being
hijacked by right-wingers as they have been across the country
in the past week—with arrests and violence at similar events in
Tampa and St. Louis. Irony of ironies: An anti health-reform protester
in St. Louis who got in a fight with some union members is now looking
for online donations to cover the cost of treating his
injuries—because he has no health insurance.

The best way to respond to these ideologues is with information.
Rumors are being spread, for example, that the president’s reforms are
an effort to promote euthanasia for old people to cut costs. But
the truth is, America’s health care costs will double over the next
decade if something isn’t done. The president’s health reform plan aims
to reduce costs, guarantee choice, and ensure adequate quality care
for everyone. If you like your current plan, you’ll be able to keep
it, and nobody will be denied coverage because of a preexisting
condition.

I challenge anybody to take that message and successfully hijack
it.