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Follow us on TwitterCivility Reaches a New Low at Rustburg High
Published: September 2, 2009
The headline on Saturday’s story about Rep. Tom Perriello’s town hall meeting at Rustburg High School in Campbell County made a reference to the health care debate. It didn’t turn out that way, thanks to the boorish behavior with which the crowd greeted its representative in Congress.
Debates are civilized affairs in which one side argues its case and the other side is allowed to respond to those arguments.
In a formal sense, however, the meeting Friday night in Rustburg was not a debate. Rather, it was a gathering of voters to let Perriello, a Democrat, know what they thought about the proposed health care reform bill and other matters that have come before Congress in recent months.
Which is fine. Perriello has held 21 such town hall meetings to gauge the sentiment of the voters in the Fifth District that he represents. That’s as many town halls as any member of Congress has held during the August recess.
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What he ran into at the meeting was not simply sharp disagreement with just about everything Congress is doing, but uncivilized behavior from an unruly crowd of some 350 people. It was the type of behavior that drags down political discourse from give and take on the issues to something just short of a street brawl.
It’s uncalled for, unnecessary and amounts to a poor reflection on the people of the county — or at least that part of the county.
At many town hall meetings across the state and nation, speakers are asked to identify themselves, a common courtesy to the host of the meeting. Most in Rustburg did not.
Typical of the comments at the meeting was this one from an unidentified speaker who said the proposed health care reform legislation is “socialism.” The crowd responded with loud cheers and jeers. Another speaker claimed the health care bill would give the government access to people’s bank accounts. That is clearly not true, but rather something the speaker picked up from the Internet or a radio talk show.
Perriello calmly replied that if there was any language in the bill that even remotely suggested that, “it should be cleaned up.”
Another speaker fell short of any specific criticism of the health care reform package proposed by President Obama, but simply referred to it as “the 1,017-page Obama death care bill” that she objected to on “legal, moral, constitutional” and other grounds.
That really didn’t add to the debate, but her comments brought the crowd to its feet cheering.
One speaker went against the sentiment of the crowd by pointing out that probably more than half of them, like her, were receiving Social Security and Medicare. “Both of those programs are socialist,” she said, adding that without them she and her husband would not have been able to keep their home and car.
Her comments were the exception during the gathering Friday night in Rustburg. Such incivility has no place in the political system designed for honest give and take on the issues without the jeers and obnoxious comments.
Campbell residents should be ashamed. One would think they have been watching too many professional wrestling matches.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRZq7Lzz8bE
( FIRECHICK907) CAN YOU SAY…COBRA??? How the heck can anyone pay that fee? 1800.00$ a month, until you reach that golden age of 65 y.o, what world do you live in! Do you actually thing that ANYONE could afford their insurance??? Are you for real??????
Scorpious,
I know for a fact that BWXT has insurance. Now, when your husband retires, he will have to pay more for it but he wouldn’t lose his insurance. Being “redneck and backwoods” is awesome. I wouldn’t have it anyother way. There is nothing degrading about it. It is a way of life. No worse than being city-fied. McCain was a bad choice but Palin brought people back. Yeah, you won alright. The ecomony has tanked and people are still loosing thier jobs. You can’t keep blaming it on Bush almost a year after Obama was elected. The ball is in your court. Let Obama and his thugs keep messing with our liberties and see where ya’ll are in 2012. Repubs are already beating the Dems in polls for next year. Bush did what he had to do to keep you and me safe from people who have declared war on us. We are over there fighting so that it isn’t brought over here, so that you can sit at on your computer and not fear for your life. Obama and gang are pushing legislation through at 2am because if the bill didn’t pass right then, the economy would be in shambles…you don’t call that fear-mongering but you call protecting citizens fear-mongering? Where do you get your logic from? Or do you have any?
Well, good citizens of rustburg, let’s allow the rest of the country know just what a bunch of red-neck , back-woods, fear- mongers you are! May I please remind you, WE WON, and we shall keep on winning elections , as long as the Rep’s keep choosing party leaders like: McCain, and (my god) Sarah Palin, you sit back and wonder why your party is , dead??? Bring it on DEM’S, finally after what, 30 years, we finally get another chance to “fix” the wrongs done by right-wing-nutz!? Now, the ball is in our court! God bless OBAMA, and his health-care plan! My husband has worked 40+ years, and when he retires from BWXT, he will be without insurance, add to that, he has been diagnosed with MS, now tell me, who will cover him??? I applaud Obama, at least he is trying to do something, instead of making up lies concerning: weapons of MASS-DESTRUCTION!!!
This was my favorite line of the day.
—-“Americans have to kick their debt habit”—-
I wonder who is more in debt, Americans, or their government? So, lets see, if Americans stop buying anything on time, give up home ownership and mortgage debt and only buy new cars and products when they have the cash in hand—- how do you think that will work out for the “economy”?
Personally, I am in favor of mortgaging everything to China and borrowing all we can get. That way we can disband the military completely and if we are ever attacked we can just call China and let them know that “somebody is wrecking their stuff”. With the money we save by not needing a military any more we can have free health care!
Well, Jedi, the problem is that the stimulus commitments can’t be revoked once they’ve been made. And, the stimulus will create more jobs…it has to create jobs because the funding will go to projects that require workers to complete.
It is interesting…there are many who are waiting for the collapse of commercial real estate now, saying that will bring on another wave of bank failings. So, is the economy recovering or is it not. And, would not the stimulus continue to spur jobs which it has to because of projects already in the pipeline that will require a workforce to carry out.
Packer, the point is the economy is starting to recover. Since only 12% of the stimulus has been spent, there’s little need to increase our national debt with continued questionable stimulus spending.
Americans have to kick their debt habit and it’s going to take time to work it out. It will be a slow recovery, which will be good in the long run.
$500 MILLION interest payments on the debt EVERY day! We can’t afford another $TRILLION in debt for ‘free’ healthcare!
Hey Firechick…know why only 11-12% of stimulus money is spent so far and why that is not a failure? Remember Obama said the stimulus might take as long as two years to work? Here’s why…
Much of the money is going to communities in the form of PROGRAMS like weatherization, low income housing tax credit assistance, etc., The money is dispensed through state agencies like the Virginia Dept of Housing and Community Dev. Well, a lot of money came in and each dispensing department needs to create application processes for communities, receive applications, evaluate, and award. Once awarded or, rather, a commitment is made to an awarded organization, the organization performs the money and draws the stimulus funds down on reimbursable basis.
Now, I don’t know about you but that process sounds sane to me, working to get good money in the hands of good organizations to do good work and create jobs. The process takes time, just as Obama says. Much of the funding had an 18 month time limitation…must be spent by then.
So, I’d guess that your statement is born out of not fully understanding how the money goes out. And, no one can know the full impact of the stimulus for probably another 18 months because the jobs won’t start showing very much until late in the process.
Of course, for everyone who wants everything to happen right now, that’s not good enough. I suggest that the short term approach is rarely sustainable.
“The problem with the postings on this site, and I’m new here…“
Really???
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