View from a Farley The Current Events and Opinion Weblog of Chris Farley

Town Hall Nonsense

This post will be short because this topic hardly deserves more than a few paragraphs.

Insuring healthcare for everyone is complicated. Extremely complicated. I don’t even understand the intricacies of some of the legitimate arguments about healthcare reform, but I do know that having more people insured is better than having 40 million Americans without healthcare.

There are citizens out there who have legitimate concerns. Everyone wants to know what the current proposals will mean for them. Everyone has a question to ask, because everyone will be affected. Everyone wants to know that the proposal that is eventually adopted helps the most people in the most effective way possible. Lawmakers have gone out among their constituents to answer their questions.

Instead of the real, honest debate that should be taking place, we have organized disruptions orchestrated by people who are acting contrary to the American ideal of fierce but respectful debate. These hijackers of public forums are drowning out the voices of the millions of Americans who are wondering what will happen to them.

There is a small, but very vocal minority who claim they are out to stop healthcare reform. That is, superficially, their goal. But in reality, they are out to destroy intelligent discourse. Their mission is to show that the person who shouts the loudest is the most effective, and that is extraordinarily dangerous.

So you can agree or disagree about healthcare reform, but speak your opinions respectfully. The shouters and the screamers are in pursuit of stupidity, so the rest of America needs to show them that real debate will continue unabated.