Report from the Town Hall Front

By Mark Klempner

I attended a town hall meeting in Delray Beach, Florida yesterday. It was my first and only experience ever in any type of protest.

I had the opportunity to speak with the other side and see their signs demanding healthcare now.

Call me biased, but I saw no depth behind their demands other than "I want my Maypo."

None of them cared a wit about our debt, only to blame Bush for spending money, but for Obama to spend twice as much mattered not.

If you told them Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, etc are going broke they seemed to think the government will make it all good or your are just spouting talking points.

Not one logical argument anywhere.

The pro-national healthcare side was more unruly and attempted to disrupt the other side.

One well intentioned gentleman explained to me that his philosophy was to treat everyone else above himself. However, I noticed he still had a shirt on his back, so he couldn't have met the truly poor yet.

Several people I spoke to were upset because they had called in ahead to get tickets only to find out they couldn't get in as they watched union members allowing others without tickets to get in ahead of them.

I felt truly sorry for some of the pro-healthcare people because I felt they were desperate and ignorant. Some were well intentioned other acted like thugs.

One woman came from Hollywood, a Russian immigrant trying to explain to them where all this was headed.

It's such a shame so many will suffer for those who have to learn the hard way.