Reprising an albeit severely fractured version of the anti-war dirty hippy slogan of the 1960's, right wingnuts from every corner of Missouri's famously rural 7th Congressional District (home of Branson, The Beverly Hillbillies and country music legend Porter Wagoner) alit on the streets of downtown Springfield, (or Sprangfield, if you prefer) Missouri to confront Claire McCaskill, their sane representative in the U.S. Senate, to get their freak on and "Disist Atthority!"
Right on!
Eschewing every vestige of the ugly specter of ...
...including, apparently, state-of-the-art commie spelling, in favor of I suppose, regressive capitalism, these fine patriots sought to advance their cause of an overpriced, burdensome and exploitive health care system under one flag with liberty and justice for all by Gawd!
The town hall meeting was held in the Historic Gillioz theater, which first opened it's balcony in 1926 beside the newly designated "Route 66"...
..and has been gorgeously restored in recent years :
mmmmmmm, I see John Prine is coming to town - which has to be a weird case of hillbilly synchronicity...
Some Humans Ain't human,
Some humans ain't human
Some people ain't kind
You open up their hearts
And here's what you'll find
A few frozen pizzas
Some ice cubes with hair
A broken Popsicle
You don't want to go there - John Prine
The Gillioz seats about 1150 soulless and souls alike, and, from the looks of things when my lovely friend from the campaign, Giovanna -
and I arrive, filling the cheap seats should be no problema... the line snakes one and a half blocks back from the theater doors, rounds a corner and continues for at least three blocks up a side street. Even though we signed up at MyBarackObama.com, that apparently means jack, and with the line three and four peeps abreast, some quick calculations tells us that getting in might be problematic. I escort G. to the back of the line and then beg her pardon to do a quick perusal of the area to see if any opportunities represent to help increase our chances....
I see an acquaintance from the SEIU back near the head of the line -
and as Neil Boortz has been bitching for days (I monitor Reich-radio) that the Unions are back-dooring people into the meetings, I ask him if there is a scam afoot... but apparently everything is on the up and up. Meanwhile I take a snap of some more denizens of the right:
I nose around some more and run into a guy I had met at another meeting in front of Roy Blount's office earlier in the month. I shared my and G.'s dilemma and he says we should hang out and chat for a while, then at an opportune moment we could slip under the crowd tape and take "cuts" in front of him. Lacking a better plan, facing the possibility of not getting in at all, and inwardly relishing the thought that we might displace a couple of Glen Beck's minions from the hall, I thought it worth the risk - and little blemish on my character, and went to fetch Giovanna.
Turns out she knew people in that part of the line also and infiltrating went as smooth as silk. Soon we were shuffling into the theater and once past the ushers walked straight to a seat on the extreme stage left of the front row...
...the only way we could've gotten better seats would have been to show up in wheelchairs. Giovanna, who is of Italian heritage by way of Auckland, N.Z. observed that I must have learned some tricks from the "Neapolitans" during my Navy days there as they apparently have little patience standing line.
Claire didn't make a lot of news in the next couple of hours and there were no fisticuffs or firefights to report, and though the "Dick Army" and their ancillary "912" brigades were as uniformly asshole-ish and buffoon-like as they have been everywhere, shouting over her answers, asking for her birth-certificate and giving voice to every whack job conspiracy lunacy out there, from "death panels" to drive thru abortion clinics, my gal Claire soldiered thru as she has done for 11 events since the recess. I laughed when a wingnut quoted a Rasmussen Poll and Claire commented that she sees many "special interest" polls and tries not to put too much stock in any one of them. And though she didn't resort to threatening the mob with her "Mom-voice", an exasperated "Mom-look" occasionally took over her features:
Claire may be a little conservative for some here, but she was an early out for our President and has shown a lot of courage, standing up to these abusive crowds. When pressed to say how she would vote, "Yes or No", on the final bill, even though she had patiently explained to the idiots that there were three or more bills snaking their way through each chamber and we're a long way from having a bill, she would not answer definitively but strongly suggested she would support reform...much to half of the audience's displeasure. I myself am very proud of her and will remember her strength of character when re-election comes around.
After the meeting G. and I had a pleasant lunch with two of her friends, Sisters from her church, who supported the reform bill and were as appalled as we were at the rudeness of the crowd. And although Beck's hordes were likely at Shoney's at that very minute congratulating themselves on a job well done, I wonder what they would think if they knew what just these two kindly brides of Christ thought of their stupid antics...
As no trip to the Ozarks would be complete without some down-home music I will close with the folks from Bull Creek, just down the road a mite, "Big Smith" with a recording of their subject appropriate "Mockingbird".
"I reached up in a golden branch
To shake the fox grapes down.
A sacred song was in my mouth
But the mockingbird shouted me down--
That old mockingbird shouted me down. "
Bumper Stickers & MORE
