Ignorance invades Honeoye Falls, a Town Hall report
I just returned as well - a huge crowd and like Ladkiddo said, “WOW.” Lots of people wanting to be heard. Massa stayed well past the scheduled departure time to speak with anyone who wanted to be heard.
I will have some video at some point, but an overview is simply this - there was a whole lot of ignorance at the meeting. I use the term “ignorance” because it seemed many of the questions originated from fiction not fact. A lot of folks were not familiar with the bill and this is true of folks on both the left and right. The local left appears to be coming to its senses- the right? Well that will depend.
Let’s start with the opening question (paraphrased) ” I want to fix what is wrong with government, Health Care isn’t a real issue, I don’t know of anyone who can’t get access to Health Care today”
Then, there was the Abortion provision (sorry illegal under current Federal Law), that the government is going to raid your bank account, that the government can’t run anything but we like Medicare, lack of understanding of tort law - how it works (it isn’t federal it is state). There were lots of those types of questions.
Ladkiddo remarked to me early tonight and in her post - that first you have to get through the stupid questions before you can make progress - Well I must say that Massa delivered - he didn’t lose his cool, answered each and every question, regardless if they were reality based or not. I mean, he answered the questions and stated his position. Over and over in different ways. The hecklers were handled quite well. Even when the venom spewed as Nancy Pelosi’s name was mentioned.
There were two women who were interviewed at end of the evening. Their story should appear in the news tomorrow - bottom line they disagreed with Massa on some policy issues, but were quite impressed with the way he conducted himself throughout the evening. What does this anecdote mean? Well, people like those women can be reached - that is what Massa does - speaks with Constituents not talks at them.
So the teabaggers were out in force, heckled away and frankly didn’t make the impact they they wanted to make. Massa didn’t miss a step or fall off stride. Those who came to the meeting to listen and learn were not disappointed.
That’s it for now. It was a long day.
You can read Rottenchester’s take here. Depending on schedule tomorrow, I’ll scour local news reports.
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