I also object to the characterization of the Obama plan as “socialized medicine.” I would waaay prefer to keep my employer-offered insurance, but I have been without insurance in the past, and state health programs were the only help I had; I don't want to discount them. Further, I think a government option would help keep the insurance companies honest. They are the real villains here, and a little competition would do them, and us, a world of good.

I'm not sure that it is fair to say that anyone's calm questions have been ignored. From what I've read and seen, Townhall = fight. I would understand the anger more if I actually saw or read of examples of Townhall or other meetings where more conservative viewpoints have been quashed. If you know of any examples of this, I'm sincerely interested and hope you might be able to direct me to the stories.

“Racially questionable rhetoric” may be an extreme way of putting it, but I'm troubled by the preponderance of older white people at these demonstrations, and the characterizations of Obama as a Nazi, a Muslim, a non-citizen, a terrorist, etc. It just seems to me to be a continuation of similarly troubling language during the campaign. In my opinion, it seems to be somewhat racially motivated. We may just have to disagree on that point.

As an aside, were you not troubled that that gentleman in NH was allowed anywhere near a Presidential meeting with a loaded weapon, and equipped with a sign suggestive of assassination? (I don't think he was painting Obama as a “patriot” in the Jefferson quote, do you?)

I'm sorry, but I will complain about these people's behavior; it goes somewhat beyond yelling. It is overtly and overly confrontational and more effectively quashes the dialogue you rightly want to defend than I've seen any Dems do. But that is my opinion. I must disagree, also that I haven't looked very deeply into this issue. I read up on it every day; we may disagree, but please don't dispute my genuine interest.

Thanks very much for your courteous reply.

I agree with you that we should be able to have calmly presented, genuine questions, and constructive suggestions.
BUT, the calm comments are ignored. We end up with this “emergency” with Congress wanting to RUSH something through that is over 1,000 pages long, that we can't even seem to agree with each other on what it really states.

“Racially questionable rhetoric”? Explain please.

And if that's all you've seen, you haven't looked very deep. There are lots of genuine, regular, average American people who have legitimate complaints, questions, and concerns, that get ignored, minimized, ridiculed, insulted & threatened. When you do that to people over & over, what do you think that pushes them to?

And no, I do not advocate violence or mobs. But when you ignore people when they're “polite”, don't complain when they start yelling.

The anger we are seeing at these town hall meetings is not “manufactured”. It is real anger. The politicians (from both sides) don't listen to us when we call them or email them. So what else do they expect? The anger & shouting is in response to their condescending remarks, their insults towards people trying to voice their opinions.

Interesting how Pelosi and like-minded individuals resort to name-calling, insults, lies (instead of acknowledging these are real Americans with real concerns who are fed up & sick of being ignored), and trying to say it's “not representative of America”. They do that instead of talking about the ISSUES.

The angry Americans who are showing up at the town hall meetings ARE representative of one part of America. Those who support Obama's plan are representative of another part of America. We are both Americans with differing views. Stop villifying the people whose views are different than your's. And that goes for both sides!

If the representatives would actually listen to ALL people, and respond sincerely, instead of form letters and condescending remarks, they wouldn't see so much anger.

It's very hypocritical to complain about people getting angry and voicing their opinions, if you want to be able to do the same.
Let's have some intelligent conversation.
Let's put our heads together and figure out some alternative solutions to the problems in our current health care system, and yes there are some. But socialized medicine is not the answer. Why does Obama's bill have to be the only answer? It doesn't have to be.

I also object to the characterization of the Obama plan as “socialized medicine.” I would waaay prefer to keep my employer-offered insurance, but I have been without insurance in the past, and state health programs were the only help I had; I don't want to discount them. Further, I think a government option would help keep the insurance companies honest. They are the real villains here, and a little competition would do them, and us, a world of good.

I'm not sure that it is fair to say that anyone's calm questions have been ignored. From what I've read and seen, Townhall = fight. I would understand the anger more if I actually saw or read of examples of Townhall or other meetings where more conservative viewpoints have been quashed. If you know of any examples of this, I'm sincerely interested and hope you might be able to direct me to the stories.

“Racially questionable rhetoric” may be an extreme way of putting it, but I'm troubled by the preponderance of older white people at these demonstrations, and the characterizations of Obama as a Nazi, a Muslim, a non-citizen, a terrorist, etc. It just seems to me to be a continuation of similarly troubling language during the campaign. In my opinion, it seems to be somewhat racially motivated. We may just have to disagree on that point.

As an aside, were you not troubled that that gentleman in NH was allowed anywhere near a Presidential meeting with a loaded weapon, and equipped with a sign suggestive of assassination? (I don't think he was painting Obama as a “patriot” in the Jefferson quote, do you?)

I'm sorry, but I will complain about these people's behavior; it goes somewhat beyond yelling. It is overtly and overly confrontational and more effectively quashes the dialogue you rightly want to defend than I've seen any Dems do. But that is my opinion. I must disagree, also that I haven't looked very deeply into this issue. I read up on it every day; we may disagree, but please don't dispute my genuine interest.

Thanks very much for your courteous reply.

I agree with you that we should be able to have calmly presented, genuine questions, and constructive suggestions.
BUT, the calm comments are ignored. We end up with this “emergency” with Congress wanting to RUSH something through that is over 1,000 pages long, that we can't even seem to agree with each other on what it really states.

“Racially questionable rhetoric”? Explain please.

And if that's all you've seen, you haven't looked very deep. There are lots of genuine, regular, average American people who have legitimate complaints, questions, and concerns, that get ignored, minimized, ridiculed, insulted & threatened. When you do that to people over & over, what do you think that pushes them to?

And no, I do not advocate violence or mobs. But when you ignore people when they're “polite”, don't complain when they start yelling.