Organizing for America | Downingtown Health Care Reform: OFA at the National Constitution Center

Post from Downingtown Health Care Reform:

OFA at the National Constitution Center

By Bill of Downingtown - Aug 4th, 2009 at 9:50 am EDT

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Tags: listening, National Constitution Center, philadelphia, phone banking, sebelius, Specter, town hall

On Sunday, August 2, OFA in Chester County, PA had a busy day. First, we did phone banking for a few hours in West Chester. Then some of us travelled to the National Constitution Center for the Health Care Town Meeting with Senator Arlen Specter and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

That happened to be the day that over four inches of rain fell in the Delaware Valley, closing the Schuylkill Expressway. Our trip became a tour of the western suburbs.

We arrived in the Constitution Center just as the Senator and Secretary were being introduced. I was still on the ground floor, but I heard loud booing and jeering from the floor above. By the time I got to the area of the Town Hall I discovered this:

1. The acoustics of the meeting location were awful: high ceiling, very reflective surfaces, a booming sound. Unless you were right in front of one of the public address system speakers, you probably could not understand what was said. I moved around until I found a spot to listen.

2. There were a few noisy individuals who wanted to scream and boo but not listen. It was clear that they did not support health care change; it was not clear why. It was also clear that they were acting out of a dislike for Senator Specter and President Obama (and by extension his HHS Secretary) and that they did not know much about the bills currently before the Congress.

A loud group will gain more attention than a listening group, no matter what their relative sizes. But Senator Specter and Secretary Sebelius are veterans of public service: they know this. What we don’t want is for Senator Specter, in particular, to think that only the loud, negative people care.

Back to the phone banks. Join me, won’t you. Find an event at

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/search_simple?source=topnav

Thanks for coming!

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