it's been awhile

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. A little thing called life got in the way, but rest assure I am back. I'm still politically active, this time I am trying to get active on the local level since as of tonight, I am officially surrounded by wingnuts.

I could get into more about healthcare, but instead I am going to focus on the town hall meeting I went to tonight with my Congressman Frank Pallone. I don't support Pallone 100% but overall I think he's a good guy to represent me in Congress. He's responsible for one of the first bills that President Obama signed expanding the SCHIP health insurance program for children. This is the same bill that Bush vetoed. I also love Pallone's positions on environmental issues, particularly offshore drilling (my hot-button NIMBY issue). And considering how conservative parts of this county can be, I am very thankful to have a great Congressman like Pallone because I could live 2 miles south and have a complete nutjob.

Tonight was the first time I've gone to a political event where I felt outnumbered, not only politically but also demographically. At one point, I felt like I was the youngest person in the room/line. Now I've seen some of the town hall footage on TV and heard Randi Rhodes and Thom Hartmann go off on this astroturf movement. I just never realized that in such a blue state that I would be caught in the middle of it. I had some great signs from the healthcare rally on the Belmar boardwalk the other day, and duplicated a few of them. For bringing those signs I was personally attacked and called every four letter word in the book.

I also thought that an event like a town hall type meeting would turn into a zoo. My father's career requires him to go to several town meetings, and not once has he told me about one that turned into anarchy. I guess I'm an idiot for believing that civilization and Republicans belong in the same sentence. They outnumbered us what it seemed to be 10-1. Since nobody would go with me, I clung to the few other Democrats there because I figured there is safety in numbers. However I am not that loud, and unlike many of these teabaggers (now there's a name-- I wonder if they consulted urbandictionary.com before they thought that one up!), I was taught manners growing up, and used them. I was told to never speak out of turn, and not to shout. A room full of unsupervised preschoolers would have been better behaved than this bunch.

I wanted to take this opportunity to get to know my representation in Congress and learn how he felt about key issues. Pallone's twitter feed (twitter is one of my latest addictions) shows that he is willing to fight the GOP on the issue of the public option (I would rather see single payer) and that he's willing to fight with fire. I was expecting a little more tonight, but I guessed a miked Congressman does not speak louder than screaming teabaggers.

To any Republicans, I will happily debate healthcare with you if you are willing to have a civilized discussion.

And as far as exercising my Democratic right to meet with my Congressman, I will have to schedule an in-person meeting instead.