When President Obama visited New Hampshire for a town hall meeting on health care recently, Westville resident David Sepulveda was there with his family. He sent in this report on the competing rallies outside the meeting:
We had been watching televised reports about the anti-healthcare movement and its attendant misinformation, propaganda, and vitriol with growing concern.
When we learned that Obama would be holding a Town Hall meeting on healthcare in nearby Portsmouth, New Hampshire, our deliberations were short and sure. We packed and headed off in an uncharacteristic burst of spontaneity. Portsmouth had been on our shortlist of “staycations” and the idea of joining the national debate at the grassroots proved irresistible even though we lacked the coveted tickets to get inside. My wife Priscilla, a cancer survivor, wondered where we would have been without the health care coverage afforded by my job (a Stamford teacher), and what happens to people who don’t have coverage. “I might have died” she reflected.
Arrival at our hotel in Portsmouth left us with just enough time to fashion a couple of placards (Heathcare reform:YES WE WILL, and YES to Healthcare Reform, NO to FEAR and Lies) for the following morning. It was a short drive from “The Golden Egg” where we fortified ourselves with a hearty breakfast for a long day at Portsmouth High School, site of the Town Hall meeting. We parked several blocks away and followed the crowds – a palpable energy in the air. “Get ready for the gauntlet” cautioned an Obama supporter outside school grounds. This added to the sense of foreboding my daughter, Kara, had experienced after viewing some of the intense behavior reported at town hall meetings across the country.
As we walked up the long road toward Stone gymnasium, the crowd thickened and the chants more became audible. The wide road had been divided into two clear camps- appropriately, those on the left supporting Obama’s health care initiatives, and those on the right side, looking for any reason to oppose the President. Signs of “Obama lies…Grandma dies”, “Nobama Deathcare”, and “Elderly against Obamacare and Socialism” were the first to greet us. Sign holders were anxious to engage, and one, violating my wife’s personal space, incredulously shouted, “Why should I pay for you?” We quickly ambled to the other side of the road where signs reflected our own perspective: “Reform Now, insure people -NOT Profits” as rhythmic sounds of African Drumming assured that we were in the correct camp.
Among the most notable signs for me, was “Euthanize Ignorance- Go Obama.” The more graphically interesting, but offensive signs, included an image of Obama with a Hitler mustache. “I’ve changed” it read, the young black man holding it showing no visible signs of irony. Another topical sign picturing Obama as Keith Ledger’s Joker character read, “Trash this Clunker.”
An amalgam of special interest groups including those concerned with Global warming and a Nurse’s union, joined chants of “Everybody in-nobody out” and were met with short bursts of “NO-bama Care!” from the other side of the road. Meanwhile, ticket holders cordoned off by yellow police tape, peacefully entered the auditorium to hear the President in what proved to be a relatively peaceful and respectful Town Hall meeting- an anamoly in the raging discourse spreading around the nation like a bad virus. Our afternoon was topped off by a fleeting glimpse of President Obama as his motorcade sped off in a flash of fluttering flags and blinking lights. The sight-seeing would have a tough act to follow.
Read no further biased report ahead. "We had been watching televised reports about the anti-healthcare movement and its attendant misinformation, propaganda, and vitriol with growing concern."