My Account of Rep. Joe Courtney's (D-CT2) Town Hall Meeting

[Larkspur]

I sent an eyewitness account to Rachel Maddow, and because I don't have time to rewrite it for DU, I'm just going to post it here for you to read. Sorry no video yet. I hope to get a video camera next month.

Hi Rachel,

I attended Rep. Joe Courtney’s Healthcare Reform Town Hall Meeting last night. Sorry I don’t have a video, but I’ll give you a written statement about what I saw.

I arrived at the scenic Woodstock Academy, 57 Academy Rd, Woodstock, CT 06281 (www.woodstockacademy.org/ ; Link to Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&f=d&iwstate1=dir:to&daddr=57+Academy+Rd+Woodstock,+CT+06281&fb=1&geocode=5872035201659391815,41.951819,-71.976689&ei=e1Z6SvmeDqfEtgf5ysXdAQ&sa=X&oi=manybox&resnum=1&ct=16 ) just before 6:00 pm and the parking was still open but filling up fast.

There must have been about 75-100 people in the cafeteria, where the meeting was held, when I signed in at the desk in the entrance around 6:00 pm. Neighboring Democratic Town Committees (DTC) and the regional group The Quiet Corner Democrats got the word out to help support Rep. Courtney. We emailed the podcasts of your segment on how the Right Wing was organizing these bands of Disrupters to our individual DTC’s members and other Democrats.

When the meeting got underway at 6:30 pm, it was SRO in the cafeteria. It was very HOT in the cafeteria. No A/C and half the cafeteria is a sunroom so you can see the scenic vista but it also absorbed the day’s sunshine and heat. Yes, it was almost as hot as Hell in that cafeteria and with the “Teabaggers” it felt like we were not far from Satan’s domain.

The leader of the Quiet Corner Democrats had previously emailed the Chair of the Woodstock DTC the DailyKos diary Tea Baggers FAIL to disrupt Health Care meeting, lessons shared. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/4/761608/-Tea-Baggers-FAIL-to-disrupt-Health-Care-meeting,-lessons-shared.
The chair followed the advice in this diary. He wrote a short speech about the purpose of town hall meetings in New England’s history and warned the crowd that if they become unruly they will be asked to leave. The Chair had previously contacted the town’s constables, who were present at the meeting and dressed in a uniform. The state police had also been forewarned in case they were needed.

The chair also had the first 2 rows reserved for Courtney’s staff, Nancy Wyman, CT’s State Comptroller, and Woodstock DTC members. As the meeting got under way, Courtney had a 6 row buffer zone between him and the first row of “Teabaggers”. Woodstock’s chair also told his helpers not to relinquish control of the portable microphones to anyone.

The large contingent of union workers – the local carpenters union – and some from AFSCME were enough to outnumber and keep the Right Wingers who started to vocally try to take over the meeting in check. There were also many of us from neighboring DTC’s. I estimated that there were about 20-30, maybe at most 40 “Teabaggers” at this event. They were clearly outnumbered by the pro-healthcare reform supporters and they knew it.

Rep. Courtney did a fantastic job. He never once lost his cool, even when the same question was posed to him twice in a row, when the “Teabaggers” booed him or denounced his answers as lies. The union leaders were quick to use their baritone voices to quiet the “Teabaggers” and the Woodstock DTC chair kept reminding the “Teabaggers” to calm down. The “Teabaggers” had moments of boisterousness but they were never in a position to take over the meeting.

The fact that they mentioned MSNBC’s reporting about their movement shows that your investigative work into their movement and exposing it to the public, Rachel, is helping to rally local Democrats and our allies and put the “Teabaggers” on the defensive. These people and their corporate sponsors are simply bullies and the Democrats need to learn non-violent anti-bullying strategies. Outnumbering them and showing them that we will not tolerate their rude behavior is the most effective way. BTW, they did not mention you by name. They just referred to MSNBC in general.

In short the “Teabaggers” at this event regurgitated the corporate talking points against healthcare reform and the last questioner brought up illegal immigrants and healthcare reform, but none of them brought up Obama’s birth certificate. The meeting last night stayed on topic.

The Norwich Bulletin has a report on this meeting --
Emotions run high at health care talk in Woodstock: 350 attend contentious discussion on reform bill http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x1331800055/Emotions-run-high-at-health-care-talk-in-Woodstock

Local radio station WINY 1350AM http://www.winyradio.com also had a reporter at this event.

The Villager newspapers http://www.villagernewspapers.com too had a reporter at this event but that paper only prints once per week. They may print a story on it in next week’s edition or the following week’s at the latest.

Left wing group CT Citizen Action Group (CCAG) http://www.ccag.net had a member taking photos as well as member from CT’s Carpenter and Joiners Union http://www.ctcarpentersfunds.org/ccbf/main_07.htm . Check their websites for possible photos of this event or contact them about the photos.

The www.freenorwich.com has the Local Right Wing viewpoint and a short video.