Prescription for healthy debate: respect, civility
It's town hall season, as any online survey of the nation's newspapers will quickly and clearly reveal. Already this week, at least six members of Congress or the Senate have hosted live health care forums.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, takes a swing at health care reform tonight at Cal State Bakersfield's Icardo Center. More than half of the 3,800 seats are already spoken for.
Here's hoping McCarthy can keep the discussion usefully informational, on-topic and civil. In other words, better managed than recent meetings in other parts of the country.
Punches flew following Rep. Lamar Smith's town hall meeting near San Antonio Monday night -- and that wasn't even the most combative South Texas crowd assembled to discuss the issue. In an adjacent congressional district that same night, Rep. Charlie Gonzalez dealt with an audience that occasionally threatened to veer out of control.
And those crowds were only about a quarter of the the size of the audience McCarthy is expected to address.
Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey got a mix of cheers and boos at Rowan University Monday night, where some protesters ripped up signs handed out to the crowd of 800.
And an Arlington Heights, Ill., town hall meeting Monday afternoon had such impassioned debate, with overflow crowds chanting and carrying signs, that Rep. Mark Kirk was forced to schedule a second meeting.
Legislators in Kansas City; Murfreesboro, Tenn.; and Sun City, Ariz., also hosted events.
Reform advocates have been discussing skyrocketing health-care costs, denial of care, lack of portability and poor overall health outcomes in comparison to other countries. Opponents are overwhelmingly concerned about the perceived move toward socialized medicine, use of federal money to fund abortions, malpractice tort reform, rationing of care and the overall cost of the proposed bills.
Expect many of the same topics tonight. Hope and pray the debate is tempered with respect and appreciation for civility.
