I went to a Town Hall meeting here (near Philly), and I am not paid, not a Republican, nor am I a supporter of this Health Care Reform bill. There was no violence, not much shouting, and there was a respectful audience who disagreed with our Congressman—a Democrat, who wasn’t pleased with our questions, comments nor presence as dissenters. She made it known that she thought that we were a “rent-a-mob” and THAT made a lot of people very unhappy. Instead of screaming and shouting—although one man did shout at her—we all walked out. I didn’t come with anyone, wasn’t responding to a call to come to a TH, but I did go away with some new acquaintances with whom I found a lot of common ground, much to my surprise—they were young, middle aged and seniors—some Republicans, some Democrats, and several who said they were Independents. We exchanged telephone numbers and e-mail addresses and vowed to keep in touch and turn up the heat on this smug, self-righteous congresswoman. We won’t be voting for her again—ever—and we will be coming back to any TH meetings she calls—and writing letters—real letters. I don’t like to be characterized as part of the lunatic fringe—none of us are in the lunatic fringe, that I could see. Not only is it unfair, this name calling DOES make me mad and I can see how it can push me into expressing it in ways I don’t consider civil. I don’t want to do that, but I can see this may, indeed, happen in the future, if our representatives continue to behave in this way. Oh, and by the way, I AM in a union—and have never picketed or carried signs of protest anywhere. There were ACORN people at this meeting—and union people in self-identifying tee-shirts—and these union people were big people—with their arms folded across their chests in many cases, and standing against the wall watching us. One ACORN rep had a video camera—and when someone from the audience asked what she was filming—the ACORNette refused to answer and kept the camera on him until he got up and left. This ignorant “filmmaker” then snickered and spoke to another ACORN person standing next to her. This is very, very scary, lizards.