Attended Rep. Eric Massa’s Town Hall meeting at Victor High School Auditorium this afternoon/evening. Quite a crowd! I brought fliers for our upcoming “Freedom Flicks” movie night (a 7:00 pm showing of ‘Fiat Empire’) at The German House Theatre Sept. 10 and managed to distribute about 400. Most people were receptive and I was surprised how many had already heard about it.
I arrived around 4:30, an hour before the scheduled start. Grabbing a spot by the main entrance, I found it tough sledding at first. The early arrivals were predominantly supporters of Mr. Massa and his positions. There was a tight lipped determination about them as they strode through quickly looking neither left or right. The offer of a “Free Movie” brought few smiles to their faces. Knowing that they’ve been outnumbered at these events, there seemed an effort to fill the hall as best they could before the arrival of what the media has been describing as “the angry mob”. And arrive they did. There was a steady line of cars snaking slowly onto the campus for well over an hour. When the lots were full they parked up and down High Street. These folks were generally much more receptive and smiling to my offer. Once inside people lined the hallways with no hope of gaining entrance to the overflowing room. They could not hear or see what was happening but they weren’t leaving. Through their presence alone they were willing the course of the debate.
This feels to me like there is much more than health care at play here. Lost jobs, missing pensions, cuts to Social Security, trillion dollar bailouts with no accountability, “hate crime” bills infringing on constitutionally guaranteed free speech, government takeover of the auto industry among others, a continuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with looming wars in Pakistan and Iran, amnesty, spending money that we do not have saddling our children’s children with a debt burden they will never be able to repay, has energized the people in way we have not seen before.
I left at 6:45 and went back to work for a bit. Watched the news at 11:00 with footage from inside the Auditorium.
It seems the sleeping giant has awakened.
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