Carted off by Police, and in trouble again.  Before you see me on FOX NEWS or in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, let me tell you what REALLY happened at the Loebsack's Town Hall Meeting in Cedar Rapids that left me with a twisted knee and crying as I left the meeting.

There were over five hundred people at the meeting, more of them doctors and doctor's wives than I have seen in one place at one time anywhere except the medical society meetings at the Country Club.  As a former doctor's wife, many of my old friends waved and talked to me.  Susan Haupt and her husband Dr. David walked in with me, talking about horses.  Sue asked if I was here to raise a ruckus, as they were.  I said that I hoped I wouldn't have to.  So much for that.

The mood in the room was charged.  A few right-wingers started chanting, and health care reformers tried to out-shout them.  It seemed to be divided about evenly.  

I sat toward the front, with anti-reformists behind me, and to my right and in front were two large men.  The man beside me, Mr. Weems owner of Legacy Manufacturing was loudly vocalizing against everything Obama.  

 "I pay eighty employees and provide health insurance for them and this will make it so that I can't do that."

"Death sqads are mandated."  

"The government can't run anything...look at the post office...Amtrack..."  

I mention that the Post Office is privitized, as is Amtrack.  He and his friend yell at me, "NO  IT'S NOT." And they keep that up.  They keep yelling at me while I'm trying to write my question on the paper to be entered into the question lottery.

This whole thing makes me angry.  His yelling at me and being able to shout me down made me angry.  His yelling "Liar, liar," at Loebsack made me angry.  My former friends the doctors made me angry when they kept yelling at me about how they treated people with no health insurance all the time and didn't charge them.  If that were the norm, it would be great, but it's not the norm.  Even when we do have health insurance, we get charged, and the bills sent for Collection if they are not paid promptly where we are harrassed and harrassed until we pay.

You know how I feel about this health care system.  It's become a road to wealth for doctors, insurers, drug companies, hospital administrators, and medical equipment manufactures.  It has become a road to ruin for the common working person.

I was determined to stand my ground, but was definately being shouted down, so I put my sign in front of the Loud Man's face, so he grabbed it, and we strugged over the "Health Care for All," sign.  I pulled and couldn't get it away from him.  I was yelling at him as loud as I could, saying, "GIVE ME MY SIGN."  I pulled so hard that I fell on the floor and twisted my left knee.   I felt like stabbing the guy with my pen or taking a wild swing at him, but I didn't.  

The sign was the excuse, the anger was fear and intimidation.  I felt that as a woman against this white male establishment  there was no way I could communicate with  them my own frustration with the system, and that their shouting would always be louder than mine because they were/are stronger.  

My knee is starting to swell, and I feel hopeless to change this entrenched system that is only working for the VERY wealthy. 

Two police officers, a man and a woman pushed their way through the seated crowd, and asked me if I was okay, and what happened.  I told them I didn't really know  what happened.  The Shouting Man was still shouting and refusing to leave the auditorium when they asked him to.  When I made another reply to the Shouting Man's shouting, the female officer asked both of us to step outside the auditorium.  I immediately got up and went with her, leaving the male officer and the Shouting Man to follow.  

The officer pulled me away from the Shouting Man, who was still arguing, and I was replying.  She was firm about the rules of engagement.  She told me I could not use my sign to stop him, and that he could shout as much as he wanted and I could not interfere with his shouting.  After just a few minutes, she said if we could agree to stay out of each other's way, we could go back in to our seats beside each other.  We both agreed to stay out of each other's way, but neither of us would change seats.  I guess we are both stubborn idiots.

As we resumed our seats, a woman asked me HOW I was allowed to come back in!  I said to her, "We BOTH were."   A gray haired lady two rows up with a small sign that said simply,

CARE  FOR  EVERYONE

turned around in her chair and smiled at me. She kept asking me throughout the rest of the meeting if I was okay.  I said yes, and it was a good thing because I'd never get a doctor in this town again.

 The craziest thing about it is.....there were so many people on both sides of the aisle who asked me if I was okay after my fall.   

There were smiles and even hugs from total strangers.  Dr. Haupt stopped me and asked if I was hurt.  Several friends who I didn't see at first caught my eye and smiled and gave me a thumbs-up.

One young man said, "you're just passionate!"   He gave me a hug, and I accepted it.  I limped out of the auditorium.

In the hallway, another large man stopped me and said, "I don't agree with you, but I want to appologize for what happened in there.  It wasn't right."  

I said. "I just want everyone to be taken care of....I want us to all get along."    I'm afraid with the current media and entrenched political system we are constantly pitted against each other.  And I fell right into it.

Clark Reike was right.  I'm not a very good pacifist.  

As to the meeting itself, I was really impressed with Dave Loebsack and his staff.  

He maintained his cool, invited the disagreement.  

He said it was okay even if we were brought to the meeting by emails from our respective specail interest groups because that was the American Way.  

He accepted both boos and cheers and a standing ovation from his supporters with good grace and humor.  

He even allowed my Heckelers Buddy next to me to continue heckling him through the rest of the meeting.

The questions were selected from the basket AT RANDOM by members of the audience.  There were questions and statements from both sides of the disagreement.  

One other thing I am certain of:

No minds were changed.

No additional information was absorbed by either side, even when it was presented rationally.

It gave people a chance to blow off steam, but not in a way to reduce the pressure on the pressure cooker.  

I'm glad I went.  

My daughter Natalie was proud of me.  She believes in standing up for what is right.   And, I do too.  

"Care for Others," is right.