Civil Discourse

I went to the OFA press conference in support of healthcare reform outside Mary Landrieu's office earlier today.

We were rudely received by a phalanx of tea-baggers from the 'Baton Rouge Tea Party,' who I guess represent Mary Landrieu's base now (and I'm only sort of kidding).

I have got to say, these people are out of their effing minds.

Even liberal-ole-me will concede that there are some occasionally reasonable conservatives out in the world (sometimes they'll leave comments on this blog) but the folks that came out to protest this press conference were for the most part, well, crazy.

There's nothing quite like having a middle-aged woman scream in your face that you're a socialist communist at ten in the morning.

"You guys don't care about freedom."

"Barack Obama is taking our way of life."

They shouted over speeches by OFA's Steven Walker and Rep. Karen Carter Peterson, which I guess is fair game.

But when they continued heckling a volunteer speaker who offered a personal story of breast cancer survival and the difficulty of obtaining insurance as a carrier of Crohn's disease, well, I was disgusted.

Then, of course, there was the middle-aged white woman who deemed it appropriate to inform a couple of African American volunteers from SEIU that they were "lucky to be here."

But my favorite teabagger comment came from a woman standing right behind me who said:

"My brother pays $1,000 a month for health insurance and he doesn't complain."

I've been chuckling at that one all day long.

I have to also admit that I was a little bit humbled by the conduct of the progressive press conference attendees who exhibited near excessive patience with some of the protesters, sticking around to answer their questions and to try to engage them in a reasonable discourse.

I certainly will not talk to anyone that screams in my face that I'm a communist socialist or a freedom-hater or whatever because I want universal healthcare.

One older African American woman was walking away from a heated discussion with one of these people and smiled at me.

"How can you not forgive them? They're crazy."

I laughed. That's probably the right attitude.