Wednesday, September 2, 2009

We Can't Afford to Wait Vigil

Mrs. G conned wheedled threatened gave me 'the look' convinced me I should accompany her this evening to Truckee Regional Park for a candlelight vigil for health care reform sponsored by the local MoveOn folks. I think so far there's 27 people signed up to attend. It's a small town.

'Candlelight vigils' always struck me as being held for missing and deceased people. Hmmmm. Maybe health care reform qualifies at that.

I'm not really expecting any birthers/deathers/racists/wingtard assholes to try and disrupt the event, but I dug out my old gloves with the pennies sewn into the backs of the fingers and knuckles just in case. Mrs. G talked me outta taking them though. That's an illegal weapon that could land me in the clink. She just said to use my bare hands and purity of heart.

I couldn't find very much on this event to link to. Might be able to tomorrow. I hope my name isn't in it. I'll let ya know how it goes.

Update:

The vigil went pretty smooth. A coupla Dead Enders showed up with stupid signs like "RIP Mary Jo Kopechne" and some other wingtard BS about tort reform and "fear Obamacare" and stuff like that. Maybe three people. They didn't shout or try to disrupt things.

The only thing even close to an incident involved a pro-Bush asshole and a bigger, younger guy than me. They got into it verbally a little, not even really very loud. After a few seconds a woman in the crowd told them they were being rude and disrespecting the speaker and to shut up, and they did. Given the tone of her voice, I would have too!

The whole deal was like an open air AA meeting. A few people, all ladies, told the crowd their health care horror stories and how we need health care reform right effin' now, which I think we all know.

One of the Dead End Quarter reps went and whispered in the lady's ear who was running things. I don't know what he said, but I think he was asking for mic time because the next thing she said that we could hear through the speaker was to the effect of "If you have a different point of view, that's fine, but get your people together and have your own event. This is our time." Good for her.

The most exciting moment involved the lady sitting next to us. She had a candle with a Dixie cup around it to catch the wax and the cup caught fire. I had a nice chat with her old man. He was from Massachusetts, called himself a conservative, said he'd never voted Repuglican in his life, and that all our country's problems were caused by 'the haters' and big money. Who was I to argue?

There were maybe forty people showed up and it lasted about an hour. Buncha reg'lar folks. Nothing substantial got accomplished, but I'm glad I went.

And yes, I went ready for anything. I had a little flashlight about the size and weight of a roll of quarters, if you know what I mean. Lit it a coupla times.

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