Sarasota Health News

Editor's notebook, Sept. 11

David Gulliver - posted 12 am Friday, Sept. 11, 2009

In my last column, I wrote about why I passed up on going to Rep. Vern Buchanan's town hall meeting on healthcare reform. So why am I planning to attend today's meeting in Sarasota?

In part, it's because this meeting has been better publicized, through the grassroots networks of both supporters and opponents of reform. That means we're less likely to see another round of preaching to the choir. The crowd may be more polite, the attitudes less likely to snowball into anger and name-calling. We might even see a discussion.

Then again, with two sets of people with strong and diametrically opposed views, it may get even uglier than before. It could be a hell of a story, especially for the television crews. But no matter what you think of the media, I'm actually hoping that doesn't happen. And that's why I hope to be there.

I'm hoping -- in vain, probably, but hoping nonetheless -- that people listened to President Obama on Wednesday night. I'm hoping not that they were persuaded by an evocative speech that was disappointingly short on key details, but that they heard just one sentence, late in the speech:

"When we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter, at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges, we lose something essential about ourselves."

Regardless of how you feel about healthcare reform, we all should be able to agree on that.

---

The town hall meeting is at 5:30 p.m. at the VanWezel Center in Sarasota. Doors open at 4 p.m., but an overflow crowd is likely and people hoping to speak should arrive as early as possible.





	Editor's notebook, Sept. 11 David Gulliver - posted 12 am Friday, Sept. 11, 2009 In my last column, I wrote about why I passed up on going to Rep. Vern Buchanan's town hall meeting on healthcare reform. So why am I planning to attend today's meeting in Sarasota? In part, it's because this meeting has been better publicized, through the grassroots networks of both supporters and opponents of reform. That means we're less likely to see another round of preaching to the choir. The crowd may be more polite, the attitudes less likely to snowball into anger and name-calling. We might even see a discussion. Then again, with two sets of people with strong and diametrically opposed views, it may get even uglier than before. It could be a hell of a story, especially for the television crews. But no matter what you think of the media, I'm actually hoping that doesn't happen. And that's why I hope to be there. I'm hoping -- in vain, probably, but hoping nonetheless -- that people listened to President Obama on Wednesday night. I'm hoping not that they were persuaded by an evocative speech that was disappointingly short on key details, but that they heard just one sentence, late in the speech: "When we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter, at that point we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges, we lose something essential about ourselves." Regardless of how you feel about healthcare reform, we all should be able to agree on that. --- The town hall meeting is at 5:30 p.m. at the VanWezel Center in Sarasota. Doors open at 4 p.m., but an overflow crowd is likely and people hoping to speak should arrive as early as possible.