One of my state’s Senators, Arlen Specter, was approached at a town hall in Lebanon, PA (near my hometown of Harrisburg, Pa) by a constituent who was angry about…well, I don’t know what about. I am not just being a snide jerk about that either, I really can’t tell because the screaming citizen, Craig Anthony Miller, really is just scolding Arlen Specter. At the top of his lungs for not being allowed to speak at the town hall which he was allowed to speak at. Specter just lets him yell, and gets back to business.

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Instead of letting them chant, each congressperson who deals with this nonsense should calmly request that each on of them get the microphone. They will most likely scream like this while
spouting nonsense. Keep calm, stare them in the eye, respond with talking points or a punchline such as Specter did: “okay, okay, we just had a demonstration of Democracy”. Keep it moving. They are just showing up to scream, holler and disrupt. Not to discuss, debate and progress any kind of health care reform.

The Page’s Mark Halperin thinks its a disgrace that people are showing up and getting attention on TV by screaming, chanting and aren’t politely sitting with their hands folded, waiting their turn to read their rebuttals to the latest HR resolution or Finance Committee positions. I disagree, these disruptions are fine with me. Its free speech, annoying, but free. I want these people to get the microphone early, so they can freely ramble like Mr. Miller and prove themselves to be concerned about something other than health care. Then let other people speak up. Its an inconvenience, but some real change isn’t easy.

Jay-Z’s line on from the Takeover on The Blueprint sums it up best:

A wise man told me don’t argue with fools
Cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who