They wanted a town hall discussion on health care, and they were considerably irritated that Campbell chose to express his disagreement by ignoring a hearty cross-section of his own constituents who have been seeking such an event.
Crowd-surfing turned up some other surprises. There was, for example, quite remarkable decorum.
The marchers who favored a public option in choosing their health care occupied three corners of an intersection below the building housing Campbell’s office.
Opponents to this position occupied the fourth corner, and there was very little interchange. Both sides stayed on their own turf and shouted.
I saw only one incident that could have turned ugly. Two young men, one in a suit, the other in a T-shirt, charged across the street to challenge a doctor in medical white who was being interviewed by a reporter from ABC.
While the man in the suit tried to offer rational arguments, the T-shirt got in the face of several people surrounding the doctor, and a police officer who had been watching finally decided it was time to break it up.
I moved along to the doctor, whose name was Lawrence Levin and who said he practiced in Orange. He further said that “the federal government understands our problems.
“There is a need to grow in order to include all patients and to eliminate the high profits in the health-care industries. We’ll get to a single-payer system within 20 years because there is no other way. We can’t afford not to.”
