The longer I carried the question the heavier it weighed on me. Once inside I meticulously hand-copied my question onto the required form for the nice local lady from the Republican Women's group and then had her double-check to make sure the writing was legible.
Then, as the sprinkling picked up to a drizzling, I went back to the corner of Gates and Stockton Hill Road, the access most would take to Trent Franks' "Come to Jesus and Learn to Hate Healthcare meeting and I set up my protest. Before long rain blew so hard it melted some people's signs and streamed from the bill of my "Impeach Bush ball cap. I stood with a war hero, two mothers and their teen children. And it rained.
We didn't plan anything and nobody told us what to do. We were there, to quietly convey our messages to the stream of cars that filled the church parking lot. One of my signs read "Insure Domestic Tranquility " Promote the General Welfare " These Are the Real American Values. The other said "Why Does the GOP Keep Selling Us Fear, Greed, & Hate? The occasionally gushing winds tossed them about a bit; but not so much even the gray haired read them well enough to flash me a feeble finger.
Meanwhile as the rain poured, I practiced my question.
Earlier that day I'd poured over Franks' voting record as detailed at Vote Smart, a website Franks somehow failed to recommend when a pro-Franks constituent asked about a good place to check that glorious voting record during that Saturday afternoon church revival, occasionally billed as a townhall meeting. Franks also couldn't seem to mention Congress.org another less complete but well regarded source for congressional info used by millions across America. Franks' lack of answer on that question was telling. That question had come from one of his fans, not me. My question was this:
"Mr. Franks, you are part of the same crowd who sold us the George Bush Administration with its WMD deception that led to the deaths of over a million people, that sold us tax cuts which created massive deficits, which have crippled our economy, which sold us the stripping of American liberties in the name of security. As a millionaire you have worked very hard to help the wealthy at the expense of the many and that appears to be what you are doing now. When our healthcare system is the most expensive in the world with worst record among developed countries for actually helping the sick and the poor, here you are, feverously working to spend more on weapons, but not on saving lives. My question for you is this: with such a long and distinguished record of doing what is wrong for America, why should we trust you now?
Well, that's the way it was supposed to go, anyway. As duly reported in the Mohave Valley Daily News, I was more or less drowned out by booing shortly after the WMD deception clause. To their credit both Rep. Franks and the reporter from the Kingman Daily Miner did their best to follow me through the yelling. Here's what KDM's Suzanne Adams thought I asked:
"Rep. Franks, you're part of the same group that during the Bush administration sold us on weapons of mass destruction, tax cuts that led to massive debts and the stripping of American liberties in the name of so called security. Right now we have a health industry that works against taking care of its citizens and you're working to maintain that status quo. Why should we trust you now?"
Which is accurate enough for me. I couldn't even hear my own speaking. The nice Republican ladies, the who'd seen to it I got a turn with a question after watching me hold my hand up for about 30 minutes, suddenly, and understandably, turned fire-eyed, somewhere around the line about tax cuts and deficits, she leaned into me so fast I pulled back a bit. "You've got one minute, she whispered just above a hiss.
With that kind of noise and hatred around you, a minute is a very long time. I don't think I lasted twenty seconds.
This was after we'd already witnessed the "good citizens of Kingman amble on prefacing their questions for paragraphs detailing the prestige of their own backgrounds, the glories of their faith in Mr. Franks and Jesus, or the umpteen ways they, personally more than anyone else in the whole world, know Obama has no birth certificate.
As if a dream came true, I actually got my question asked. At least this one part of America worked this one time like they teach us to believe in schools. And, for an instant Franks flinched. But, it turned out his answer was better still.
(Next, PART 2: "Rev. Right's Hell House: The 33 Minute Hate)
--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
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