Paul.Gullixson: August 2009 Archives

But, in the end, it was great theater

It was boisterous.  At times it was vulgar and borderline abusive. But above all, Rep. Lynn Woolsey's town hall meeting this evening at the Petaluma Veterans Memorial Hall was authentic.

In an aged of scripted TV debates and overly orchestrated political events, it was also refreshing. How often do you get this many people together to cheer or jeer passionately about something, something other than a sporting event?

The fact is I've been to Dodger-Giant games that were far less rowdy - and far less interesting.

It's good to see people so fired up.

Some of you who were there may disagree with me, like the woman behind me who said, with about 30 minutes left, "This is useless" and soon got up with her friend and left.

Yes, sometimes people were disrespectful. More than once, the speaker had to say something like "Please, let me finish." But it was a self-regulating crowd. Those who sought to disrupt were shushed into submission. There were some brief shouting matches, some expletives exchanged and lots of grandstanding. But there were no fisticuffs. Nothing was thrown, and no one stormed the stage or pulled any pointless stunts.

Once, someone below me tried to unfurl a large banner in front of a row of people but someone pulled it down and motioned to a police officer. The banner was quickly put away before the officer could get close. I counted seven police officers in all, and not once did I see any of them confront anyone during the evening.

Some in attendance clearly came just to be confrontational. But that was not the majority. Most were real people debating real issues with real impact on lives. Some of the 30 or so people who were lucky enough to have a turn at the microphone were really angry and/or afraid with what is happening -  from the Marin County Presbyterian minister who said her brother died for a lack of health insurance, to the North Bay businesswoman who's angry that of the 1,300 health insurers in the nation, she can only choose from the six that are allowed to operate in California.

This was, for the most part, compelling.

It was also unbelievably crowded.

I arrived 40 minutes early, to find the parking lot full and drivers parking along the sides of Petaluma Boulevard. I ended up parking a quarter-mile away before scrambling inside just in time to get one of the last single seats available, one up high in the grandstands.

"Is that seat next to you taken," I asked a man with an American flag on his cap.

"It depends on what persuasion you are," he said smiling.

I told him I was "Californian," which I guess sufficed, and soon found myself seated among a group of conservatives, strong opponents to Obamacare. But most of them were kind and respectful throughout the event.

"I hope there's no silliness tonight," said the man with the cap who identified himself as Mark from Freestone. He was a stay-at-home dad who was homeschooling his children.  "I hope people are respectful and listen to one another."

By 5:30 p.m., the hall was at capacity. Fifteen minutes later, the overflow room was full as well. Police said attendance was about 1,000. But I'm estimating the main hall held at least that many, with another 300 or so in the overflow room. The average age was probably north of 55.

When Woolsey went to the podium at 6 p.m. half the crowd cheered loudly while a third to a half booed. It was fairly balanced, at least in volumne. 

"We love you, Lynn" someone shouted.

"Go home," a woman near me called.

"Heil Hitler," someone shouted as Woolsey talked about a "public option."

It would go back and forth like this for most of the evening.

"What is more important to you," one speaker pleaded with the reform opponents in the crowd, "you money or your children's lives?"

"Our liberty," someone shouted.

By 8 p.m. the event was over and nobody had any lasting scars. Woolsey, for her part, performed admirably. Although her answers didn't shed any particularly new light on the subject, she was straight forward and, give her credit, outspoken in her support for the creation of a "public option" insurance carrier.

"I'm just so disappointed how close-minded and disrespectful some people were," said Santa Rosa architect Mark Quattrocchi, who was somewhat less sanguine than I was as the room emptied. Moments earlier, he had tried to engage a reform opponent in a discussion about why he supported a public option. But the woman shouted him down, accused him of looking for a "handout" from government and walked away.  "That's really not my interest," he said. "I'm simply interested in providing better health care than we have now" for his 44 employees.

"It wasn't the Norman Rockwell town hall meeting that I was expecting," said Quattrocchi.

No. It was more authentic - and perhaps raw - than that.

- Paul Gullixson 

Capitol Weekly columnist says state senator's health issues were "no secret."

Here's an interesting read:

Malcolm Maclachlan, a staff reporter for Capitol Weekly, said in a column today that this week's decision by state Sen. Pat Wiggins not to seek re-election took few in Sacramento by surprise. He says her health issues were "no secret." He uses the column to take a well-deserved shot at the Capitol's code of silence on issues like this.

"Around the Capitol, the Wiggins announcement was greeted with a sense of inevitability. Wiggins' health was one of the issues in the Capitol that was informally off limits," Maclachlan writes. "It's no accident that the story that preceded her eventual announcement was not written by a Capitol beat reporter but, rather, by a reporter based in Santa Rosa."
(Here he gives credit to The Press Democrat story on Friday by Derek Moore.)

"The details of Wiggins' deteriorating health is just the latest example of this Capitol code of conduct that is, depending on one's point of view, either a deceitful reminder of the cliquishness of the Capitol community or an example of one of the last personal boundaries to exist in the current media age."

He writes, "Wiggins is the latest in a series of lawmakers who, suffering illness or debilitation, have been protected by their staffs."

He also noted the case of former state Sen. Carole Migden whose behavior " had become increasingly erratic, ultimately culminating in a May 2007 reckless driving incident that ended in an accident causing two injuries and ultimately cost the state a $335,000 settlement. Midgen blamed the events on medication from an undisclosed case of leukemia. Despite all these problems, Senate Democrats circled the wagons around Midgen . . ."

To read his column in full, click here.

- Paul Gullixson

But don't expect any Sonoma County town hall meetings on health care in the near future

In an editorial Wednesday headlined "Town talk", we called on Reps. Lynn Woolsey and Mike Thompson to hold a town hall meeting on health care for our readers. Given the importance of the subject - and the overwhelming response to our online health discussion on Tuesday - "it wouldn't hurt our congressional representatives to live on the edge a little, plan a town hall meeting and hear what North Bay residents have to say."

Thompson's spokeswoman Laurel Brown called to complain, saying she felt the editorial was unfair and didn't give Thompson credit for the health care meetings he has held. She pointed out that he held a town hall meeting in Covelo on Aug. 4 and participated in three health care forums in Yolo County (all sponsored by other organizations) on Aug. 5 and one in Napa on Aug. 3, which also was sponsored and organized by a community group. In addition, he has held two town hall meetings by conference call. (All of these were mentioned in an earlier news story on the subject.)

I pointed out that the editorial referred to Thompson's and Woolsey's conference calls, but that the point of the editorial is that residents of Sonoma County - our primary readership area - have not been able to attend a face-to-face town hall meeting with one of their Congressional representatives. Covelo and Sea Ranch (where Woolsey held a public meeting for two hours last week) are not exactly accessible to most of our readers.

Any chance one may occur in the future? Brown only said that nothing was planned. A Woolsey staffer I talked to on Wednesday said the same thing.

- Paul Gullixson 

According to our latest informal online poll, 65 percent of PD readers said they were worried that the 70-bed hospital Sutter Health has proposed building near the Wells Fargo Center -- to replace the existing 135-bed facility on Chanate Road - would be too small to meet the area's health care needs.

In the same poll, 80 percent of respondents said they believed the county needs to find a way to reopen the county landfill on Mecham Road and stop trucking its garbage - averaging 65 truck trips a day - as far away as Solano County and the East Bay. But they are divided over whether to sell the landfill to a private company.

What do you think? We invite you to take the survey and leave you're own comments. Click here.

If you would like to join our e-mail list of readers who are invited to take these periodic surveys, please send me your name and address at paul.gullixson@pressdemocrat.com. We've got about 1,400 people on our e-mail list right now.

- Paul Gullixson

North Coast Assemblyman Jared Huffman may be first legislator to go on record supporting a constitutional convention

Although 10 days have passed since the governor signed an amended budget, the state controller hasn't stopped issuing IOUs.

As Assemblyman Jared Huffman told us during a meeting with the Press Democrat Editorial Board this morning, the IOUs are costing the state $25 million a day.

The controller cannot stop issuing IOUs until he determines that a budget signed into law provides all the money necessary to help the state pay its bills. Given the gimmicks in this revised spending plan, that's a tough call.

In addition, it's unclear - possibly unlikely - that the budget will bolster the state's credit rating, which is the worst in the nation, better only than that of Puerto Rico.

 "I don't think we know yet just how seriously Wall Street will take this budget," Huffman said.

Like his caucus colleagues, Huffman, D-San Rafael, placed much of the blame for the budget fiasco on California's archaic system of requiring a two-thirds majority approval for tax increases. But he had plenty of criticism for his own party. He also may be the only state legislator to go on record supporting the idea of a constitutional convention.

He said the state would have saved money if many of these budget cuts had been made earlier in the year. The state also might have avoided issuing IOUs and seeing its credit rating plummet. Getting out front on those cuts also might have helped build support for increasing revenues, at least through fee increases. The governor was already on record supporting some of those, Huffman noted.

"We knew we were going to have to make these cuts back in the spring," he said.

"We empowered a small Republican minority by our own delay."

In the end, Huffman believes the idea of a constitutional convention deserves more discussion than it's getting from the Legislature. He points out that the Legislature would be in the driver's seat because it would appoint the delegates to such a convention and determine the rules for how delegates are determined. This would allow them "to weed out the zealots and the activists."

"It's distressing that the Legislature is largely a bystander" on this issue, he said. "We should own it."

- Paul Gullixson

Sonoma County ER doctors call new Sutter Hospital plan a "step backwards" that will strain emergency care

Days 7, 8 and 9 - Wedding on a Minnesota farm

Minnesota gets its name from a Dakota Indian word for "sky tinted waters." That's because everywhere you look, you see a reflection, usually off lakes but sometimes off the water that you have to pour into the street when you discover your ice chest is leaking again.

It's a fact that Minnesota sells itself short by calling it the "Land of 10,000 lakes." Everyone knows that this state has many more than that, especially given this year's early-summer rains. But it's part of that state's Norwegian Lutheran code to be understated. Nobody wants to be accused of being boastful out here. 

We spent three days in Minnesota, mostly in the northwestern part of the state. I have roots here. Plenty of them. Relatives on my father's side came from this part of the country via Wisconsin and Iowa. Some went back but usually just to visit. I have three siblings and one niece who attended St. Olaf College, a small Lutheran college in Northfield, Minn. The library wing at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul is named Gullixson Hall after my great Uncle Thaddeus, who was once the president there.

But I've had very little personal interaction with Minnesota other than that one visit years ago with my friend Darren in Duluth who had great stories to tell about bears that wandered into town. Beyond that, most of my engagement with Minnesota has been through listening to Prairie Home Companion, which, it so happens, was preparing to celebrate its 35th anniversary broadcasting from the little town of Avon, not far from where we were, on July 4th..

I wish we could have stayed. It would have been better than being in Barstow.

On Day 7, a Friday, we all migrated south from the Detroit Lakes area to the small town of Morris, where University of Minnesota has a relatively new campus. I like to say new because it opened in 1960, the same year I was founded.

My brother-in-law, Kevin and his bride-to-be, Heather, both teach at the university. They bought a farm about 15 minutes away. Not much of a commute. The only honking to be heard comes mostly from Canada Geese. Their home is in a colorful and serene place: blue house and red barn adrift on a sea of green cornfields - all fed by dusty brown roads that quickly embrace your car in a coat of native soil.

It's a welcoming place. Much as the people. Friday was spent erecting a large white tent, rolling out circular tables, setting up white folding chairs on the lawn next to the house and making other preparations. The men did most of that. Inside the women - not all were women, but most - were putting together flower displays, preparing food and putting final touches on bridal gowns.

In the grand scheme of things, this was, as Tamara described it, "like a barn raising."

Family members and friends had been working on the house and the farm for many days. Our contributions were pretty meager by comparison. Yet the work we did gave us a sense of purpose and participation. We were given a stake in the whole affair, and we appreciated it. Weddings should do more of that as far as I'm concerned.

Our kids had more critical roles. Clara,6, was one of the flower girls and Christopher,10, was a ring bearer. From this point, I will let Christopher tell the story. Here are excerpts from his journal (reprinted with permission.):

"Friday: Today we are doing to do a dress rehearsal of the wedding. . .  I met a new friend. His name is Joey. We played together all day. He is really nice, but his second-youngest brother is not really nice. His brother likes to punch people and point his little hands at people like they're guns. Then he'll 'fire' and if you don't pretend to be hurt, he will follow you and punch you."

"Saturday: Today is the wedding. Last night were was thunder and lightning. We are staying in the dorms at the University of Minnesota. It is gray, cool and there is a slight breeze blowing through the air . . . At the rehearsal dinner, Kevin and Heather were calling people up to the front and giving them little gifts. Then they called up the flower girls and ring bearers. I was really surprised. . . . The boys got red and tan hats and the girls got white and light blue hats."

"Sunday: Yesterday was the wedding. We had a lot of fun. I had around five to seven sodas. After the dancing and the music were over, there was a huge bonfire . . . Last night was the best night of the whole trip. At the wedding, I got to walk down the aisle with Clara. I got to wear a tuxedo. It included a black shirt, a white tie, a black vest, a black coat, a white hankerchief and black pants. I was really hot."

By this, I believe he means he was warm because he was dancing so much and had a lot of soda. I could be wrong, but I hope not.

- Paul Gullixson