I had seen videos of health care town hall meetings from across the country. I watched bewildered and amazed at the videos of red-faced men and women yelling and screaming like children having a tantrum. I’ve been appalled by the rudeness and crudeness of many in the crowds at these events.

But on my way to New River Community College’s Edwards Hall in Dublin on Tuesday to report on Rep. Rick Boucher’s town hall-style meeting on health care, I kept saying to myself, “Not here. We’re a more respectful people in the New River Valley. Surely we won’t see those outbursts that I’ve seen on TV.”

So much for my theory that we’re a more respectful people here in the NRV.

I guess, to be fair, that most of the outbursts weren’t as bad as many I had seen on TV, but there’s also no way that anyone present at the event could say the crowd assembled at Edwards Hall was particularly civil or respectful.

Here at the Voice, we believe in democracy. We believe everyone’s voice is important and should be heard—it’s why we named this publication New River Voice. We want to provide you with a forum to have your thoughts and opinions heard. (By the way, add your comments about this column below! We really do want to hear from you!) But heckling, booing, being disruptive, and hurling insults in a public forum isn’t expressing your views, it’s just being rude and disrespectful to those speaking and those trying to hear that speaker.

I didn’t agree with everything that Boucher said at the meeting. I admit I chuckled to myself a couple times at his straddling the fence and playing to both sides of the health care debate in typical politician style. But I never had such anger that I wanted to yell at the guy, or at any of the three panelists, or at fellow citizens asking a question or making a statement. I never was moved to wave a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag or to sing “God Bless America.”

And more than the health care debate that is raging in this country, I guess that’s my biggest concern—the rage.

Some of these people were angry when they drove to Edwards Hall, angry during all three hours of the meeting, and angry when they left. The vast majority of those illustrating, in my opinion, an unhealthy dose of hostility were against health care reform.

And my guess is that many of thos folks have their hostility fueled by the likes of media personalities such as Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and others. Fans of these unfortunately popular pundits don’t want to be controlled by the government, yet they allow themselves and their emotions to be controlled by the likes of guys who don’t even believe half of what comes out of their own mouths.

Do you think Glenn Beck really believes all the crap he’s been espousing about health care lately? If so, you need to watch this video clip that illustrates the man’s utter hypocrisy. These guys get paid millions of dollars to enrage you. Fortunately for them, they are good at their jobs. People are indeed steaming mad. And it’s tearing apart our country.

Many of these angry folks turned their ire toward Boucher when he said that a lot of people didn’t comprehend many of the details of the legislation being considered in Congress. The angry mob took this as a slap in the face—that Boucher was saying they were too stupid to understand something.

I hate to defend Boucher because I disagree with him on a lot of issues, but there are five major bills being debated in Congress right now and I sure can’t comprehend the details of them all. I was at the meeting Tuesday, in part, to try to comprehend the details of health care legislation. But some folks are  not concerned with reason, rationale, or facts.

I just read an interesting piece from Rem Rieder, editor and publisher of American Journalism Review. In it, Rieder writes, “America has become a country filled with people who stubbornly continue to believe what they want to believe, regardless of the facts.”

He gives the example of “those who embrace the notion that the health care legislation working its way through Congress would establish ‘death panels’ that would ‘pull the plug on grandma,’ even though it clearly wouldn’t.”

Rieder goes on to say that “it’s the job of journalists to sort out such contretemps, to determine where the truth lies. But what do you do when a significant portion of the electorate ignores the findings?”

And what do you do when people view guys such as Beck, Limbaugh, and O’Reilly as journalists and believe the lies and vitriol that come out of their mouths every day?

Most of us don’t comprehend the details of proposed health care legislation because we are getting our information—and in some cases misinformation—from very one-sided sources. I implore my fellow citizens of the New River Valley to ease up on the hostility, take a break from the pundits paid to make you angry, and really study the health care issue using independent sources.

Wanting health care for our neighbors should be a goal for all of us. Are we really so hostile about this issue that our response to Boucher’s statement about wanting affordable health care for everyone is to boo?

Sadly, yes, apparently we really are that angry.

Tim W. Jackson is Editor of the New River Voice and wants to hear your opinion. Give us your thoughts (in a civil manner, of course!) below.