Help HuffPost Report On Health Care Town Halls And Tea Party-Style Protests (ASSIGNMENT DESK)

Health care town halls are fast becoming ground zero in the battle over health reform, with attempts to hold a civil discussion sometimes being intentionally disrupted.

Just yesterday HuffPost's Eyes and Ears reporter Denise Dennis attended a health care town hall meeting in Philadelphia where a group of protesters from the Tea Party Patriots movement interrupted the proceedings. Dennis wrote:

A well-organized, belligerent and loud group of right-wingers stood in the aisles and across the back and disrupted the town meeting throughout. They yelled, shouted and jeered, and it was clear that they were not there to participate, but instead to try to disrupt the meeting and make it difficult as possible for anyone else to ask questions.

Sunday's health care town hall was only one of over a hundred that will take place across the US in the weeks to come, and conservative protesters with ties to the Tax Day Tea Parties plan to disrupt many of them. To help us cover these important conversations and the efforts of those who wish to stifle dialogue, we need your help. We're looking for more Denise Dennises to report on their local town hall meetings on health care, whether it's by videotaping the event, writing an article, or sharing photos.

Sign up to report on the town hall meeting nearest you by clicking "Join Now" at the bottom of the page and we'll follow up with further instructions.

While recording the confrontation between protesters and the town hall moderators will be exciting, we also stress that citizen journalists should report on the substance of the policy debate since conversations held around the country this month could determine our health care system for decades to come.

The map below shows many of the town hall meetings planned for the next month, though it is not exhaustive. If you know of one that we've missed, just press "Participate" and add it to the map.

 

 

Here is a list of additional events in Arizona.

Town Hall Health Care Meetings

 

Find a picture, click the participate button, add a title and upload your picture

— Town Hall Health Care Meetings

Comments

[revhatchell]

a little late huffpo.

an email notice of events should really be sent out BEFORE the events.

[poeticjustice4all]

Look folks, you can't fight fire with fire. Stop giving these yahoos attention. THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT. Stop reporting on these phony non-events and limit the effect.

If our senior citizens are so easily frightened by some loud-mouths at a few town hall meetings, then they deserve lousy, expensive, ineffective health care.

After being alive for 60 or 70 years -- most people know reality from nonsense. Don't fan the flames.

[quillsinister]

The only thing missing is that guy with the American flag on his head and the sign that read, "Get a brain! Morans!"

:-)

[LaurenMarie984]

Florida Alliance of Retired Americans -- That's right, RETIRED AMERICANS supporting single payer option!!!!!

http://www.flara.org/home.html

From their Health Care Forum Flier:

Health Care Forum

Please join us…The Florida Alliance for Retired Americans will be sponsoring an important health care event on Thursday, August 20, 2009. Co-sponsors for this event include Floridians for Health Care and Delray Beach Chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans. We will be discussing with elected officials vital information about health care for today’s retired Americans. We wish to implement policies that ensure seniors and people with disabilities access to affordable health care and prescription drugs. Our main goal during this forum is to discuss single payer health care in America.

Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009

Time: 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location: South County Civic Center

16700 Jog Road, Delray Beach, FL 33446

Many elected officials have been invited and are expected to attend this important event.

[SammyGone]

BRAVE Senators. They can do it. They rip everyone off all day. Take a vacation and give us a break. Spend, Spend - at least the treasury will get a vacation.

[CherryIce1988]

I'm sorry but there is none in my state

[IssuesInFocus]

Neither in my state-- of part of the City, thus far. But will keep looking to hear about them.

[deepfreezevideo]

I will be shooting video at the Denton, TX meeting.
Health Care Town Hall
Center for the Visual Arts
Denton, TX 76201
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Start Time: 10:00 AM End Time: 11:00 AM

[gulfcoast50]

Question to all sane posters: Would it not be reasonable to ask that people attending actually be residents of the district for which the representative serves?

[Kevin Arth]

yes, this would resolve the issue of the Republican party busing people around the country to cause problems. It doesn't seem like it would be that difficult, but there's got to be a reason they don't do that. Maybe it's to difficult, logistically, to verify all attendees entering the meeting? Very good question.

[Kevin Arth]

Can't find anything in Reno either. How do we find local events?

[Kevin Arth]

GenXer: No one's trying to block opposition. They're just trying to stop the political games being played by intentionally disruptive hecklers who have to resort to these intimidation tactics because they can't argue their point on the merits.

[GenXer]

Time to break out the Bush "free speech zones" about 2 miles away from the events and screen attendees and kick them out if you think they'll be in opposition.

[2pt]

I wish I'd known about the weekend protest in Austin. I know there's an E&E mailing list, is there any way to self select by region so we might get notices?

[claudiam]

Excellent idea! Thank you HuffPo for making this effort. I am in AZ, which is see there are no town halls.
You are providing us with pro-active information which is what I think all media outlets should be doing. claudiatucsonaz