Public Square participants show up looking for answers on health care

This narrative does not reflect my experience at the health care town hall.  I was waiting in line outside the RTD at 4:40AM, over an hour before the next person showed up.  I was given a piece of paper with the #1 on it.  I then followed all the guidelines for people wanting to ask questions given by the organizers which was to sit near the microphone at the front of the room. I was closer to the microphone than anyone else.
After I had taken a seat, Dana Millbank of the Washington Post interviewed me because I was the first person to the event.  We then discussed the questions that I was going to ask Scott and Cantor.  Some minutes later an announcement was made that anyone who wanted to ask a question needed to form a line in the hallway which was in the back of the room. This is significant because those who arrived early, had the first numbers on their arrival order and had followed all instructions to that point, were in the front of the room near the microphone.  So what happened to the “first come, first serve” rule that was advertised by the Times-Dispatch?
I got out to the hall as quickly as possible, but of course, because I had followed the previous instructions, I was no longer first…I was seventeenth.  This change in plans rewarded the latecomers.

When I asked a RT-D staff member about the change and shuffling the order, she replied that this is the way we are doing this now.  I responded that this did not answer my question. 
When the event began, I was hoping many people would get a chance to talk to the congressmen. However, it was clear that in order for those who arrived early and followed instructions to speak, the forum would have to last an additional two hours. This was in part because the RT-D did not enforce their own rule of a two minutes limit for each questioner. Some questioners had 15 min at the microphone. This was a shame too, because most of the people who arrived early had insightful questions whereas the latecomers seemed not to even know their facts.
When it was clear I would not get a chance to speak, I began telling an RT-D official sitting directly to my left that I thought it was unfair that I and others who arrived early did not get a chance to speak.  He paused and then replied with an extended “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”, which was much louder than my question to him.  I told him that I did not appreciate his response and I wanted to discuss the flipping of the script afterwards.  I did not see him again.  However, after the event, I did approach the moderator, Tom Silvestri.  I explained that I and others who had arrived earliest and followed instructions given by the RT-D organizers had been shafted.  He responded by saying “I am sorry you have a legitimate complaint.”
Then Tom repeated “I am sorry you have a legitimate complaint” and I noticed several Richmond Police and other security closing in on me from the sides and behind me.  I turned and asked the policemen sneaking up on my right hand side “What’s going on?”  The policeman on my left side said “Are you ready to leave?”  I responded by asking again, “What was going on?”  During this time I was neither loud nor disruptive. I was then ordered to follow the police out of the room.  Before the event, RT-D security had confiscated my bike pump which I had been traveling with since I had a slow leak in my bicycle tube.  I requested my pump back and the officers refused to give it to me until we got outside.  Were these men with guns, most of whom were much larger than I, afraid of an unarmed citizen?  As I was being removed, I asked the police if I needed to call a lawyer, where they were taking me and also why I was being removed.  The police refused to answer all questions. When we were officially off RT-D property, I was told the organizers of the event wanted me removed because they did not like something I said earlier.  Since I was not allowed to speak, I can’t imagine what that could be. Perhaps they were referring to my vocal criticism of Congressmen Scott, Cantor and the RT-D.
Are we going to continue to accept these undemocratic intimidation tactics from our government, the media, and the police whose duty it is to uphold the Constitution?

Obviously Tom Silvestri is aware that I was hauled out—according to the police, on his paper’s request.  The story they have written is make-believe.

Chris Dorsey

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