Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Shout Them Down

Lately I've been lamenting the effectiveness of the tactics of the astroturf teabaggers who have been disrupting the town hall meetings on Health care reform between members of congress and their constituents.

I think I have the solution.

You see, tonight, I watched my favorite movie, Casablanca, again.

My (and many other people's) favorite scene in the movie (and perhaps the best scene of the whole movie)is when an inebriated group of Nazi officers in Rick's cafe have commandeered a piano and are loudly singing "Die Wacht Am Rhein"(Watch on the Rhine). Victor Laszlo, the resistance leader, storms into the room and orders the cafe band to play the French national anthem "La Marseillaise". With the tacit approval of Rick, the band begins the song, and the largely French refugee patron crowd begins loudly singing along. The Nazis are drowned out by sheer numbers and are forced to sheepishly sit down. It's a truly stirring and touching scene, and it's the scene that makes it my favorite movie of all time.

It has also given me an idea. So here is my plan: If you happen to attend one of these town hall meetings, find a group of people who are with you. Then, pick out the astroturf hecklers and surround them. Then, when they get up, simply stand up around them and out-shout them with any variation of "Sit down and shut the hell up".

There are a lot more of us than there are of them. It's time we showed it!

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