First off, whatever Sen. Claire McCaskill's salary is, she earned every penny yesterday.She kept her cool and politely listened and interacted with people who came to the Jefferson College Field House in Hillsboro with closed minds, open mouths and the combined nervous energy of about 5.0 on the Richter scale. The Senator bent over backwards to be "fair," so much so that 95% of the question cards pulled from the fishbowl were from her opponents. (Note to self: Fill out LOTS of cards next time to increase chances of being called on.) Those of us who have studied the issue of health care/insurance reform with empathy for our fellow Americans made up less than one-half of the thousand or so bodies in the arena and were pretty much left out of the discussion. So, while I watched, listened and wondered if the hecklers were missing a major organ (brain? heart?) I was reminded of my daughter's very progressive child raising techniques. When one of my grandchildren couldn't have something he or she wanted, my daughter would say, "I know it's frustrating, but you can't have that new toy." She sympathized with the kid's feeling of helplessness but did the right thing anyway. Sometimes it's useless to negotiate, especially when people want something that can never be. I keep hearing a plea for "our country to go back to the way it was." Sincerely frightened average Americans see the world changing around them and feel threatened by it. They want us to return to the country "our Founding Fathers created and the Constitution they wrote," but that's impossible. Do they really want to deny women the right to vote? Do they really think it's okay for human beings to own other human beings and beat them? Do they really want to abolish public education, destroy the National Parks and wait two months for a piece of mail to arrive? I doubt it. Those who stand to gain the most from blocking health care/insurance reform understand the anxiety of reactionaries and play these folks like a cheap violin. Do they really not know WHY the insurance companies make huge profits and CEO's rake in millions? They call it free enterprise, but do they not understand that 20,000 Americans die every year from illnesses that could have been treated if they had health insurance? Or don't they care? Even when Sen. McCaskill explained that people without health insurance cost each Missourian a hidden tax of between $900 and $1200 a year, the anti-taxers didn't get it. The cost of NOT changing how we pay for health care and what the insurance companies can and cannot do to us seems to be lost on these people. The average cost of health insurance for Missouri families is now $12,500 per year. At the current rate of increase, according to Sen. McCaskill, by 2016, the average will be $25,000 per year. What part of "bankrupt" don't these people understand? Fear of the unknown is an all-too-common human trait. Psychologists have even published "anxiety scales" which rate how the changes in our lives can stress us out. Even the good changes like a job promotion or new home carry a certain level of anxiety just because of the need to adjust. So I can sympathize with those who are frightened by what they see as the destruction of our country as it once seemed to them. I felt the same way during the Bush administration when I saw how the media repeated manipulated information in the run up to the Iraq war. I knew that thousands of Americans and perhaps millions of Iraqis were going to die because a few misguided and heartless men in Washington refused to listen to reason. I was one of about 50 protesters on a freezing cold day in South St. Louis when President Bush visited a factory there. We were kept two blocks away from the event and told by police not to block the sidewalk. How different things are today! The president's detractors are invited by Congress members to town hall meetings so they can vent their frustration and be as rude as they want. I keep hearing that there is huge support for real reform, but the silent majority had better start making noise because that's the only thing that gets the attention of the media. And, like it or not, our decision-makers will bow to what the media creates as the "popular will." And please pray for President Obama. The historical record shows that reformers are always villified and threatened with violence. Many of them have paid the ultimate price, but the reforms they brought about made us safer, stronger and better people. If we want health care/insurance reform, we have to demand it. As one health care activist said last night during a conference call, we have to believe that our stories and our individual efforts matter. The alternative is too awful to contemplate.