Miss Manners Would Not Approve

I certainly sympathize with those who are attending various legislative "town hall" meetings to express their opposition to President Obama's proposed health care system reforms. The massive changes on the table are at best an expensive boondoggle and at worst a step on the road to a ruinous social change that might take decades to undo.

And the response of legislators to criticism of their work has ranged from tin-eared to insulting. The anonymous staffer who wrote the op-ed piece that went out under the names of top House Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer probably got an earful after using the phrase "un-American," even though he or she was referring to drowning out opposing voices, a tactic we as Americans probably object to pretty much across the board.

But the energy level of constituents in confronting their representatives has been a little high. My guess is that there have been far more sedate meetings than heated exchanges, but calm exchanges of ideas make poor video, so we hear about the shouting. Nevertheless, I think the shouting is out of line. Were I a legislator at such a meeting, I'd be clear. I'd stick around to talk to anyone and everyone who wanted to present ideas to me like a grownup would. But if you just want to yell? Buy a ticket to a ballgame and holler at the zebras for awhile, 'cause I'm outta here.

Yelling at people to get them to change their minds is ineffective, as we should have learned as teenagers. Rarely did our parents alter curfews simply because we confronted them with the same words at increased decibel levels. And by rarely, of course, I mean go to your room.

Granted, the behavior of some of the legislators at these events hasn't been particularly respectful either. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee of Houston talked on her cell phone while a constituent asked her a question. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told people at one of his meetings he "didn't have to be here" with them.

But still, high-energy confrontation is pretty useless. It lacks class, and it also demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding in the roles of the people involved. Remember, legislators are elected by constituents. They are then sent to various places of government to do jobs the rest of us don't want to do, like eat rubber chicken and kiss people's germy offspring and listen to each other talk. This means they work for us, and we are their bosses.

And yelling at the help? My goodness, that's just not the sort of thing our kind does, dear.