Meeting Mr. President

Sorry I've left you all hanging. Things have been pretty busy and all...you know: with seeing the president, leaving Montana, Amy and Matt's wedding, moving to my new apartment, preparing for my graduate assistantship, and finally starting grad classes. It's been a crazy and slightly stressful week.

Well, I'm going to primarily devote this post to the town hall meeting I attended in Belgrade, Montana where President Obama spoke on August 14th. In my previous blog I wrote about the great lengths I went to to get the tickets. Well, it all paid off on Friday.

Jacob and I arrived at the Gallatin Airfield in Belgrade around 10:30 am Friday morning. Doors to the event opened at 10:45, but there was quite a bit of traffic congestion getting to the hanger. While waiting in line we jammed out to some old rap music Jacob had in his car. The lyrics were ridiculous which made it even more awesome as we drove past protesters and camera crews with our windows down, music turned up, singing to "It Feels Good to be a Gangsta."

By the time we actually got in line we were pretty excited. There were police officers and secret service everywhere. We also watched as several helicopters with armed marines landed right by the building. After going through security we finally made it inside. There was a stage at the front of the building with seats situated in a semi-circle around it. Behind the stage was a huge American flag.

Our time waiting inside seemed to go by pretty fast and before you knew it the meeting was starting. First a pastor gave an invocation in which he asked for "God's protection over everyone in attendance...including the elderly." The way he said it made it sound like the elderly wouldn't normally be included in the collective term "everyone." Jacob nearly burst out laughing mid-prayer when he heard this...I almost did to. The Governor and Senators from Montana then got up and spoke for awhile.

Around 12:47 a member of the secret service came out and placed a plaque with the presidential seal on it on the front podium. This meant Obama was in the building. You could just feel the energy and excitement in the room when this happened.

Finally, around 1 pm a woman facing health care issues shared her personal story of suffering and then introduced President Obama. It was a pretty surreal experience. It's hard convincing yourself that what you're seeing is actually true. We were literally a few feet away from the most powerful man in the world. Our seats were pretty good too...we were in the 10th row, dead center.

President Obama then spoke for the next hour to hour and a half about health care. He was certainly a very motivated and passionate speaker that was fun to listen to. I know he's a politician and he knows how to put a good spin on things, but what he said actually made a lot of sense. He said he wanted to make it illegal for insurance companies to drop your coverage because of a health issue, he wanted to make it illegal for insurance companies to raise the cost of your insurance because of an illness, and he wanted affordable health insurance for all citizens. He made sure to specify that he does not want socialized health care.

Anyways, he then fielded questions from the audience. I had one prepared, but he actually already answered mine during his speech. Most of the questions were friendly, but there were a few people who had some differing views. For instance, Obama kept saying that insurance companies are making too much money while the consumers are going broke. A man who sells insurance then asked a question and said it didn't seem fair that Obama was villianizing health insurance companies.

After he got done answering questions he made a concluding remark and then came down from the stage and began shaking people's hands. There was a barrier dividing the crowd from him and I made my way up to that barrier and managed to shake his hand. As I did so I simply said, "Hello Mr. President." He responded "How's everyone doing?" So it wasn't exactly a personal response, but it was good enough. I couldn't believe I actually got to shake his hand (In the picture shown above it is my hand Obama is actually shaking).

Following the meeting we went outside and took pictures of Air Force One which was parked behind the hanger. It was a lot bigger than I imagined it would be.

We left the town hall meeting feeling much more knowledgeable on the issue of health care reform as well as feeling very privileged that we were able to see President Obama speak in person. Years from now I will tell my grandchildren about the day when I got to shake the president's hand. This experience was an unexpected one, but it proved to be a great way to end my summer in Montana.