A boisterous crowd of at least 2,200 showed its passion for the national health-care debate at Tucson's Sahuaro High School on Tuesday night.The two-hour event, the second one of the day after an earlier one in Green Valley, was billed as a listening session by its host, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.
Yet many attendees drowned out the speakers with applause and boos when hot-button issues like uninsured Americans and a public insurance option came up.
Several times Giffords reminded the crowd to keep civility in the discussion and at one point asked some hecklers "to be a little less rude."
A line for the 6 p.m. town hall began forming at 2:15 p.m. Parking was treacherous and many attendees said they had to park at least a half-mile away.
Educator Marjorie Miller said she asked a neighbor who wasn't attending to drive and drop her off rather than face the logjam. By 5:40 p.m. the high school's auditorium was at its 1,200-person capacity and organizers began seating people in chairs outside. At least 1,000 people, including Miller, listened outside to a live feed of the forum, many of them sitting on the ground.
"This is important and it's what makes America great -- we can express our views," said Miller, 56. "I've never seen this many people in one place for an event in Tucson before," said Khwaja Philip Boatright, a 74-year-old minister with the International Metaphysical Ministry.
"This is a historic moment for Congress," said Bernadette Boschert, a school counselor in her 40s.
Boatright and Boschert held signs in support of proposed health-care changes and a public option plan that would give people with no health insurance the option of a government-run plan, even if they have pre-existing conditions.
"It's kind of unfathomable to me that people can go bankrupt because they are sick," said Lucy Simpson, who stood outside the high school with her 8-year-old daughter, both holding signs supporting reform.