Vigil Interrupted

According to the Journal and Courier, the anti-health reform legislation group Citizens in Action decided to stage a rally of its own right across the street from the announced site of the Vigil for Health Reform planned by Yes We Can Tippecanoe, MoveOn, and Tippecanoe County Democrats. The predictable results were shouting and traded insults that detracted from the purpose of the vigil. That was, as Democratic Party secretary Raj Seshu put it, to illustrate the humanitarian nature of the health care reform bill: "We have a duty to help our fellow man." The decision to disrupt the vigil is of a kind with the tactics that have been applied by opponents of health care reform at town halls and meetings across the nation over the past month. Such tactics may be free speech, but they can hardly be considered civil discourse to advance an argument. You can read the Journal and Courier's account of the event here. Video footage is from WLFI; the text of their coverage is here.