TOWN HALL MANIA SPREADS TO CONGRESS, MTV, U.S. OPEN AND BEYOND

by R J Shulman

WASHINGTON -(PTSD News) - The Town Hall has come to America. From the rallies of shouting protesters at meetings to discuss health care, to Rep. Joe Wilson shouting "you lie" to President Obama at a joint session of Congress, to Kanye West grabbing the mike and yelling at Taylor Swift at the MTV awards (which earned West "the Best Town Hall Video Award"), to Serena Williams who not so serenely told a judge that she wanted to shove a tennis ball down their throat, the act of shouting down others has become an American phenomenon.

"This is not just a fad, it's a generational change," said Hector Greenberg, Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. "The times they are a-changing from the Woodstock nation of peace, love and dope to the Town Hall nation of war, hate and dopes with a slogan of 'don't trust anyone under 30, because they all voted for Obama.'" "I am so glad that our voices are getting to be heard," said Chaz McAlister, a 48 year-old minister from Boca Raton, Florida who was wearing a tee shirt with a picture of President Obama's face pasted on the body of Satan, "We are no longer the silent majority, we are now the strident majority."

"Barak Obama came at the right time in history," said Leslie Stuttgart a history professor at Harvard, "he has the charisma to bring us all together, no matter what color, creed or religion to participate in one big 'shove-in' where everybody joins in the pushing, shoving and screaming."

Actor Mel Gibson, now considered the father of the Town Hall movement, for his well publicized anti-semetic outburst to a policeman in California, is organizing a benefit concert and recording of a new single, "We Yell the World," sung by Ted Nugent, Anita Bryant, and a screaming mob of tea baggers. Other songs on the tour include an updated version of the Isley Brothers "Twist and Shout, Billy Idol's "Rebel Yell" and "The Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, with Aquarius being replaced with "They're scaring us."

"This is all about basic First Amendment rights of free speech," said Yale Law Professor Mike Holloran, "not only do you have the right to yell 'fire' in a crowded auditorium, but under the law you are required to do so."

"What is so inviting about this new generational phenomenon and why it is growing so fast is that you can get to express yourself without having to be bogged down with truth, facts, logic or even knowing what you are angry at," said Greenberg, "and not knowing what you are angry about gets you even angrier."

"In 1968 we had the summer of love," Greenberg continued, "now some forty odd years later in 2009, we have the summer of hate."

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