Two Visits in One (Exhausting) Day

There was youthful exuberance aplenty at John McCain's town hall meeting in Blue Bell Tuesday. Local college students were joined by a large contingent of home-schooled teens and private school students from nearby Gwynned Mercy Academy.

The "Women's Town Hall" was by no means limited to females, as men comprised a fair portion of those in attendance, too. But it was the youth who drove much of the volume and intensity of the crowd reaction to McCain's remarks. Someone next to me quietly wondered whether they were feeling the oats of their impending franchise, or whether they were letting off steam on a day off school. Me, I was just the weird kid in the back hunched over my Spanish homework and trying to get through the day.

If the more energetic were paying attention to the senator's remarks (I hope they were), they heard as good a speech as I've heard him deliver on a topic that eclipses all others at the moment: the economy. McCain touched on a plan that would, he hopes, save Main Street by cleansing and strengthening Wall Street. His ideas on the subject seem to contrast with Barack Obama's but not stand in direct conflict with them. All of which is to say that two things seem likely in America's future regardless of who's sworn in this coming January: federal purchases of defaulted mortgage debt and direct federal investment in our country's heretofore private banking institutions. It's going to take me some time to decide exactly what to think or how to feel about that. Government ownership -- even part ownership -- of banks and houses gives me the heebie jeebies. And I think my creepy crawlies are not only seasonal: I think they're a reasonable response to an unreasonable crisis.

I was glad I attended, as it gave me another view of my party's man and plenty of food for thought. My main criticism of the event were that it was not a true town hall meeting, as no questions were taken, and that the large standing-room crowd could not see McCain as he spoke.

I'll offer kudos to both meeting attendees and, yes, even to the few protestors outside the building. Both largely kept their cool. I was next to one small exchange that heated up to a simmer. It ended with the anti-McCain fellow running out of a, no doubt, somewhat limited supply of rhetorical skills and referring to buddy waiting to get into the meeting as an ancient feminine hygiene product.

Now that's irony, folks.

On a more rarified note, my day was capped off by Mass ending Visitation B.V.M. Catholic Church's 40 hours devotion, where Archbishop Justin Rigali carried the eucharistic host in procession back to the parish's Perpetual Adoration Chapel. There, for 10 years, people have had the opportunity to kneel and sit in contemplation of the mystery of Holy Communion. The cardinal's visit was an honor, and the accomplishment of those who have been so faithful to their prayer and devotion is inspiring. May it make all of us better people.