Hal Washburn and Leon Donahue stepped from their car at the Cowlitz County Expo Center on Thursday afternoon with signs of protest tucked beneath their jackets.

The pair, who had driven to Longview from Tacoma, pulled the pieces of folded paper from their hiding places and displayed them proudly for a visitor.

“NoBama. Socialized health care is un-American!” read one.

“Stop Hiding Senators! Town Hall Meetings?” read the other.

Washburn, 66, and Donahue, 75, had expected to confront Washington’s congressional delegation about health care reform during a public meeting. Instead, they found a handful of fellow reform opponents chatting in a mostly empty parking lot.

Thursday’s meeting with U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray as well as Rep. Brian Baird had been scheduled weeks ago to discuss funding and management of the Mount St. Helens Volcanic Monument. But the meeting was canceled after President Obama’s political organization sent an e-mail earlier this week misrepresenting the event as a health care forum.

With town hall meetings about health care exploding in anger across the country, Longview city officials said they couldn’t guarantee people’s safety and would have had to station 20 police officers at the meeting.

But not everybody got the message that the meeting had been canceled. Mike Moss, the Expo Center’s director, said between 60 and 70 people trickled into the building’s office throughout Thursday afternoon wondering whether the meeting with the lawmakers was still happening.

Moss said people expecting to attend the event came and left without incident.

“It was pretty low-key,” he said.

The health care debate blew up in the Congressional 3rd District this week as Baird said he’d received death threats over the issue. Constituents criticized him for holding a town hall meeting by telephone last week, and Republicans crowed after he referred to people disrupting town halls in other states as “Brown Shirts,” a reference to Nazi thugs.

Baird announced additional town halls, including one scheduled for next week in Longview, and apologized for his remarks.

Thursday’s Mount St. Helens meeting presumably was seen by people as an opportunity to share their thoughts on health care with the Washington delegation. By Wednesday night, nearly 700 people had signed up to attend the event on the Web site of Organizing for America, the group that ran Obama’s campaign last year and now promotes his agenda. Word spread through conservative e-mails and Web sites that supporters of health care reform were holding a “stealth town hall event,” and opponents of reform planned to be there and make their voices heard.

Supporters of health care reform were the ones who had been expected to show up at the Expo Center en masse, but by Thursday afternoon, the people lingering in the parking lot seemed to be mostly opponents of the reform bills.

A group of less than a half-dozen people stood near their cars discussing the issue amongst themselves and with a reporter. Some said they worried the debate was becoming too volatile. Others said they were disappointed Baird, Cantwell and Murray hadn’t shown up, and criticized the lawmakers for not holding more public forums about health care reform.

“It’s going to lead eventually to violence if they keep ignoring the public,” said Chuck Sisco, of Longview, who said he knew the event had been canceled, but stopped by with his wife, Pat, to see what was going on anyway. “We don’t need another civil war.”

Sisco said the reform efforts amount to “socialism,” and said he was particularly concerned about the bill’s provisions regarding end-of-life counseling.

“They don’t have a right to come into my home and talk about it,” he said.

Baird clarified earlier this week that a bill included funding for people who want to discuss options regarding life support with their doctors. But the Siscos said they worried government officials would provide health care only to the “most productive” members of society.

“We can hope it’s not leading down that road, but we can see it is,” Pat Sisco said.

Pat Marmion, an obstetrician who drove from Battleground said he was disappointed to learn the meeting had been canceled. He, too, said he opposes the reform bills.

“It’s going to destroy the best health care system in the world,” Marmion said.

He said he learned about the meeting from an e-mail and knew it would focus on Mount St. Helens, but said he’d come to discuss the health care issue anyway.

Baird “hasn’t been very willing to meet with the public on health care,” Marmion said. “This would be the first opportunity to get face-to-face with him on it.”

Michelle Kastine, a 27-year-old Vancouver school teacher, hadn’t heard the meeting was canceled. Laid across the passenger seat of her car was a large sign that said: “Just Say No.”

“I knew there would be people here holding signs,” said Kastine, who opposes the reform efforts. “I wanted to represent the other side of the story.”

Kastine said she, too, worried reform would make health care available only those deemed most productive.

“I’m really concerned that our society is even considering this,” she said.

Related articles:

Baird announces upcoming town hall meeting in Longview  (Aug.13)

Heated health care debate derails Mount St. Helens meeting  (Aug. 13)

Federal lawmakers to get report from Mount St. Helens panel  (Aug. 10)