by CONSERVATIVE PUP
AUGUST 27, 2009
I attended my first townhall meeting today. Put on my best boots, clean jeans, and my nicest polo shirt and drove about 40 miles to listen to Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK). He had been previously scheduled to be at the Ardmore Public Library, but organizers had moved it to the Convention Center, anticipating too large a crowd for the library. Maybe they were concerned we would make too much noise.
I asked one of his staffers how many chairs were set up in the large hall we were in. “Six hundred,” she said. By 11:30, a half hour before the scheduled start time, there was steady stream of people arriving. Once Rep. Cole came out and began to speak, virtually all the chairs were filled, and possibly fifty more people stood all along the walls.
Our town meeting was not quite like some I’ve seen on TV. We had no angry shouts from the crowd, no one spoke while he was speaking, and I heard not one “booo.” I did hear, and participate in, a lot of applause and cheers.
Our townhall was different, not because we, the attendees were different, but because our representative was different from the ones I’ve seen at those raucous townhalls. It isn’t the American people that cause loud and rowdy townhall meetings, it’s the arrogance, dishonesty, and scorn that those other reps have for their constituents. Of that, I am certain.
All across America, the American people are speaking out, and Rep. Cole told us that neither he nor any of his colleagues have ever seen anything like this. He also told us that we, the citizens who are speaking out from coast to coast are the reason that many Democrats no longer want to support HR 3200…
A really good blog and an entry worth reading. Find the rest of it here.
