Town Hall Meeting II

I almost missed it, but I rallied myself in time to attend most of Representative Lee Terry's (R-NE) town hall meeting yesterday (Saturday) morning. According to Mr. Terry, he normally hosts 5 - 10 people at his meetings, but yesterday, over two hundred showed up. When I arrived, a good-sized crowd was assembled on the sidewalk in front of the small diner where the meeting was held. Terry did a great thing by deciding to stay an extra hour and run the overflow crowd in for a whole new meeting. After watching what the media wants you to see of the other town hall meetings, I was half expecting to hear a bunch of angry name calling and chanting, although deep down, I didn't really want to be a part of that scene. None of that happened here, although there was applause and cheers when a popular point was made. Terry began with his set presentation, which was a non-partisan explanation of the bill for the most part, but he did point out where he stands on the various issues. The crowd probably had a few more Republicans than Democrats, but after all, this is Nebraska. When asked if he had actually read the bill, Terry said that he had read it all except the last fifty or so amendments which he had only just received. It was clear that he understood what he was talking about, and that raised him considerably in my estimation. All in all, it was a great experience, and I think everyone gained something from it. Whether Terry goes back to Washington and uses all that he learned remains to be seen.



Inadvertently, the best possible town hall meeting occurred at our Sunday school class this morning. Our scheduled presenter wasn't able to do his program, so we just mentioned the town hall meeting, and the ensuing discussion developed a life of its own. The thing that made this program so special is that we are not allowed to talk politics in our church. Not that we are forbidden to do so - it is more of a consensus thing. Heaven knows we can find enough to disagree about without throwing politics into the mix. So now you can see why I thought this was such a great meeting. We pretty much discussed everything that they talk about at the political town hall meetings, but everyone was very careful not to offend anyone who had a different view. Honestly, our group could have written and passed legislation that would have worked for everyone. I know from talking to our various members that they all have definite political opinions, and on a one-to-one basis are not shy about expressing them. I wonder how productive our representatives in Washington would be if they could put their partisanship aside. If you think about it, that is probably the only way that they could ever get anything accomplished. I wonder if they know that......