Friday, August 21, 2009

Town Hall Meetings

A surprising statement: The presence of a politician at Town Hall meetings is counter productive. What's even worse are the shipped in protesters, not saying that all of them are transients but a good number of them (on both sides) undoubtedly are.

What's distressing is the name calling and mud slinging that's taking place. Calling someone a Nazi for their views on health care is counterproductive. Attack policies, offer new ideas, but don't attack a person for supporting a view.

To curb this I suggest asking politicians not to come. Allow citizens and experts to really have a Q and A where we can be educated on the bill and its possible repercussions. A friend of mine, who will rename nameless unless he posts a comment here, will argue that this is hampering free speech. And I would disagree, although his comment that my idea of disallowing mass media advertisements by politicians is well on point.

By taking out the actual decision makers on this proposed legislation we allow true thoughts to be expressed calmly and clearly. They simply act as a flash point by which anger can be directed to.

To help this idea I am currently trying to organize a true Town Hall Meeting at my Alma Mater Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire Illinois. When the date and time is finalized I will publish it here and in the local papers. I would respectfully ask for Congressman Mark Kirk not to attend, although I recognize that it is his right to be there. Further I will try to limit participation to constituents of the 10th Congressional district. A full audio recording will be provided on this site so that all those interested can hear what took place.

Of course I will arrange for a panel of experts to be present to help field questions along with those in favor and against the current bill.

More to follow later.

Image taken from http://technologyinprevention.wikispaces.com/THM+meets+TWC (under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 License).

1 comment:

  1. My favorite was the guy who told arlen specter that he will be judged by god in the afterlife as if (in the case there is a god) that he would be offended by a politician trying to make sure everyone had the opportunity to lead a healthy life. i didn't realize that the christian god was pro-business and anti-helping the poor. Wasn't that jesus's thing?

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