Town Hall Today

**** Writer's note - I regret not getting this posted on Saturday.  Please read it as if it were Saturday ****


As I noted a couple of days ago, I am going to a town hall meeting for Pennsylvania's 6th Congressional district today.  It is being held at Phoenixville High School in Chester County, PA.  I was having a text conversation with a friend this morning.  She keeps herself well informed.  She learned that Representative Ryan Costello will not be attending.  He is calling the meeting a "stunt".  I'm going to share the the rest of our conversation.  I must warn you that my language is a little dicey in two places, but I suspect that all of you have heard these two words before:

me: [I'm] sad that Costello will not show.  This type of behavior will be used to remove him from office in 20 months and 2 weeks.

friend: The r's are not taking this seriously yet.  They say that we are just whining about a lost election. 

me: Fine with me.  You notice no one is taking that bait.  I haven't heard that horse shit responded to once.  If they wish to rub that crap in their own eyes and blind themselves with it, that works for us obtaining our goal in the mid terms.

friend: Yep, it is our advantage if they don't see it coming.

It is now Saturday night.  The town hall was over at 3 pm, but I had 'stuff' to do, so I needed to wait until now to share my experience and impressions.  The event was well organized.  There was a check in table before entering the auditorium.  Anyone that wanted to ask the Congressman a question was given a pre-formatted piece of paper to write there question on.  It included your name, the zip code you lived in and noted that you were not being paid to be at the town hall.  There was a good amount of space to include how the question you would be asking related to you, the person asking the question.  Then there was a large amount of space to write the question.  On the reverse side of the paper, we were asked to write our name and address, so each person's question could be submitted to Costello's office.  Representative Costello did not honor the many invitations that were shared with him and his staff.  The official word from Costello is that the meeting was a 'stunt by a political activist group'.

The event was coordinated by a group named Concerned Constituent Action Group.  Oh no......we were all activists.  Well I say that's a good thing.  The people that organized the meeting were in an "action group".  Those of us attending were being politically active.  This is bad stuff?  Imagine......citizens in a democracy taking action to be involved in their country's discourse, action to discuss how each of us believes our country should be administered, having an active voice in letting our elected officials hear what we the people think.  The audacity!

Well, I am glad to report that we were indeed active.  The auditorium was packed.  I'd estimate four to five hundred.  There were two microphones set up, one at the front of each isle.  because Costello did not attend, there was a large picture of him from the shoulders up, set up at a podium on the stage, so we could address him as questions were asked.  Each isle had at least one hundred questioners lined up.  The planners of the event asked that only Costello's constituents  ask questions.  I felt like this was the best course of action, so that the meeting would be conducted in an above board way.

Before the questions began, a woman spoke about town halls and their value to democracy.  She noted that her family has been taking part in town hall meetings for 380 years, starting in New England.  She followed that point by noting that we all became Americans by way immigration.  Although we were asked to hold our applause, we simply could not, and applauded every questioner.  Each question, each one, came from an informed person.  Each questioner made a solid case, based in fact, for their question.  Approximately 100 to 125 questions were asked in the two hours that were allotted for the meeting.  The subject matter covered a full range of concerns.  The main concerns were the environment, education, immigration, ethics, goebbels-bannon.  Of course there were questions around an independent investigation into trump and possible impeachable offenses including Russia, conflicts of interest and the need for the release of his taxes, the Logan Act, and the Emoluments clause in the Constitution.

Everyone that spoke touched me deeply and impressed me.  I'd like to share my impressions about two of the questioners.  The first person, a woman of 52 years, reported that she had been a Republican since she was 18 years old.  Her husband was & currently is in a branch of the armed forces.  Over the years they have had friends who have died in battle while serving their and our country.  She was proud of her husband and those that he has served with.  After laying out this back story, she let Costello know (well......his picture) in no uncertain terms that when she saw the executive order banning transgender people from using the rest room facility of the gender that they identify as, she was sick to her heart and within ten minutes she had switched her party registration to the Democratic Party.  The applause was loud and prolonged.

The second individual was a woman also.  I'll guess that she was in her mid to late thirties, maybe early forties.  She was pissed off.  And again, this was a person, who came from a strong conservative background.  She was no less then a member of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution).  I can't imagine that any of you do not know what the DAR is, but as a brief revue, membership is limited to only those who are direct descendants of families that took part in the revolution that created our country.  Members are typically conservative, although not necessarily.  One thing that I have always noted about these women is that they are fiercely proud of and loyal to our country.  In an informed and intelligent way, this woman ripped into trump, goebbels-bannon and Costello's rubber stamp performance in relation to the new administration.  Her words were loud and emphatic, but not disrespectful.  She was interrupted many times by loud and sustained applause.  Her question, at the end was, a challenge to Congressman Costello to lead, not follow.  She asked if he went to Congress to be a leader or someone who votes as he is told to vote by the Republican "leadership".  The final question was 'when are you going to stand up and lead?' (I am presenting this as paraphrasing, because I did not write down or record these words).

I also need to mention a woman who had family in Sandy Hook Connecticut and was very upset about Costello's typical knee jerk votes on sensible gun laws.  She noted his usual reference to 2nd amendment rights.  She and I had a brief word, and agreed that the 2nd amendment does not give the right of gun ownership to individual citizens, but rather to state controlled militia.  This is a concern that is very dear to me.  I have read the 2nd amendment, the constitution and certain laws that were passed immediately after the ratification of the 2nd amendment that clarify its language.  I will report on my research next week.

To wrap up this post, I will note that all of the concerns were brought up multiple times and all were couched in personal ways that made each address of a concern unique.  There were a few former government position holders at various levels.  There were teachers & professors.  There were former news media reporters.  There were doctors and nurses.  Many of the speakers were clear that the energy displayed thus far was not going to be going away.

Each time I go to an event of any sort, I come away with a renewed and strengthened commitment to and faith that we the people will provide the fuel to change the engine of our government  to a cleaner machine.

Fired up and ready to go!