Speaking Truth to Power

There were many town hall meetings across the land this past week. Some estimate that there were over 1,000. (I am sticking to that modest number because it is perhaps better to understate the size and velocity of the anti-Democratic Healthcare Plan movement). I know in Yakima there was a 2^nd gathering in the space of two weeks.

In Clark County, Washington, Congressman Brian Baird got name recognition a few weeks ago when he used the words “brown shirt tactics” and “lynch mobs” in describing town hall attendees. To his credit, he held another Town Hall meeting after those remarks. It created another unforgettable moment that hopefully brought clarity to the topic Baird spoke of.

The speaker in the green shirt, David Hedrick said afterword, "I was one questioner out of 38, that was called at random from an audience that started at 3,000 earlier in the evening. Not expecting to be called on, I quickly scratched what I wanted to say on a borrowed piece of paper and with a pen that I borrowed from someone else in the audience minutes before I spoke. So much for the planned talking points of the right wing conspiracy. "

Congressman Baird supports a bill in Congress that is being written by lawyers who were elected by no one. Was he elected to represent the wishes of Washington DC lawyers? At another Town Hall meeting, a Congressman tried to explain that he didn't write the bill even though he was supporting it. Someone from the crowd yelled back for him to go get the lawyers who are writing it then. "Apparently that is who we need to be talking to!"