I saw a notice about Senator Murphy's “town hall” in the Manchester JI and noticed the quotation marks around "town hall". (lot of noticing, here) Well, the quotation marks are appropriate, because this was anything but a town hall meeting; it was more like a lecture.
Questions had to be written down in ahead of time and were screened by an aid. The aid read a question and Sen. Murphy followed by rambling on for several minutes, never directly answering the question, nor allowing any followup. The name of the questioner was never given, so we don't even know for certain if the questions actually came from people at the meeting!
After about 45 min. of this, someone got up and objected to the format, pointing out that this was more like a lecture than a town hall meeting; that, there was no back and forth, no follow up, etc.
At this point, the audience became animated and vocal, joining in the objection. At this point, Mayor Leo Diana got up and lectured those in attendance, shaking his finger and scolding them for having the audacity to speak their minds!
This caused folks to become even more animated and vocal, (finally adding some interest to the dull, boring event), as the mayor was treating them like children! He then threatened to have people removed by police, who, mysteriously showed up about ten minutes later. Talk about contempt for the People; how dare they have the audacity to speak out!
Murphy said, "I'm not trying to shut down debate, here, . . . the reasons why we had this forum . . . there are a lot of other things people want to talk about in an open forum like this . . ." THIS WAS NOT AN OPEN FORUM, AT ALL. IT WAS A LECTURE BASED ON SCREENED QUESTIONS SELECTED BY HIS AID.
My idea of a town hall meeting is people standing up, looking the senator in the eye, asking their questions and getting a straight answer back while being looked in the eye, along with input, interjection from others in attendance, and follow up.
If Mayor Diana can't take the political heat, he should stay out of the political kitchen. And Senator Murphy should study history to learn what a town hall meeting is really all about or start billing these events more honestly. A town hall meeting should be fluid, dynamic, animated and passionate, not canned, sterile and scripted.
Unfortunately, this is a common tactic in the political world....a staged event to make the politician look good.
" here is the definition of a Town Hall Meeting, from Wikipedia: town hall meeting is an American term given to an informal public meeting derived from the traditional town meetings of New England. Everybody in a town community is invited to attend, voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and (if applicable) elected officials about shared subjects of interest. Attendees rarely vote on an issue or propose an alternative to a situation. It is not used outside of this secular context.[1] There are no specific rules or guidelines for holding a town hall meeting.[1] If the turnout is large, and in a particular case the objective is to give as many people as possible an opportunity to speak, then the group can be broken down into smaller discussion groups. Each group, in that case, appoints someone to summarize discussion of their group. Many companies also have such meetings NOTICE WHERE IT SAYS PEOPLE VOICE THEIR OPINIONS?? That is the expectation when going to a Town Hall Meeting. You expect to look the politician in the eye, and tell him or her how you feel. After leaving the meeting on Sunday, I am just as concerned for our 1st ammendment as our 2nd. You should be too. And FYI, as another woman in the group, who knew NOBODY walking in, I never for one second felt that I was in any danger whatsoever. These are Patriots, still fighting for our God-given rights, even as others are so willing to throw them away."
Actually they invited tweeted questions too. There were people there who were fanatical and escalting, not the other way around. He did answer questions, but these people were only interested in their own agenda. They wanted the entire coverage to be on the second amendment and became irrate when people had other interests. He tried to help with their fears that the government isn't going to take over and disarm them and explain that there is no federal law to keep illegal guns off the streets right now. It was appropriate to have the police called and it made me feel safe as I sat there and saw the heckles, and screams escalate and the disrespect for any other question proposed except the second amendment questions. He actually re-directed and told them he wanted them to be heard, as well as, offered to stay to hear them if their question did not come into que and he did stay and listen to them. It was the first time I ever met a U.S. senator and I had to fight the crowd of second amendment activists that surrounded him to absorb all his time for their own needs. By the way, many of the questions were on the second amendment anyway, go figure huh. It was chaotic and the mayors response to the chaos is blown out of perspective here!!!! He made me feel safe as I realized at any moment it could of escalated into violence. Sad as some were not there and judged based on an article. There are always too sides of the story!!!
The First Amendment is not there to protect comfortable speech. The First Amendment exists to protect the speech that makes you uncomfortable. Video follows: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5wsVsNCEygpvYrZOsToQokY7jhvSi9ip
Palin Smith is a videographer of the tea party movement in Connecticut. He is always ready to capture the image of a politician, a train wreck or a plague, but that's being redundant!
I am personal friends with Palin and can assure you his videos accurately reflect the events he records. Read my other blog about Sen. Bartolomeo's proposal to subject all school students to mandatory Psych evals, would be interested in your opinion.