MR. YARMUTH MEETS HIS CONSTITUENTS

Last night Congressman Yarmuth finally met with his constituents at Central High School.

Cindy and I arrived about 5:05 and pulled in front of Central High School. We were greeted by a line going all the way down Chestnut Street to the next street east. The line was rather disappointing in as I thought we were already too late to gain entrance for the 6:30pm meeting. We both decided to see this through. I dropped Cindy off to hold our place at the end of the line and I parked two blocks away. Really no big deal.

I walked back with a man that was from Chicago and his brother was a good friend of “Barry” Obama and he had some interesting stories so I invited him to stand in line with us and we shared nice conversations. The line took about a half hour to get to security where we emptied our pockets and some were scanned while others were told to proceed on. At the next station we were told we could fill out forms to ask questions and then we could proceed to the auditorium. Filling out forms to ask questions before I had heard the Congressman speak seemed a little strange. In any case I passed since I had the chance of having one of my questions asked at another venue.

Once in the auditorium we were left to observe the people filing in. Above the stage was a banner “Working for Louisville by Listening to You”. I found this laughable after the several weeks of calling Yarmuth’s office, writing letters, calling his office, standing in protest in front of his office, calling his office, and inviting myself into meetings he held that I only caught whispers of their existence.

Interestingly enough there were a lot of union groups, in their appropriate tee shirts. Most of them were in the front of the auditorium and had good seats. Three members of SEIU were sitting behind me. Dressed in their appropriate tee shirts I heard them talking union talk and at one point one got up to take a picture of them and then stated “well now we have proof that we were here”. This implied to me that they were mandated to attend but I am accused of being a skeptic so form your own opinion.

There must have been many with my same experience since at 6:35 the crowd started clapping in unison calling for the meeting to start. They realized that not having a chance to meet with the Congressman they did not want to lose any valuable time and demanding their chance to meet with their Congressman.

John walks out on the stage to a round of applause but an equal amount of boos and people expressing their dissatisfaction. Now I don’t approve of booing a person or even a visiting team but it certainly set a mood for the evening.

Francene, the moderator, laid out the ground rules and asked the audience to hold their boos and yelling and to be respectful.

John starts out with an impromptu survey asking several questions that lead to a positive or yes response. Questions like should insurance companies cancel people once the come down with major problems. Of course everyone answered with positive responses but he did not ask the question “do you think the government can take care of this?”

I think John thinks he did a good job of “herding the audience” with his survey but the first question asked enforced the opinion that many in the audience were not in favor of this proposed bill. The first question was cheered by the audience and John’s response was booed. Now I need to mention that at this point I think booing is OK. In fact it was necessary to let the Congressman know how dissatisfied his constituents are. If we all sat very quietly and only applauded the items we agreed with and then sat silently while the others applauded the responses they liked then all the Congressman would hear is the applause and not any dissatisfaction. So this was an appropriate time for the American people from both sides to speak up and exercise their rights.

I actually witnessed one man get upset at a person that was being vocal and he confronted him. This is sad since in this venue you are bound to hear things that you don’t agree with but you can’t try to suppress others just because you don’t agree. If it aggravates you too much then you can either sit and steam or leave but not confront.

All in all it was an invigorating meeting, I left comfortable that those opposed to the Congressman’s view were heard. John had a very rough night. One that he had not experienced at the three prior meetings I had attended. I left the Town Hall meeting feeling that I have done everything possible to try to prevent this bill from happening. If it still passes and is a mess I can honestly say I did my best.

At the Democratic Club John basically stated that he is going to vote for this in one form or the other no matter how his constituents feel. (He stated they were misinformed by the media), we need to remember that American is a Republic, not a full democracy. We vote our representative in office to vote for us as they see fit. John is certainly doing this. He has every right to vote his heart instead of the opinion of his constituents. The only thing we can do now is to put someone forward that will beat John Yarmuth in the next run for the 3rd Congressional District of Kentucky.

Lets Roll!