We ventured once again into the political landscape tonight. We attended a town hall meeting by our representative, Gene Green (D-TX, 29th district). We weren’t able to attend the one in our home town, we had our priorities….Astro’s tickets! So we drove 30 miles to a neighboring community in Pasadena to hear what he had to say about Health Care, Cap and Tax, and other miscellaneous topics. We turned the corner nearing the small community building and were surprised by the number of police vehicles lining the streets. We were an hour early and counted 18 police/sheriff’s vehicles. It seemed overkill for the 5 people waiting at the door with no protesters in sight. The up side was there was no fear of anyone vandalizing our truck. We were required to show photo ID at the door to gain entry, proving we were in his district. The irony in that requirement is that Gene Green voted against showing a photo ID to vote in elections.
The room was very small,72 chairs were set up. It filled quickly with standing room only, at least doubling attendance. The room was filled 15 minutes before time to start, so he started early. Median age in the room was around 60. Rep. Green had helped write HR 3200 and had a handout ready for us, the spin began. He gave his opening statements explaining his reasoning behind the Health Care Bill and Cap and Tax (which he is also strongly in favor of). The questions and comments ranged widely, but most were centered around Health care reform with several senior citizens voicing concerns. No one in the room spoke in favor of it. Most of the crowd was respectful. There were a couple of people who were angry and even Gene turned red in the face a couple of times. He didn’t take too kindly to one gentleman calling our current president a socialist. He didn’t take the bait, handled himself really well. We were both very impressed with the way he responded to the overwhelming opposition in the room. Our impression of him is that he is really a nice guy, but as one attendee pointed out, he is going to vote yes on both bills regardless of what “we the people” want. Gene didn’t disagree.
In our opinion when our representative no longer represents the majority of the people in his district, it is time for him to think about life after politics. It is our responsibility to make our vote count. All of congress needs to be reminded that we aren’t a nanny state yet, they still work for us. Stand up! Be counted. Let your voice be heard. DON”T TREAD ON US!
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