The Town Hall Meeting for Constituents?
A few weeks ago I emailed our district’s Congressman and asked if he was having a Town Hall Meeting and if so, when and where it would be. I received a canned email back about the wonders of the proposed Obamacare. So, I replied back and asked if they could please answer my question, which was when and where his Town Hall Meeting would be. I never received an answer to my second email.
Then I heard from our favorite local Christian talk radio show host, Adam McManus, on KSLR, 630 AM, that Ciro Rodriguez’s Town Hall Meeting was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., August 28th. We were unable to attend the 11:30 a.m. meeting as we had prior work commitments. But three of the older children and I did attend the 6:30 p.m. meeting, if you can call it “attending.”
The press was that the doors opened at 6 p.m. with the event starting at 6:30 p.m. The guys came home and showered and we headed off for town. It was over a 50 mile drive to get Palo Alto College.
We drove through heavy rain, tried to replace our windshield wipers which weren’t working all that well. We haven’t needed them since we’re in the middle of a drought. But, the parts store gave us wipers that were too long. So, a few miles down the road, we swapped back to our old wipers.
We grabbed $ menu fast food and made it to the venue at 6:10 p.m.
We walked in and headed for the room only to be blocked at the doorway by staff members asking if we had “tickets.” Um….no…..nothing had been said about needing tickets. I explained that I’d emailed 2 times and asked for info on the Town Hall Meeting and had not received a reply from Mr. Rodriguez or his staffers. And that I’d heard about the event on the local radio station and no mention of tickets was made there. Others said that they had 2 “reserved” seats and they hadn’t been told about tickets but they still were not admitted. Others said they had asked for info on the meetings to and were unable to get any from the Congressman’s office.
Their response was that they hadn’t “planned on tickets but because the fire marshall said that the maximum capacity of the facility was 400 people, they had to abide by that. It was all due to the fire marshall!” They said it was first come first served and they started handing out tickets at 5 p.m. Um……then why didn’t they pick a facility that had more than 400 available seats for the large town of San Antonio???? But, they “nicely” set up a screen, speakers and chairs in the large hallway for the overflow crowd………those who were ticketless.
Many of us stood there and watched person after person without a ticket be escorted into the “already at capacity” room while the rest of us were denied access. And then there were the people who arrived at the same time we did who were given tickets and allowed in. One lady, in particular, kept ushering ticketless people into the venue. Ashley finally asked her why these other people were being admitted. One group was Mr. Rodriguez’s interns. Another was a staff member who was on leave for cancer and had traveled a long way to be there. Who were the others? I think it a valid guess to say they were his supporters…….and we were not………
The meeting started, yet the speakers in the hallway did not work. The overflow crowd said the Pledge of Allegiance on their own. We sang the Star Spangled Banner too. A couple of hecklers made a ruckus and the security staff informed us that anyone without seats must leave. Then they upped the ante to anyone without tickets must leave. Without tickets? ALL of us in the hallway were ticketless! If we’d had tickets, we wouldn’t still be in the hallway! No one left. Finally the speakers worked and we could somewhat hear some of what was being said.
Mr. Rodriguez was asked if he would not vote for Obamacare if abortion was included in this bill. He assured us that abortion was not included in this bill?!?!?!? He must be one of the Congressmen that doesn’t have the time or ability to read the bill.
One man testified that his insurance had been dropped due to his cancer and “What was the Congressman going to do for him?” Now as his chance to plug Obamacare as Savior.
A young lady spoke to the issue that her generation and following would be footing the bill for the Stimulation Package and Obamacare should it pass. He dismissed her as she didn’t “ask a question.”
Someone else asked why the Congress was letting President Obama appoint so many Czars that are not approved by the legislature. The Congressman said that this practice needed to stop. But he didn’t say what he was doing about it to make it stop.
And later on in the evening someone asked him how we were going to pay for the underestimated monstrous cost of Obamacare when we were already so far in debt and climbing fast. (Only click on that last link if you have a strong heart and stomach.) He said that the Stimulus Package and other budget items had not yet been paid for and that this practice must stop. But there were no answers as to how we would pay for Obamacare that I was able to hear. ur…….or that are real……
And there were other questions most of which we could not hear.
We did speak to Miguel Ortiz, who is a Democrat running against Ciro Rodriguez in the next election. I asked him what his position on life is. His answer was that “life begins in the womb.” That’s a start, but it’s a cop out. It is a cop out if we just say that life starts in the womb and not commit to conception. That gives us freedom to choose abortion without guilt as we can always say we just don’t know when in the womb life starts. If we’re honest about conception equaling life, then abortion is a mute point. It’s murder. That’s why he wouldn’t commit to conception = life.
Mr. Ortiz…….just ask the mother who just lost her 8 wk along baby to miscarriage. Ask her if that baby was just a lifeless blob (with a beating heart I might add)…….or if it is a life that she is now grieving the loss of.
Mr. Ortiz…….Ask the woman who made the “choice” to abort her baby for any reason, if her heart is now not breaking…..if she doesn’t carry that guilt and stain every moment of every day for the rest of her life. Ask that woman…………..
Mr. Ortiz…….life begins at conception, the moment that God creates the union of the father’s cell with the mother’s cell into a NEW life…….
Mr. Ortiz…….God creates human life in HIS image…….Who are we to take that life? If we say that it is OUR choice to end the life that God has created, then we usurp the jurisdiction and office of God and we do as Eve did in the Garden and desire to “be as God.”
Mr. Ortiz……Do you dare to take on God’s jurisdiction? I shudder…………..
But Mr. Ortiz wouldn’t commit to the fact that life begins at conception and that that baby had rights under our constitution as a living person dependent upon his or her mother’s body and care. He kept bringing up the idea that the mother had the right to kill that baby in the name of her rights. And that if we outlaw abortion here in the US then women and young girls will just go to Mexico and get botched abortions?!?! I noted that in the US at least one person will not come out of that abortion clinic alive. And sometimes that’s 2…….even here……
I also noted that two or more are always killed or harmed by abortion as the mother carries the trauma of her murderous act for her lifetime. It never goes away. And then there are fathers and grandparents and future siblings who are all affected by the woman’s “choice.” I also noted that she had a choice and she exercised that choice at the time of conception.
He mentioned that we were there for Healthcare. We responded that in a roundabout way we were, but the real issue we were there was because of socialism spreading like a fire in our government. Yes, socialism has been in our government at least since Social Security was enacted if not before, and public schools (see Voddie Baucham’s well-written article), and Medicare and Medicaid and Cars for Clunkers and on and on it goes.
He complimented the children on their education and ability to speak to the issues. He said he learned some things from us. Like maybe who Marx and his followers are? Or that God’s law is the basis for our Nation’s rule of law, not man’s subjective humanistic blowing-in-the-wind type of laws? And that our Government’s jurisdiction is given by God not determined by man’s desire to control whatever he wants? Or that God has given the Family a jurisdiction that the Government has no right to usurp?
We went to hear Ciro Rodriguez’s Town Hall Meeting. Instead we spoke with Mr. Ortiz. We enjoyed our talk and pray that the Lord would use our words to cause him to think about if his beliefs are based on the only true foundation we can have, which is the Word of God, words given to us by the very Creator of all, including the life of a baby in the womb.
Since Ciro Rodriguez is an ultra liberal Democrat, I knew it would be a frustrating evening. But the obvious crowd control and lack of respect for his constituents was not expected. I guess I should have expected it, but I was still surprised at the obviousness of the crowd stacking.
Congressman Rodriguez, let me just tell you that our family is outraged and saddened by the treatment we and many other law abiding, concerned citizens received last night. Are we going to be the ones who do not get a Healthcare Ticket when we need one? Are we going to be the ones left out in the hallway?
I don’t need to be a prophet to know the answer to that question. It’s rhetorical, you know?
