Will Bobby Brights telephone town hall meeting be enough for his constituents?

August 27, 5:41 AMBirmingham Community ExaminerLuann Dawkins

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Birmingham Community Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

As previously reported, there has been much contempt for Congressman Bobby Brights decision to forgo the typical town hall meeting format, favoring instead a telephone town hall meeting. Last week, a group of Grannies and Grandpas gathered at his Montgomery office in an attempt to speak to him about Healthcare Reform Bill, H.R. 3200, which Mr. Bright ducked out the back door, instead of facing the music. I have made no bones about holding Mr. Brights feet to the fire on this one, and took some considerable flack from his supporters for that stance. But, as I stated, I feel it reprehensible, that he would duck out the back like a criminal, leaving elderly constituents standing in the heat.

Ironically enough, I received an automated call that I had been chosen to participate in the telephone town hall scheduled for Wednesday, August 26, around 7pm. The call was administered by Mr. Brights assistant, Lewis, who asked people their name, city and question, out of ear shot of the other callers and then your call was turned on when it was your turn to ask a question. An automated voice instructed the audience to press star three if you had a question and you were called in turn.

Much to my surprise, Mr. Bright was more forthcoming than I would have thought, and I must give him props for his candidness during the hour set aside for this meeting. Though, I must also include, since there was no visual of the other callers, it was not certain whether they were given planned questions ahead of time, or who they were, and all questions were screened. The majority of the questions were fairly benign, but there were quite a few about the Healthcare Reform Bill. Mr. Bright stated that he would vote no on any bill that came through the House that included a Federal Option. Although, he never gave a clear answer, as to which bill in the House (of the five) he would vote no on, or if there is one he would consider for a yes vote.

Throughout the call, Lewis took several polls, and we were given the question and which number to push for our answer. The most interesting of these was, "Are you for or against the Healthcare Reform Bill, press one if you are for the bill, press two if you are against the bill, and press three if you are unsure." A little later the results came in as, 15% for the bill, 77% against the bill, and 8% unsure, with more than 1,000 polled. Mr. Bright said, "that was a very loud voice on that, wasn’t it?"

When it came my turn to ask a question, Lewis popped in and asked my name, city and question. I said, "Luann, from Wetumpka, and you have said that you would have to vote on one of the bills in the House, I would like to know which one and if you are voting yes or no." Before Lewis relayed the question (we still had eight minutes left) he said, "well I’m sorry, that is all the time we have, if your question did not get asked, please hang on, you will be able to leave it on voice mail, and a staff member will get back to you with an answer." I wasn’t very surprised.

I guess we will see on Friday, if I get the opportunity to ask that question in person, or if once again we are left hanging in the heat.

Townhall Meeting, Friday, August 28, at Noon, on the South steps of the Capitol Building, near the 50 states flags