Last Saturday I attended a townhall meeting held at a Randall’s grocery store that I would like to comment on.

The speaker was Congressman Lloyd Doggett [D-TX]. The meeting started out well enough, the sound level rising when the crowd disagreed with Mr. Doggett, but the crowd was easily quieted. In the beginning topics other than Healthcare were discussed. When the topic became the Healthcare bill the crowd asked pertinent questions about the different sections of it. It was obvious that Mr. Doggett did not know what is in the bill, even though he claims to have helped write it. After being called out on several articles in the bill, Mr. Doggett decided to leave.

Yes, the crowd became agitated at this point and followed him to his car. I don’t blame them. First, Mr. Doggett cut his meeting short by 45 minutes. It appeared his attitude was “if this isn’t going to go my way, I’m taking my ball and going home.” Secondly, and what actually set off the crowd was Mr. Doggett’s parting shot of “I support this bill, I helped write it!”

The local Austin newspaper reported that Mr. Doggett is more resolved than ever to support this bill. A word for Mr. Doggett - Pride cometh before a fall. He needs to remember that the only reason that he is holding office is the fact that there was no one running against him in the last election. This will change with the next election.

We are American citizens, and for the moment we have the right to free speech. Everyone except the Marines apparently, [being banned from twitter, face book, etc.]. Or perhaps those reported to whitehouse.gov for disagreeing with the Healthcare bill.

I would like to note that I have no political affiliation and when striking up a conversation with the people next to me in line to sign in, I was surrounded by Democrats. Apparently the right wingers are not the only ones upset about this bill.

The real problem that I saw with this meeting was that it was ill planned. There was not enough room. You may have noticed on television that at the other townhall meetings the speakers had microphones, not so here. The public were forced to yell their questions to the congressman. You could not see the speaker, much less hear him. Last but not least, the unprofessional, immature way in which the congressman ended the meeting.

Conscience