There’s been some discussion on the Internet about a meeting U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., held in Roswell last week, with the commentary being largely critical of many who attended the meeting with Teague. Here’s another view:
By Herb Atkinson
Early last week I received a recorded telephone call from Congressman Harry Teague announcing he was going to be conducting a public meeting at Pepper’s Grill in Roswell on Wednesday afternoon, and I was invited to come. When I arrived, I joined about 60 other Americans there to meet with, and hear from, their congressional representative. Everyone was asked to gather in the west-end meeting room. The only problem was that Congressman Teague was sitting in a corner booth in the restaurant, not in the meeting room with the people.
When I asked one of his staff about this arrangement, I was told that if I wanted to visit with the congressman, I would need to put my name on a sign-up sheet to visit with him one-on-one. As the crowd learned more about this arrangement, people became upset. You see, his meeting was only scheduled for an hour, and there were already enough people on the “one-on-one” list to last for more than an hour.
It became clear that Congressman Teague had no intention of meeting with a group of his constituents, as his invitation indicated.
A resounding ‘NOOOO!’
Only after the assembled citizens in the meeting room moved into the restaurant area and insisted that he answer public questions in a public forum did the congressman reluctantly stand and address the crowd. (I might add that the crowd consisted of people I recognized as both Republicans and Democrats.)
He began by saying that he assumed most of the assembly was there to discuss the bill he had just voted for in the House — commonly known as the cap-and-trade bill. The congressman told the crowd he voted for the bill because of an amendment he added that he believed would help some of the people in his district.
When pressed about whether he had read and understood all 1,300 pages of the bill and all the provisions it contained, he said, “I have staff people to do that for me.” When asked why he would vote for a bill that would tax every American an additional $3,000-plus a year, he answered, “It is really only about the amount of a postage stamp.”
The citizens present seemed to have difficulty getting their arms around that answer.
There were a lot of questions being fired at the congressman from many parts of the room, many at the same time. So, in his defense, it was very hard to cover them all. One question that did get an answer was, since he had voted for legislation that would provide tax dollars to fight global warming, did he believe in global warming? His answer was, “I don’t know if I believe in it or not. I am not a scientist.”
Congressman Teague was also asked, if the cap-and-trade bill were put to a public vote in his district, did he believe the majority of the citizens would vote for it? He answered, “I believe they would.” This answer brought a resounding “NOOOO!” from the crowd.
‘These are your constituents, Harry’
During all the visits with my congressmen I have attended in the last 29 years, it was never necessary to have a staff person intervene to help the congressman field questions or quiet the crowd. This was certainly the case last Wednesday. Make no mistake, this was a crowd of upset American citizens there to hear from their elected representative about the issues flying through Congress that are of great importance to them.
From my prospective, neither the congressman, nor his staff, ever planned to have this type of open, public meeting. It seemed clear to me that the intention was to never have to face his concerned constituents as a group.
I think that a parting comment, voiced over the noise of the crowd, summed up the feeling of the citizens very well: “These are your constituents, Harry, make sure you hear the voice of these Americans today!”
Only with time and watching his voting record will we know if he heard or not.
Atkinson is a businessman from Roswell.