Published: August 25, 2009 12:21 am      

Town hall meeting misinformation must stop

To the Editor:

I take issue with Mickey Hepner’s child-like comments about the participants in the town hall meetings (“This is a time for reason, not anger,” The Edmond Sun, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009). His major theme is that the participants are all Republicans; are “raucous, vitriolic and at times even violent crowds”; are mobs resorting to threats of violence; are thugs using intimidation; and are infested with bullies.

The reality does not support his accusations. The “mobs” consist of Republicans, Democrats and Independents; senior citizens, middle class, everyday people with homemade signs acting on their own recognizance. They are irate because their representatives have ignored letters, calls and e-mails; frightened because of the ominous direction the country is heading; and frustrated because they are being ignored, patronized and belittled. Hepner ignored the hundreds of meetings that were spirited, engaged and informative such as the local events.

There has been no property damage, riots, burning cars and vandalism that seems to characterize Democrat-sponsored melees.

Hepner, you also caution us not to embrace “the vitriol spewing from conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, (and) Ann Coulter.” You missed Fox News, O’Reilly, Hannity, Ingrahram, etc. Do you know that the “vitriol spewing” Michelle Malkin, Dick Morris and Mark Levin have three of the four best-selling books on the NYT Best Sellers list? On Aug. 17, “vitriol spewing” Glenn Beck had a forum, akin to a town hall meeting, on his cable show hosting small business owners. Their comments and concerns were insightful and their economic forecast was chilling. Too bad you missed it.

The trillion-dollar Porkulous Bill to keep unemployment under 8 percent was signed, sealed and delivered without anyone reading it; the multi-trillion dollar Crap and Tax global warming fiasco also was signed without anyone reading it; and now it’s deja-vu all over again with the government owned and operated health care manifesto, and the campaign is being funded by unions, lawyers, pharmaceuticals, and of course, George Soros, owner and operator of the Democrat Party. No special interest or lobbying there. The hopey-changey thing is starting to collapse under its own weight of lies and arrogance. The citizens’ voices at the town hall meetings and the results attained are a testament to that fact.

No, Mr. Hepner, your Kool-Aid fed faux protestations about concerned citizens are neither insightful, nor original, nor accurate.



Pete Lepo

Edmond