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An alliance of Iowans determined to defend traditional Iowa values.

My Thoughts On Adel

The primary purpose behind Town Hall Meetings is to allow the public to have an avenue where they can express themselves to their elected officials face to face. It allows citizen’s to ask a question directly to the official. This is an excellent method for our legislators to correspond with us, the residents of the district. In recent days we have seen Town Halls across the country erupt with passion and activism in quantities that we have not seen in quite some time. As Craig Robison pointed out on The Iowa Republican, it would seem that an apathetic public has awoken and nothing will contain their passion or their outrage.

Unlike some other Iowan’s roaming the halls of Congress in Washington Senator Charles Grassley’s Town Halls have maintained an openness and respect for the constituents that has rarely been witnessed this month. Instead of closing the meeting down when turnout exceeds the room capacity, Senator Grassley has moved his meetings to locales that can handle the additional throng. This is the type of openness that we, the people of this state and this country, need in order to regain lost trust.

And so it was with Senator Grassley’s Town Hall in the small community of Adel, IA. The event was originally scheduled to be held inside the Adel City Hall, but as the anticipated crowd began to swell the decision was made to move the meeting outside in order to avoid turning people away. It proved to be a very wise decision as I estimate that around 400 eager and passionate people were in attendance. They gathered around the pavilion in Adel to hear Senator Grassley speak and to hopefully ask him questions.

The throng attending the event asked some pretty good questions of Senator Grassley. There were some passionate speeches given. One in particular by a woman named Vicki Crawford who recited a speech that she had authored the night before. There were some in attendance that supported not just the health care bill that Senator Grassley is helping to draft, but also a public option for health care. But for the most part the people in attendance were opposed to the plan.

In my opinion Grassley did a good job answering the questions posed to him. He said the right things to assuage opponents of the bill while at the same time promising to work with the other Senators to deliver a bill that he believed would be better than if he was not there. Overall I would say that his responses were well received, however I do believe that he is still treading a very perilous path. One wrong step in this process and the citizen’s of Iowa will land on him like a ton of bricks.


August 13, 2009 - Posted by Al Bregar | Abregar, Politics | , , ,

7 Comments »

  1. Thank you for this update. Wish I could have been there, so it is good to read of your experience.

    Comment by Roger | August 13, 2009 | Reply

  2. I wish Grassley would stop trying to tweak the bill and simply advocate scratching it altogether and starting over.

    Comment by neighhay | August 14, 2009 | Reply

  3. I think he needs to step away. They just need to start over.

    Comment by Shane Vander Hart | August 14, 2009 | Reply

  4. I am glad that Senator Grassley is not a left-winger in a congress and an Obama administration and in a society where the left has gained so much control. I am glad that he has traditional moral values. But I still have to come down to the conclusion basically expressed by Neighhay and Shane Vander Hart in other comments on this post that the Democrat/Obama health bill needs to be entirely scrapped.

    Comment by Raymond V Banner | August 14, 2009 | Reply

  5. I am so dam mad at the people who work for us calling us such vile names. Would any of you call your boss at work nazi’s evil mongers, and even labled terrorists by our own homeland security chief. Im totally outraged they are calling us names. Another point the democrats keep blaming republicans for blocking this bill well they dont need the republicans on any side the house and senate is controlled by the demonuts. And why did Obama want this passed so fast he was wanting this done in less time than it took him to pick out a family dog for the White House and something of this size and importance needs to be taken more slowly/

    Comment by Woodrow | August 14, 2009 | Reply

    • Reagan is most famous for his big tax cut which passed in his first year. Bush also got his signature tax cut in his first year. It’s normal to try to get your big objective right away.

      Besides, we’ve known for 20 years that our health care system was broken. Ideas to fix it have been discussed for all that time. Were you paying attention? This is not some rush job like the Wall Street bailouts were. The real reason you want to delay it is so you can stop it.

      Comment by Jerry | August 15, 2009 | Reply

      • “The real reason you want to delay it is so you can stop it.” -Jerry

        Dang straight, just like I would have loved to stop the government intervention into the financial sector and the “American debt and disparity Act”

        Comment by taco | August 18, 2009 | Reply


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