Samurai Mom Goes to Washington

...or to the Sherwood Town Hall meeting with Congressman Wu to be precise. The questions were not pre-screened.

Near the end of the meeting I was called on. I reminded the Congressman that he had not answered the gentleman's question about whether or not he had read the "cap and trade" bill before he voted on it. I also reminded him that he had not answered the lady's question as to whether he would commit to reading the health care bill before voting on it. I then said that I would like to know if he read any of the bills passed recently that spent gigantic amounts of money and that I would like to know if he would to commit to reading all future bills before voting on them. Then I said
"As someone that votes and sends you to congress I expect you to read every bill before voting. If you cannot do so or don't have the time I expect you to abstain or vote "no." If you can't do that, if you think that that is to much of a work load then maybe this isn't the job for you."

Wild applause from the audience.

He insisted that he had kept all of his campaign promises over the top of people yelling "Answer her question!" He did not, and I am still waiting for a satisfactory response, Congressman.

I was lucky that he called on me, I owe it all to my youthful and demure appearance Appearances can be deceiving as Congressman Wu found out. He went right back to asking questions of the frail looking elderly who were angry but a little more reserved and less pointed.

After the meeting was over I was congratulated many (20?) times, had my hand shaken repeatedly, was called a patriot and was accused of being just 18!

There were oh, so many other things I wanted to chastise him for but this one is what fit with the meeting. I am amazed that the thoughts came out so calmly, clearly and in order. I didn't lose my head and I didn't call anyone names! I was so angry but I don't think I gave that away in my voice.
The beauty of what I said is that it runs across the board. EVERY voter wants their congressmen to read bills before voting on them. No one but congresspeople think that not reading bills before passing legislation is OK. I realize that it is probably impossible to read every word of every bill. That just makes my point; the bills are too long, too complex, too full of pork and there are too many of them. If people refuse to support a bill until they have read it thoroughly then eventually the "way it is" will change!

As we heard tonight, Congressman David Wu has repeatedly refused to commit to reading bills before voting on them.

***This video will be active shortly, as it turns out it remembered it fairly well, and honestly, people did yell for him to answer my question.***