Dialogue, please, not chaos

Another relatively new lefty blog in Oregon - the "unofficial" blog of the Bus Project in Lane County. Or, as they put it:

Just your typical breezy, chill, colloquial, congenial, down home, folksy, frank, free, laid back, loose, natural, open, spontaneous, unconventional, unofficial, unrestrained, urbane blog that is sometimes about the Lane Bus Project.

Anyway, one of their folks - Rose Wilde - attended one of Congressman Peter DeFazio's town halls in Lane County. And once again, there was tension between those activists wanting to engage in dialogue and those activists wanting to vent their rage against the Bush Administration. From LaneBus.org:

Pete walked to the front of the packed house (lined with anti-war signs) at the EWEB Community Room in Eugene without introduction and began his prepared remarks. He was quickly interrupted by several extremely frustrated people, demanding an end to the war, impeachment of the President (and Vice President) and a few hits on Alberto Gonzalez. My neighbor was so aggravated by Pete's (seeming) impotence to change the Bush administration's international policies (and warrant-less wiretapping) he was literally shaking with anger. Of course, being next to him, I was doomed to an hour of holding my hand up desperately waiting my turn to ask about why the federal government consistently stands in Oregon's way of real health care reform (Medicare, for one). This is no way to move our community forward. The emotions were high, but there was no dialogue. No one actually learned from DeFazio or from each other, and Pete didn't facilitate the meeting to prevent outbursts and individuals hogging air time. He also had no structure to the meeting, which means that there was no way of ensuring that several topics were covered.

Read the rest at LaneBus.org. Discuss over there.

Aug. 18, 2007 Posted in elsewhere.