Town Hall Meetings - Communications Breakdown 101

The recent town hall meetings that were supposed to be about congressional representatives going back to their constituents to get some face to face feelings on how they felt about health care reform. If these town hall meetings occur on a regular basis whenever congress debates a new bill, it certainly is news to most of us! Health care reform must have some very powerful forces moving about in the background as it is obvious that every time anyone tries to tweak it, repair it or make it better, the efforts seem to wain until it just fails or just fades away. It is becoming more apparent that when the Clintons made the last attempt and it failed, there was more going on there than we all understood or even knew about.

Why didn't all of this same upheaval of unrest hit the media back then? Was it because the attempt was given up too quickly? One known factor that is different today is that our times now are more complex than ever because every person's opinion can be heard so instantly due to the vast ways of everyone speaking their opinions that can be heard around the world in a few minutes, as was evident during the protests during the most recent election in Iran. Social network tools such as Twitter gave instantaneous voice from the people involved to the whole world very quickly.

Communications has always been known to be the best way to resolve a problem. The minute communications breaks down and stops, the problem escalates. Arbitration and give and take are the only way that even the most basic relationship, such as a marriage, can succeed to it's best solution. Communication is key to resolution, but it must be good communications, which involves one party speaking it's viewpoint while the other party listens, with open ears and an open mind. At some point, that party STOPS speaking in order that they may LISTEN to the other side's viewpoints. If the LISTENING never occurs on either side, the communications has already broken down. Communications breakdown is a major reason why the divorce rate is always increasing.

In the real world, we all know and have learned from an early age that there are some people who have never learned the skill of LISTENING. It is not an easy thing to do, especially when you are very passionate about your own feelings, but it IS absolutely a mandatory part of communicating. What does any parent do when their child doesn't listen? Do they not find themselves at their wits end when they have a child who refuses to listen? Anyone who has ever experienced this certainly can understand the power and value of listening.

At most of the town hall meetings, what has been portrayed to us though the chosen clips from mainstream media, are people who are not only not listening, but they are not even staying on the topic of the meeting! Time and time again, we are being shown pure disruptions that are either the ranting of angry mobs or purposeful and planned disruptions of the meeting, which gives strength to the argument that there is indeed another end goal and agenda of these attendees. If anyone who had valid concerns about health care reform and wanted a face to face answer from their representative, they would pose it in a question that guaranteed an answer, or at least a display from the representative that he or she did not have a clear and valid answer. Shouting out a general opinion or fear only serves the purpose of the shouter who clearly does not really want a reply, and therefore should not be given the floor for extended lengths of time, as this only denies others attending the same meeting the chance to ask their valid questions. When this occurs, the shouters are only denying others the rights that they are screaming and shouting about...their right to voice their opinion. Have you ever seen a child just scream, continuously, as long as they can just so they can't hear what is being said to them?

Anyone of us can plainly see when someone has a passionate opinion with a purpose. If the news was being clearly responsible, they would show more of the town hall disrupters viewpoint to see if it indeed revealed a purpose other than disruption. Therefore the media's purpose is clear, and that is to gain the ratings and capture more shock, more quickly than their competitors. This methodology of today's current mainstream journalism is doing more damage to our country and political system than anything ever has, as they are merely becoming the sound board or megaphone for the communications breakdown.