Ignoring people is just plain rude

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: August 12, 2009

I concluded my “mob column,“ as it is coming to be known, this weekend with these lines:

Congress has kept right on being Congress, and average Americans are fed up. If constituents have given up on disagreeing agreeably, it is in no small part because their Congress has given up on listening.

So forgive folks if they’re feeling a bit mob-ish. Their means, while regrettable, are accomplishing their long-pursued ends: They finally have their lawmakers’ attention.

I love the First Amendment. Don’t you?

When I said Congress had given up on listening, I meant it more as a figure of speech than a literal report. But it appears that both are accurate.

Have a look at this YouTube video made at a town hall meeting hosted by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas). Of course, this video is being used as a tool by opponents of the health care reform package now working its way through Congress. But I just want you to look at how the honorable Congresswoman Lee treats her constituent (who, I want you to notice, is NOT YELLING).

You can see how much Ms. Lee cares about what this woman, whom she is supposed to represent, is saying.

Disgusting. Absolutely unconscionable, indefensible and disgusting.

David Jennings over at LoneStarTimes.com has more on the meeting. Get this: The meeting started a half-hour late, presumably because Lee wasn’t there. And then:

(The incident captured above) wasn’t the only time she wasn’t paying attention to her constituent. Several times, while people were asking questions, she walked to the front and engaged her staff in conversation. She said that in Washington, they learn to multi-task and that is what she was doing, insisting that she wasn’t being rude and that she was indeed listening.

Several times. Multi-tasking. That was her explanation for her rude behavior.

I guess Ms. Lee is an expert at multi-tasking when it suits her fancy. For example, she supposedly can do it effectively when she is in a town hall meeting.

... Apparently just not well enough to get to that meeting on time.