Last week, I attended a town hall meeting at a community center in Windsor, Connecticut that was put on by my Congressman, John Larson. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about a politician who actually cared about a real issue facing the country, instead of bitching on social media about the latest culture war outrage. Today, I am going describe something that most politicians at every level of government do, but is not mentioned enough (in my opinion); hosting forums where they meet with their constituents.

Rep. Larson was introduced by the Mayor of Windsor, Donald Trinks. Trinks extolled everything Larson had done for the town, and then ceded the floor to Larson. Rep. Larson started out his remarks by mentioning how he attended a Ramadan dinner the night before at the State Capitol. He then touched on the fight over raising the debt ceiling, remarking on how his Republican colleagues floated making cuts to Social Security and Medicare part of the price to get their debt ceiling approval. He segwayed that into a passionate defense of Social Security, touting the benefits of Social Security not just to retirees, but to working people. He also used the opportunity to promote his bill to keep Social Security solvent, while increasing benefits.

Rep. Larson then switched to expressing his happiness about the continuation of F-35 fighter jet production. He was happy because one of the places where F-35 engines are made is Pratt and Whitney, which is in East Hartford, Connecticut, in our district. He pivoted to warn about the threat China posed to America, emphasing China’s global ambitions, and menacing threats to Taiwan.

After he finished speaking, he opened up the floor to questions from us in the audience. This part is always the better part of these forums. John Larson’s speech sounded like that of a typical politician. He was not inflammatory, and I learned some new facts about Social Security, but his speech was not spellbinding.

The first person, a middle age woman asked about about mental health in the wake of the Nashville shooting. Larson responded by touting the bipartisan background check bill Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy helped passed, but acknowledged more needed to be done. A veteran advocate stood up to add to the question and respond to it, saying how he works with veterans everyday who have mental health issues. He complained that the 5 million dollars that was brought to the district for mental health services last year was not enough. Next, an older lady brought up Larson’s touting of Social Security and asked a long-winded and meandering question about teaching financial literacy in schools. Larson listened patiently, and mentioned how glad he was that she asked her question. He complained that civics classes were being cut from school.

A couple other people, including me asked Larson questions. Finally, the highlight of the night happened. A couple of retired nurses stood up and gave a damning account about certain sectors of nursing in Connecticut. They complained that the process to train and certify nurses had been continuously cut back over the years. It has gotten to the point where the nurses to-be that they trained barely knew how to change a bed pan, and that students did not get anything close to a reasonable amount of on-site training. They tried to bring up issues up to hospital executives, but were either not taken seriously, or retaliated against. They complained that no one would listen to her.

Rep. Larson then interrupted them, and asked if they had set up a nursing organization to advocate for themselves. They answered in the the affirmative. Larson encouraged them to talk to elected officials either in the state legislature, or congress. They complained again that they had tried many times to talk to hospital executives, and that no one was doing anything. Larson repeated his urge for them to talk to elected officials, saying that people like himself aren’t automatically aware of everything. He also expressed doubt that the hospital executives would change their behavior in the absence of outside pressure. He reassured them that if they set up meetings and presented evidence to elected officials, they would have an audience. Larson then instructed his aide to meet with them after the forum.

Congressman Larson, like the Representative that I wrote about a few weeks ago is someone who puts caring about real issues above going viral in the media. I do not remember the last time he was on the Sunday media shows, and he certainly is not known for his viral tweets. He was honest and forthright in what he can and cannot do in Congress. The same cannot be said for some of his Republican colleagues.

Attendence was decent, but unfortunately, there weren’t many people around my age. Alas, they had other things to do. The one thing that surprised me was that considering this was the day of Donald Trump’s arraignment was his name did not come up once. Not that it was a bad thing. The media already gives Trump too much attention. It is good that voters in my district have other things on their minds.

Have any of you ever attended a forum with your congressman, or any other politician for that matter? Comment below.