The 1,104th town hall of Ron Wyden?
The senior U.S. senator from Oregon admitted, “I’ve never had one quite like it.”
And Wyden didn’t take the lead in calming the agitated, terrified throng last Saturday before the mass dispersed and the traffic in that Hillsboro area finally subsided.
With fear and alarm in tow, several of those people came an hour early. Over 1,200 individuals crowded the gym at J.W. Poynter Middle School, silently hoping for reassurance that they weren’t the only ones feeling depressed and disappointed. Retired graphic artist Sarah Fine subsequently remarked, “My mind has been spinning in space, and it felt grounding to see so much humanity show up.”
Despite reading the room, Wyden found it difficult to motivate it. Even when he pointed out the political quackery of Elon Musk’s rat pack at the Social Security Administration’s gates, he remained aggressive but restrained, saying that authoritarians are committing these invasions of privacy. Your rights are being violated by this.
It was a quiet response. As the tension increased, oncology nurse Beth Champion received the lone electric standing ovation.
Halfway through the ninety-minute town hall, Champion stood up. Politics is not quackery here. “This is a coup,” she declared. Congress has been deprived of its purse strings. Betrayal is not even close to describing how I feel.
After traveling 20 miles from North Portland with friends, she and her husband, Dan, had arrived. Both of them prepared questions for Wyden, but Dan turned to Beth and asked, “Why don’t you go?” when his number was called in the town hall lottery.
With her voice rising above her nervousness, she went forth.
“When federal funds are withheld, when forest fires occur, or when ICE or whatever goon squad is formed enters our cities, I need to know that Oregon has a plan on how to remain solvent,” Champion added. Making plans for the worst-case scenario is not alarmist. We are dealing with people who don’t seem to care about the law, decency, or the orders of judges.
The thunderous clapping was a mix of relief and acknowledgment. Many people stood up to express their gratitude to her.At last. Someone is aware of our purpose. A woman would later tell Champion on BlueSky, “You touched a chord with so many of us.”
The town hall in Washington County has standing room only.Duin
They make you feel insane. You’re going overboard. Later that day, Champion informed me, “I don’t think we are.” (Wyden) produced a collection of campaign speeches. Is the Democratic Party truly this outdated? They sincerely think that fair elections will be held in two years, which is awful.
Have patience? Champion remarked, “I open the newspaper every day to fresh horrors, so it’s a fool’s errand.” Strongly worded letters are not appropriate at this time. There’s no drill here.
Then what? In Hillsboro, Wyden was struggling with that. “I understand that everyone needs to know how to confront the chaos, confusion, and lawlessness coming out of Washington,” he added in his opening remarks.
He promoted activism at the grassroots level. Vote-by-mail was praised by him. When the Trump administration shut down Medicaid portals last week as part of its federal funding freeze, he said, his team informed the New York Times. He stated, “I personally want everyone here to become a whistleblower.”
However, when Champion asked how Oregon, Washington, and California should get ready for the day when Trump exacts his wrath on the Left Coast in their time of need, he had no response.
The senator left many in the audience with the impression that he had transported the old Wyden playbook to a terrifying new world where everyone requesting federal assistance is a parasite, empathy is poisonous, and Ukraine started the conflict against Russia.
At the end of the meeting, Ron Wyden was mobbed by a large crowd.Duin
We lost the election, as Wyden made sure to remind them.
Indeed, 92,590 of their neighbors in Washington County voted for Donald Trump in November, allowing Republicans to control the majority and emasculate Congress, even if 1,200 people packed a middle school gym on a Saturday morning.
Hillsboro resident Colleen Dempsey, a retired finance manager, stated, “I was expecting a little more from Ron Wyden.” The audience’s disappointment at his lack of specificity was evident to me. However, perhaps they didn’t realize that there isn’t a majority anyplace. Democrats will have a hard time getting anything done.
Wyden stated, “I heard the cavalry yesterday, and I’m going to keep sounding the charge,” the day after his town halls in Hillsboro and Scappoose.
Wyden’s eight-minute address on the Senate floor on Wednesday undoubtedly accelerated that effort.
Sarah Fine understood the choices a minority U.S. senator may make. In the hopes that Wyden would be energized by their words, she exited the gym: “We need him and he needs us, so he feels like he’s not alone up there.”
Beth Champion feels incredibly isolated. She claimed to be witnessing the whole takeover and dismantling of the federal government. She is still waiting for the Democratic Party to acknowledge this crisis and take appropriate action.
I work as a nurse. Champion added, “You call rapid response or the code when you see a patient in a situation that looks dire.” You continue to check vital signs. As the entire team enters for triage, you remain by the patient’s side. It’s also OK if it’s an anxiety attack. You don’t put someone’s life at danger by waiting.
When you call a code, you never say sorry.
— Duin, Steve
gmail.com/Stephen.B. Duin.
