Our minds are closed

I attended Sen. Tom Cotton’s and Rep. French Hill’s joint town-hall meeting in Little Rock and left impressed with our elected officials, but dismayed by the actions of the constituents in attendance. It made me want to shout out that our right to free speech must be balanced with an important responsibility to listen. How else can we ever find common ground and move toward action?

The rudeness in the room was appalling to say the least. I felt Cotton and Hill treated the audience with much more respect than they received, or that the actions of many in the room deserved. It really seemed to me that an anarchist element wanted to turn a town-hall meeting into a protest venue. I don’t think that’s what this event was about. Rather, it was an opportunity to question our legislators, listen to their responses, and make our individual judgment about what they said. That was hard to do with people screaming over them as they talked, and raising placards to block my view. Save that behavior for street protests, not attempts at conversation in a townhall meeting.

Even a request asking folks to stand to start the session with a short prayer was interrupted by a group shouting for people to sit down if they didn’t believe in God, drowning out the few words spoken. Throughout the event, multiple questions were preceded by accusatory statements to try to slander our elected officials, all with shouts of support from others in the room. A total lack of basic Arkansas manners.

It seems to me our minds are closed and our hearts are frozen. I’m disheartened by the whole episode and looking for people to exercise their responsibility to listen as much as they demand their freedom of speech. JOHN BRAYMAN

Little Rock