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News Herald Coverage of Town Hall Meeting
Town hall in GCCC parking lot draws huge crowd
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PANAMA CITY — Waves of people descended upon Gulf Coast Community college’s parking lot Friday night for a town hall meeting without a host.
The event, organized by the Bay Patriots and Talk Radio 101.1’s Burnie Thompson, originally was supposed to take place after a health care forum hosted, in part, by U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd. That event was canceled, but the town hall was not.
Derrell Day, president of the Bay Patriots, sent a citizen’s summons and letter to Boyd’s office inviting him to the town hall. He declined to attend.
The event, however, went on without him.
“Congressman Boyd, when are you going to read the constitution and comprehend it?” a woman yelled, while waving an American flag and pointing at a suit stuffed with towels and sheets, which supported a balloon head wearing a Boyd mask.
She was one of many who emerged from the crowd to ask the life-size Boyd doll questions, make statements and express their displeasure with some of the Monticello Democrat’s recent decisions, including his cancellation of Friday’s planned health care forum.
“Congressman Boyd, after the Blountstown meeting, I came down here to get a ticket so I could see you, but you’re not here,” said one man, addressing the Boyd doll.
To tally the number of attendees, a man was passing out single pages of the H.R. 3200, the 1,018-page piece of health care legislation that is among three bills currently before the House of Representatives, to people in attendance. Each person got a single, numbered sheet helping them keep a count of those in attendance.
About two hours into the event, the pages were gone. Organizers put the unofficial attendance at between 1,000 and 1,200.
“Congressman Boyd canceled his town hall, but the town showed up,” said Thompson, a co-organizer of the event. “This is how Bay County responds to an unresponsive congressman.”
While a large crowd of people conducted the question-and-answer portion of the event with the Boyd doll, seated in the bed of a pickup truck, several people wrote questions on a long, white piece of paper sprawled out on the ground, and others entered their questions into a computer to be sent directly to Boyd’s office.
About an hour into the event, Day stood on the back of the pick-up truck and encouraged people to spread out “and get to know one another.”
After that, the crowd thinned a bit, as some walked around talking to one another, while others walked up to wave signs at traffic as it passed by on U.S. 98.
“You have people who get promoted to be boss and some who are good and others who want to absolutely tell you what to do,” said a man toting an American flag in his left hand, while engaged in a heated conversation. “That’s the kind of personality type these people have.”
As the crowd began to clear out, Day said the event met his expectations.
“I think the message has been made. We have absolutely got to get control of this government back.”
WMBB News coverage of Town Hall Meeting
Panama City, Fla:
A Panama City town hall meeting continues tonight, despite an absent congressman.
Representative Allen Boyd is in the process of rescheduling, but the Bay Patriots press on. The group gathered at Gulf Coast Community College.
Congressman Boyd was not at this event. He says he’s heard the concerns of the Bay Patriots, and those concerns are part of the reason to reschedule and relocate.According to the Patriots, it was still a town hall. Congressman Boyd, who was in Panama City today, was invited to attend.
This discussion isn’t just about health care, participants say they have many issues they want to discuss with Boyd.
“I was going to go either way … my plan was to come to the town hall and actually talk to Boyd … but that was cancelled but we’ll still get information,” said Bay County resident, William Horvat.
“I just feel like he kinda chickened out,” said Bay Patriot, Ed Willis.
“We’re here because we feel like we’re losing some freedom in this country and we want all the information that we can get,” said Bay County resident, Beverly York.
Despite Boyd absence, all are eager to have him come back to the panhandle and say they would attend a rescheduled town hall
