Quad Cities Town Hall, 28 May, 2015
Per BrotherIvan's request, this is how last night's town hall went. It's just a mashup of two replies I'd made earlier, my thoughts about the event and how Sen. Sanders responded to a question about police brutality.
The room was already close to half-full by the time my oldest daughter and I got there, about half an hour before it was supposed to start. You could feel the excitement and energy just vibrating in there already. More people kept coming in. And more. It got so crowded they decided to take down the room partition and bring in more chairs. According to news reports we had almost 600 people, young, old, and in between--union people, teachers, students, healthcare workers, unemployed, retirees, etc. Bernie was late arriving because of a flight delay, but no one seemed to mind, and it worked out well anyway with getting people a place to sit. We joked about the dismal turnout the Republicans had had that day compared to this. (Santorum and Paul were also in town.)
Twenty minutes after he was supposed to start, Bernie and his wife arrived to a standing ovation and chants of, "Bernie! Bernie!" My daughter and I got to shake hands with him as he worked his way to the podium. He was surprised at the crowd, joking that he'd been told to expect about 300 and it looked like he and his wife were spending their twenty-seventh wedding anniversary with half of Iowa.
He gave his stump speech, having to pause several times for loud applause and more standing ovations, and some "Boo's" when he mentioned the Koch brothers. To his right were three college students, one female and two males, one of whom was African American. They talked about the debt they faced upon graduation. The young AA student had to stop a couple times for applause. He was really good. Finally Bernie spoke about growing up poor and how he knew firsthand the struggle of families trying to get by.
Then he opened up the floor for the Q & A. Three lines formed and he began taking questions. Some were downright out of left field, ie., "What will you do about corporations ripping off online gamblers?" to rambling, almost incoherent exhortations to be aware and check out libertarian sites (Bernie's expressions were priceless. Not in a rude manner, but brows drawn together in puzzlement, in an almost "Are you trolling me?" look, but he was gracious too, and answered sincerely and the best he could.) to good questions about expanding Social Security, No Child Left Behind (He wants to end it.) to the final one, about police brutality. His response was:
He'd like to implement community policing nationwide, with police as public servants
He would like to end the militarization of police
And he said that most importantly, police must be held accountable
Afterwards, as people were leaving, I heard murmurs about how authentic he seems, how glad they were to be there and hear someone who actually answered questions, and so forth. He really struck a chord with people. Bernie stuck around and young people crowded in for pictures. (My daughter now has three with him because I wasn't sure what I was doing with her iPod camera! lol)
I can't wait to hear how the Muscatine town hall went.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Very cool thank you for sharing!
I think he made a great impression with the crowd.
Definitely cool, even if more than planned. 
and thanks for taking the time to fill us in. Glad to hear his views on the 'police' problem.
