The Need to Listen

We’re at a point in our politics--at the national and state level, at least--where many politicians view listening to the people has an inconvenience. For some politicians, holding town hall meetings is something they only do every few years, such as Congressman Rob Woodall from Georgia’s 7th congressional district. One of his constituents’ main gripes against him, of which there are many, is that he doesn’t ever come down to Georgia just to listen to the people. Even when they do hold public events, they’re not about listening, they’re about fundraising or prodding their base. Just the other night, President Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania that featured prominent chants of “Lock her up.” The famous Blue Wave of 2018 that we all worked so hard to make happen was brought about because people felt like incumbent Republicans weren’t listening to them, but it’s supposed to be their job to listen.

If your congressperson, state representative, state senator, or any other elected official hasn’t held a town hall in your area yet, demand that they do so soon. Many in Gwinnett’s Democratic delegation have already held them. Last week, Rep.’s Shelly Hutchinson, Sam Park, Pedro Marin, Jasmine Clark, and Gregg Kennard held a two hour long townhall. There was a townhall held the month prior by state representative Beth Moore, state senator Zahra Karinshak, mayor Mike Mason, and Board of Education Chair Mary Kay Murhpy. In March, state senator’s Zahra Karinshak, Sally Harrell, and Sheikh Rahman held one with state representative Beth Moore; and the list goes on. At the county level, Commissioner’s Ben Ku and Marlene Fosque have both also held townhalls. When I was in the General Assembly for 16 years, I used to host monthly Citizen Advisory Forums, which were similar to townhalls. Our job is to represent your voices, which is literally in the job title of some positions--that’s why my slogan in the state senate was “making your voice count.” We can only do this if we actually hold these events and listen to your voices, questions, and concerns.

To make sure that I represent your concerns as our next county chair, I’m doing a Listening Tour around Gwinnett. In each county commission district, we’re having an event that’s completely dedicated to taking your questions and listening to what’s important to you. We’ve already had one in Norcross and another in Lawrenceville two, but we still have three more to go. Our next one is on June 26th in Lilburn, followed by one on July 16th in Buford. We’re wrapping it all up with our final stop on August 20th in Duluth. If you want more information on these, please visit my website or Facebook page. These are great opportunities to come and make your voice count, and I hope you’ll consider joining us at one of them.

It’s our duty to listen to your voice and do our best to represent it. Please, make sure that elected officials and candidates in your area are doing so--it’s our job.