A few weeks back I become curious about who represented me and I went to the House website where you can type your zip code into a box and find out who your congressperson is. Since I only moved to Alameda after the election, I had no idea. I found out that it was Pete Stark, I went to his webpage and found out that he was holding a town hall meeting in San Leandro, about 10 miles south of where I live. I decided I wanted to go and check it out, more out of curiosity that anything.

I hadn't gone to see a politician speak in over a decade. The last time, in what turned out to be a complete waste, was way back in the 92 election when I went with some friends to Orange County to hear Ross Perot.

There were about 100 to 150 people in the small auditorium at the San Leandro library. Most were from the blue hair set. There were precious people my age or younger. Stark, who's a Democrat, has been in Congress for more than 30 years. Most of the audience reflected his concerns. There were a few Republicans, including one guy who brought up his issue with embryonic stem cell research and another who wanted to talk about immigrations. It was generally very cordial until old WWII vet who started a vocal fight with a few other attendees on the subject of troops in Iraq. The congressman is for a complete and immediate pullout.

Anyway, as we came in the auditorium, we were asked if wanted to ask a question and given numbers which the congressman called randomly. I hadn't wanted to about either the Downing Street Memo or about PBS, but others had asked these before my number came up. So when Mr. Stark called for number 19, I wasn't sure if I was going to get up and ask, but I did.

I thanked the congressman for being there and told that I just moved into his district. He asked me from where, and instinctively, I said from Samoa where I was in the Peace Corps. Everyone in the audience started clapping which was seriously embarrassing. I could have said Walnut Creek or Vail, CO, and each would have been true but would have suggested something about me that's inaccurate, but I digress.

In answering the questioner about PBS the congressman made some qualitative remarks equating PBS with Rush Limbaugh. He said something like on the one hand PBS does its thing and on the other hand Rush Limbaugh does his thing. I made a comment about how this was a spurious analogy. Then I turned to the Republican who questioned the morality of the embryonic stem cell research and I said it was great that he was here, it took some serious fortitude to come, but I believe he represented a widely misunderstood view that embryos are humans with arms and legs when in fact they are nothing more than microscopic undifferentiated cells that are going to be destroyed anyway. His response: "That's your opinion."

I was stunned by this response. I guess I shouldn't have been, but I was. Right now we have a huge problem in this country that is caused by blurring the lines between fact and opinion. When I can state a fact, i.e. that embryos are cells and don't have limbs and am told that's my opinion, what are the "facts" that this guy is basing his opinion on? Clearly his "facts" are wrong and therefore any opinion based on those facts is going to be deeply flawed. But I suppose religious dogma trumps reality every time.

So I asked Mr. Stark my question which was about a James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) bill HR 1528, entitled Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005. Keeping drugs away from children is a good thing, but there's a section of the bill that requires people who have knowledge of any drug related activity to report that information to the police within 24 hours. The penalty for not doing so would be a felony punishable by a minimum of two years. I asked what was being done about this. Curiously the congressman hadn't read the bill, hadn't even heard of it. He asked me to email him about it and I have.

My question was towards the end, and the meeting ended, people started dispersing. As I was leaving people started to come up to me either to engage me in their political activism, which I have no interest in, or to talk about the Peace Corps, which is always interesting.

A couple of things were notable about this experience. The first is that there was no security of any kind. As I came in the door, all I was asked was if I wanted to ask a question. They didn't ask for ID. They didn't ask for party affiliation. They didn't ask whom I voted for. They didn't even check my bags. This is how a democracy is supposed to function and the fact that it even comes to my attention is a problem. The second is that Pete Stark took unsolicited, unscreened questions from everyone and anyone. People asked about all sorts of things from issues I mentioned about to base closures, the Patriot Act, Social Security, and everything in between. It was very refreshing.

The whole meeting was in stark contradistinction from the "town hall meetings" that George Bush is holding around the country to drum up support for his Social Security reform plans where the crowds are hand picked and the questions are preselected while Americans taxpayers pick up the whole tab for the entire charade.

I doubt I'll become a regular at these events, as some of those people clearly were, but it was enlightening and it feels good to be part of the political process.