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News Release
For Immediate Release: August 14, 2009
Contact: Diane Gramley 1.814.271.9078 or 1.814.437.5355

Will Senator Specter Listen to Public Outcry at Town Hall Meetings?

(Pittsburgh) – On Thursday Senator Arlen Specter held the last town hall meeting listed on his website with much the same result as the others he had held across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania – his constituents are mad at what they see coming out of Washington, D.C. and the push for socialized health care was the last straw. The American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide pro-family organization, has watched the town hall meetings with interest since Senator Specter and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius held their joint town hall meeting in Philadelphia on August 2^nd.

“Citizens’ participation in town hall meetings around the country has been very encouraging. I believe a giant has been awakened – one that had been asleep for too long. Common everyday Americans are waking up to an America they don’t recognize and they want their America back,” noted Diane Gramley, president of the AFA of PA.

Gramley, as a private citizen, attended Senator Specter’s Kittanning Town Hall Meeting on August 13^th. Over 1,000 showed up for the 3:00 p.m. meeting. She like hundreds of others was left standing in the parking lot after 200 were permitted in the conference room in the Belmont Complex. Many wondered why Senator Specter did not change the venue to a location a short distance away that would have accommodated the crowd.

Bussed in ACORN and union members were there with their professionally made signs, community organizer and bullhorn. Emotions ran high for the ordinary citizen who was not paid to be there and had driven one or two hours to get to the meeting only to be turned away at the door as ACORN and union members were permitted entry. Senator Specter again had his staff hand out 30 cards with the intention of only allowing those 30 people to speak, but as with the other town hall meetings that idea did not quite work as planned.

“Even with the Senator’s apparent plan to limit his constituents an opportunity to speak their mind on health care, from all accounts he took another verbal beating. But we have to commend the Senator’s willingness to face angry constituents as most of Pennsylvania’s Congressmen are taking Nancy Pelosi’s advice and simply holding a ‘telephone’ town hall meeting. Also, we haven’t heard much from Senator Casey this month,” Gramley remarked.

Pennsylvanians, as most Americans, are becoming increasingly tea’d off at the assault on our values, our system of government, our Constitution, our families, our military, our businesses and we don’t like the change coming out of Washington, D.C. The AFA of PA joins the voices of the majority of Americans in saying, “We want our country back!”

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