It's time for Eric Burlison to have a town hall meeting

I can't really tell you if Roy Blunt ever held a town hall meeting during the years he served as Seventh District Congressman, but in the past 14 years, from the beginning of Billy Long's first term through this first year of Eric Burlison's second term, no town hall meetings have been held in the Seventh District.

I'm not saying our last two congressmen don't visit our district, but let's face the facts, unless it is to attend some major county or regional party activity, or to visit the people with the big dollars- Leggett and Platt, for instance, people like you and me have a bigger chance of meeting Sasquatch than Eric Burlison.

To be fair, I did see Burlison a couple of years ago at the Jasper County Republican Women's Ice Cream Social at Memorial Hall in Carthage, but I wasn't there for the politics- I've always been an ice cream man. Besides that was the night, I found myself standing by Mark McCloskey, who is best known for pointing a gun at Black Lives Matter protesters, and having that moment captured for posterity by the camera of John Hacker.

So yes, I did see Burleson at the ice cream social and heard him talk for the allotted three minutes, but that's not a town hall meeting.

I believe I remember Burleson having a telephone town hall, which if you're not familiar with the concept, aides heavily screen the callers so nothing will be asked that could cause problems for the congressman.

Naive fool that I am, I called in to the one telephone town hall I remember Billy Long having. During the one-hour session, if I remember correctly, he talked to four people, who all asked questions that involved minor problems they were having with the government.

Nothing wrong with that. Constituent problems should be a major part of town halls, whether they're telephone, electronic or in person, but our elected representatives also need to field questions about some of the burning issues that are going on. Billy Long spent the remainder of that "town hall" meeting, telling jokes and stories.

I'll admit, in-person town halls can be messy and I've always been a bit uncomfortable with elected officials been treated with total disrespect. I remember a town hall meeting Sen. John Danforth had at the Horton Building in Lamar around 1988. I was mortified when a young man from Iantha lashed out at Danforth with a series of questions.

The questions Bubs Hohulin asked were good ones, but I was stunned by the lack of respect he showed while asking those questions. A couple of years later, Hohulin upset Democratic incumbent Jerry Burch and was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives.

More than 35 years have passed and with the way our society has changed, especially when it comes to politics, I probably would have no problems with someone who behaved the way Hohulin did.

What I remember most about that incident was the professional way that Sen. Danforth dealt with the questions. Bubs asked them; he answered them. He stood his ground.

And he showed up.

That's an example today's Congressmen should follow.