Subject: [againstslaughter] After action report -
Goodlatte gets an ear full
Dear friends of the horses,
The town meeting in Lexington was tonight and was a huge success. The two
Roanoke TV stations, the Roanoke Times,
and several other TV and print journalists were there. Here is some of the
early coverage.
Anne Russek of our team was the organizer of this event, but all of us at the
Roanoke Valley Horse Show pushed people to attend during the week. Tom,
Sheilah and I were present, and at one point Bob actually lost his temper with
me and yelled "This is not your meeting John! You are not even in my
district." I was ready for this and replied, "My representative
wants to vote for HR 857, but is being denied a vote by your blocking of the
bill, so it was my meeting too." Anne raked him over the coals on the
whole range of topics. Others accused him of being in the pocket of the
meat industry.
One person after another assaulted him, often to applause. At one point
one lady said "This is a democracy and we want our voices heard."
To this Bob said, "No this is a Republic". Bob had one plant
from the Cattlemen's Association, but other than that and a lady from the
Virginia Horse Center thanking him for his past support of the center, the rest
of the event was one assault after another, and little Sugar and Spice looked
out from T-Shirts all over the room.
About 1/3rd of the meeting addressed other topics and even on these Bob took a
hammering. One lady was concerned about the effects of I-81 expansion on
the local rivers. Bob said she should write him with her concerns.
She said "I have spoken to you over a year ago, and written you repeatedly
and you ignore me!" All in all, the man had a very very bad
evening. His arrogance was laid bare for all to see. The assault
became so hard that Brent Gattis had to come forward in his support, saying that
the slaughter industry supported a base price for horses. Gattis is Bob's
conduit to the Texas people. Brent's father is head of the Rodeo
Association, and is on the board of the Cattlemen's Association.
The written press will follow up tomorrow, and I will try to find as many links
as possible.
My hat is off to Anne, and all her friends from Lexington!