That’s right, gentle Ben Parisi, Empower DC’s Childcare For All Campaign Organizer, pictured here holding the child of an Empower DC member, got a bit riled up in the aftermath of some rather shallow reporting on last week’s town hall meetings.

The back story: City Council Chairman Vince Gray, soon to be Mayor Gray, has been shoring up his presumptive victory with a series of town hall meetings. According to Wikepedia a town hall meeting is an informal public meeting where members of the community are invited to voice their opinions, and hear the responses from public figures and elected officials about shared subjects of interest. With that in mind, members of Empower DC attended a number of Gray’s town hall meetings and made a few demands. Specifically, they demanded that presumptive Mayor Gray honor the promise that the city made to rebuild Bruce Monroe Elementary school and that the city fully fund the childcare subsidy program.

DCist columnist Martin Austermuhle seems to have a different understanding of the purpose of a town hall meeting, I think taking issue with the expressing of demands in a loud and visible manor. I’m going to quote his references to Empower DC here because I personally think they’re funny.

Regarding Empower DC’s appearance at the Ward 1 town hall meeting, Austermuhle said:

Hey, folks who really want Bruce Monroe Elementary re-built (it was closed in 2007) — we get it. Thirty of you showed up, you held up your signs, you started a chant, you asked Gray a question and then you walked out. Everyone has their cause. But there’s no need to use the town halls to make us all painfully aware of them.

After the Ward 8 town hall meeting, Austermuhle said this:

…this was the second consecutive town hall where Empower D.C. has shown up with signs and t-shirts and demanded something concrete from Gray. …you guys have a noble cause, but less-than-noble ways of communicating it. Let’s just imagine how chaotic the next two town halls would be if everyone with a point to make decided to do it as loudly and visibly as you have. Not so much fun anymore, is it?

Is he serious?! That would be SO much fun! Especially if everybody who had a point to make encouraged city officials to prioritize the needs of the city’s low- and moderate-income residents over developers and the wealthy transient population who has no real stake in the city because they’re going to leave when their bosses get voted out of power anyway. But I digress. Ben Parisi was not amused by Austermuhle’s disparaging remarks. He posted this response on Facebook. Read it, if you dare.

Ben Parisi’s Response to DCist

First of all, Martin Austermuhle, I should thank you for what in one light is some very generous coverage. You write of the Ward 8 town hall that “this was the second consecutive town hall where Empower DC has shown up with signs and t-shirts and demanded something concrete from Gray.” And then you wonder what it would be like if everyone decided to make their points “as loudly and visibly” as Empower DC has. So, thank you – because visibly making a concrete demand of our elected officials is exactly what we’re out to do and, indeed, it’s what 50 of our members did this week at the Ward 1 and Ward 8 Town Halls. They should be commended for their efforts at keeping our presumptive mayor accountable. Gray once called the closing of Bruce-Monroe a “sad joke” and he has campaigned on an early education platform. No wonder why we think he should commit to rebuilding Bruce-Monroe and reimbursing the professionals who provide child care for low-income families a fair rate.

I guess this all seems too much for you, is that it Martin? You think that you should not have to be made “painfully aware” of these issues at a town hall, as you say. Was it really that painful? Was witnessing a group of citizens empowered and confident enough to stand truth to power and demand what they have been promised really that painful to you? Where did it hurt exactly? Maybe issues of child care, the privatization of DC’s school system and the excruciatingly profound ripple effects that they have wouldn’t be quite so painful to you if you were confronted with them on a more regular basis.

Maybe if, as the 50 Empower DC members who showed up to express . . . → Read More: Ben Parisi is Pissed!