Disrupting town halls is counterproductive

I am writing this letter to share my deep concerns with the practices taking place at town halls across the country.

Public forums should be places where we can have open, honest and respectful communication between elected officials and constituents. Attending these events for the sole purpose of causing havoc only prevents others who actually want to hear an update and provide feedback from doing so and is a negative disruption to our system.

Groups like Indivisible and Organizing for Action should be ashamed of themselves. Shouting down lawmakers and organizing protests in these events to "create the impression that [lawmakers are] not connected to their district and not listening to their constituents" is nothing more than trying to manipulate public perception.

Congressman Roskam is right to not want to feed into this frenzy.

The reality is Congressman Roskam has been very active in my community and has kept us up-to-date with frequent telephone town halls. He also came out to the Lake Zurich Chamber of Commerce EXPO to support the local businesses.

Disrupting meetings and ruining events only has the effect of creating less accessibility and dialogue, not more. Please stop.

Lynn O'Brien

Lake Zurich