What are Town Hall Forums For?

If the answer can be put into a few words, what is the main purpose of town hall forums, with special reference to the ones now being held around the country on health care?

I guess the chief idea is to allow a Congressman to get input from his constituents prior to his deciding which way he will vote.

This presupposes that minds are not yet made up on the issues. But if the forum that I attended is anything like the others that are still being held, minus the goon squads sent out by the reactionaries to break up things, all minds, including that of the Congressman, have already been made up for good, and there's barely any chance of the direction of his vote being affected by anything that he would hear at the town halls. The very character of being a Congressman ensures that, and it probably happens that a great many of the people involved come out and openly say that they expect no minds to be changed on the parts of any of the participants.

So then, assuming that no one goes there in a state of total ignorance about the aspects of the iissue being discussed that interest them, the forums come out as being much more a matter of entertainment, and of the two main performers, the Congressman, however articulate and informed, comes out second best to the public testimonials. The public must inevitably have more flair, more color, and more variety, with its much wider cast of characters. And everyone present takes part in the show, even if they don't do anything but oscilllate between vigorous applause and sitting in stone-faced silence.

The mose useful effect, then, of town hall forums -- and it's an invaluable one -- is that they remind and they inform us about our communities.

I wonder if, following this health care effort, they will become as common here and in other parts of the U.S. as they have been in New England since colonial times? I have a feeling that a lot of people at the one I attended saw it as being a fun time.