Rep. Fleming preaches traditional values during meeting at V.P. City Hall

John Fleming preached traditional family values during a town hall meeting held at the Ville Platte City Hall on Wednesday afternoon.
“When I grew up I went to school in the 1950’s and 60’s,” Fleming said. “There was terror in school. The terror was that I was terrified of my teachers. I was afraid of them. They were not afraid of me. I knew if I did something and the teacher punished me that I didn’t dare go home and tell my parents because if I did, I was going to get it twice. Now kids go home and tell their parents and then the parents show up with a lawyer. That’s how it works today.”
The U.S. Representative for Louisiana’s District 4 spoke for about an hour to a crowd of 30 people, which included members of the Ville Platte Chamber of Commerce, as well as Evangeline Parish Clerk of Court Randy Deshotel and Ville Platte Police Chief Neal Lartigue.
The 64-year-old Republican, who took office in 2009, answered questions which ranged from the regulation of drones, Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server, deadlock in Washington D.C., simplifying the tax code and even the price of crude oil.
But Fleming really began to speak with passion when the questions turned to the recent rash of violent episodes of murder-suicides that have dominated the headlines, including the Grand 16 Theatre in nearby Lafayette.
Fleming admitted that it has become a disturbing trend.
“You all remember the expression going postal?,” Fleming said. “It seemed to begin with that. There seemed to be a rash or an epidemic rather of postal workers just walking into their job site and blowing one or two people away and they may or may not commit suicide.
“It then became a pattern,” Fleming said. “It used to be people would just commit suicide and now there seems to be this cultural trend that you have take out certain people before you commit suicide. I tell you that I wish I had a solution to that. That seems to be and appears to be accelerating.”
In the aftermath of many of those shootings, it has been revealed that many of the shooters had been diagnosed with some sort of mental illnesses. Fleming addressed that issue as well.
“How do you treat people against their will?” Fleming said. “Often times these people we would have to commit (referring to his time in the medical profession) and would be back on the street before the day ended,” Fleming said. “You would worry what would happen to these people. It is a huge problem.”
“My personal belief is that one of the fundamental things that have changed about our culture is that we have moved away from the church and Christianity,” Fleming said. “Even if people committed suicide in the past they still had a respect for other people and that is a value taught to us from our Biblical upbringing.”
The theme of violence, or rather the threat of violence, continued when Fleming was asked about what can be done for teachers when dealing with troubled students.
“Why are our children so angry?” Fleming said. “I would submit to you why they are so angry is because we have brought them up to feel entitled. No matter what happens they get what they want, right? Whether they try or fill their obligation they are used to getting what they want.”
But the talking points with Ville Platte residents weren’t all of the dire variety. Fleming drew more than a few chuckles from the crowd after a question about his relationship with House Speaker John Boehner, who Fleming has publicly criticized in recent years.
“Let’s put it this way,” Fleming said. “We don’t hang out and drink beer. Speaker Boehner is old school. He believes in the old days when solutions or agreements were done behind closed doors. I think those days are behind us. I think Americans need more input and I don’t think he is in the 21st Century and because of that I oppose a lot of the things he supports.”