Suddenly, we’re town hall nation. Again. Down goes the news conference. Oh, so stuffy and staged. Up comes the theater-style—a much better way to get out the message and engage THE PEOPLE. Health care reform has turbocharged the town hall discussions and, in some ways, cheap ened the potential value of public discourse. The yelling, of course, has attracted the sound-bite attention. Health care is a natural for drama. Big money. Life and death. Lots of risk. The haves and have-nots. Clunky solutions. Good intentions. Questionable possibilities. Perfect for 60 to 90 minutes of questions and answers.

People without health insurance in Powhatan County look like anyone else. Most have full-time jobs, and many of the rest work part time. But the people who come to the Free Clinic of Powhatan often live with medical conditions that the insured do not—like the man who came for treatment of an abscess after falling off a ladder weeks earlier. His wife had splinted his broken arm at home with a board.

On Tuesday evening, The Times-Dispatch held its 25th Public Square at its downtown building. More than 70 people turned out to discuss whether government is doing too much or not enough. After the conversation, cake was served in celebration of the landmark Public Square. Tom Silvestri, publisher and president of The Times-Dispatch, served as moderator. Here’s an edited transcript of the comments. To watch the entire Square online, go to TimesDispatch.com, keyword: Public Square.

Midlothian resident Elizabeth Bale is deeply worried about how trillions of dollars in government spending, and the resulting public debt load, will affect her children’s quality of life. “Their future is going to be much bleaker than ours,“ Bale said last night at a Public Square hosted by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It is shameful that as grown-ups, we allow this to happen.

“Let them eat cake,“ Marie Antoinette is reported—probably inaccurately—to have said upon learning that the French people were without bread. The almost certainly apocryphal phrase has over the centuries come to express the arrogance of rulers toward the suffering of the populace. Today, though, it may have a different meaning. “Let them eat cake,“ our leaders seem to be saying, so long as it is government-approved cake, a subsidized dessert served to favored groups and paid for with debt and higher taxes.

Virginia bankers cringe at the word “bailout.“ Many have applied for money that the federal government began offering last fall to boost lending in frozen credit markets. But banking officials don’t want to be included with AIG Inc. and Citigroup Inc., or the automobile-manufacturing industry, as beholden to federal taxpayers for their financial prosperity.

The government can’t buy its way out of this recession, and it shouldn’t even be trying. That’s the general agreement of respondents to a Richmond Times-Dispatch online survey about federal stimulus spending. Government’s role in our lives—whether it does too much or not enough—will be the topic of tomorrow night’s Public Square at the newspaper’s downtown offices.

Once words are spoken, you can’t get them back. In biblical times, speech conveyed power. In the book of Genesis, for example, Jacob tricked his father Isaac into pronouncing an eternal blessing. Once Isaac had spoken, there was no getting it back. For better and for worse, words change things. I believe in free speech, but I also believe that our speech should be worth expressing.

Thank you, Richmond, for allowing us to conduct the Public Square. In nearly four years, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has organized two dozen civil, community conversations about issues of importance to our region. Tuesday night, we celebrate the 25th Public Square. When the Public Square launched on a September night in 2005 to a packed house, we thought we had an initiative that would foster a safe place for Richmonders to share observations, opinions, and recommendations on vibrant topics in the news.

On Tuesday night, the Richmond Times-Dispatch will hold its 25th Public Square, at which participants will answer the question, “Is government doing too much or not enough?“ In advance of the Public Square, Times-Dispatch readers are invited to take a short survey to share their opinions about the federal stimulus, universal health care and the state of the economy, among other topics. We plan to share the results in Monday’s Times-Dispatch.

On Tuesday night, the Richmond Times-Dispatch will hold its 25th Public Square, where participants will answer the question, “Is government doing too much or not enough?“ In advance of the Public Square, Times-Dispatch readers are invited to take a short survey to share their opinions about the federal stimulus, universal health care and the state of the economy, among other topics. We plan to share the results in Monday’s Times-Dispatch.

The Times-Dispatch wants to lead the civil discussion about the changing role of government in America. We will hold our 25th Public Square at the paper’s downtown offices at 7 p.m. on June 2 to discuss if government is overreaching.

On Tuesday night, The Times-Dispatch held its 24th Public Square, at its downtown offices. The forum began with a four-person debate between supporters and opponents of building a new minor-league baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom, followed by comments and questions from the audience. Publisher Tom Silvestri moderated. Below is an edited transcript of the conversation. To watch the entire Public Square online, go to Timesdispatch.com, key word: Public Square.

More of Tuesday’s town-hall discussion on whether to build a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom.

In the absence of minor-league baseball, Richmond’s new pastime is debating the best place for minor-league baseball. About 230 people, including a silent Mayor Dwight C. Jones, attended last night’s Public Square discussion.