"Walking across Connecticut is a great idea... in theory," half-joked US Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Wednesday as he capped the last full day of his Walk Across Connecticut with a long ascension all the way up Church Hill Road, just in time to meet a waiting mass of nearly 500 constituents poised to greet him at Edmond Town Hall.which can be viewed on The Newtown Bee's Facebook Page) gave the senator a few moments to relax and hydrate before he began responding to statements and answering questions from nearly two dozen constituents - around half from out of town - who queued up in the packed and stiflingly warm Edmond Town Hall gym.

The amicable and ambulatory senator strode more than 100-miles, starting the previous Sunday in Killingly, and concluded after a comparatively brief morning jaunt to Danbury from Newtown on Thursday, August 17. Sen Murphy planned to host an end of walk celebration at Rogers Park upon his arrival.

This marked the second consecutive year Sen Murphy decided to take to the streets and dirt roads of his home state to listen to and get feedback from Connecticut residents. Upon his conclusion, the 2017 Walk will have brought the lawmaker through 22 towns, with each day ending with pop-up town halls so he could engage even more Connecticut residents en masse about their specific topics.

A warm introduction by First Selectman Pat Llodra (

Sen Murphy said that over the course of his travels, he heard a lot of concerns about schools and business owners he said were feeling squeezed. But he said most of the feedback he received was about health care.

"People across Connecticut are really scared about things happening in Washington," he said.

Reflecting on the latest controversy in Washington regarding the president's reactions to the previous weekend's Charlottesville, Va., protest attacks, the senator told his Newtown attendees, "This week, maybe the most important thing is to be with the people you love."

The bulk of concerns Sen Murphy heard along his route about health care under the Affordable Care Act were reflected by at least one-third of the local questioners. Many said that they themselves were finally able to access coverage and receive medical treatment for ailments under Obamacare, while others plaintively revealed challenges they or loved ones faced getting the level of care they required.

Others demanded the senator work to find common ground with fellow lawmakers on the issue to help end the turmoil over the national health care policy that is threatening to further reduce the number of insurers offering coverage, and likely prompting double-digit premium increases for most rate payers in the coming year.

Those who tolerated the stuffy heat of the gym until near the end of the line of questioners were touched to hear an 8-year-old named Kenneth innocently step to the microphone and ask, "How are you going to make America kind again?"

That gave the lawmaker a chance to recall a conversation he had with his own 8-year-old recently, who posed a similar and equally perplexing query.

"I think the thing to do is just be really nice," Sen Murphy said. "Live life in a way that makes people happy."

One visitor came to bring the safety issues of motorcyclists and other two-wheel riders to the senator's attention, while another asked about relief from the high cost of higher education.

"I'm one of the only senators still paying back student loans," the senator chided, before launching into a number of ideas he had to try and improve the quality, while reducing both the cost and longevity, of college educations.

Another asked to hear the senator's thoughts on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Sen Murphy acknowledged that prior to her appointment, Ms DeVos's family made millions investing in for-profit educational institutions, and concluded saying, "Hedge funds should not be running charter schools," which drew a strong round of applause.

A Newtown resident also asked what more could be done to protect her "undocumented friends and neighbors." Sen Murphy admitted that the current posturing in Washington and across the country regarding immigrants and those striving to become citizens justified a wholesale change to the way the US handles the process.

"It's time to rewrite our immigration laws," he said.

Another familiar constituent of the senator's from Southbury came pleading for help to get her adopted grandson released from an immigration hold in China, while another asked what more the senator could do to help his doubting colleagues understand the dire implications of global warming.

A student from Redding asked how she could become more civilly engaged, to which Sen Murphy replied, "You already are, by being here."

"Don't let people tell you that you need to pay your dues," he said. "Shove your foot in the door and don't take it away until you're heard."

Another Southbury resident asked if the senator was ready to request the House Ways and Means Committee explore impeaching the president, which drew an extended ovation. Sen Murphy responded saying that while he "heard the applause," he believed that the governmental checks designed to keep a sitting president from accruing too much autonomy were working, while acknowledging that the president's frequent actions "feel like a gut punch every day."

And he assured that if the special prosecutor assigned to investigate possible collusion between the Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Russian government developed hard evidence affirming it occurred, "we'll be having a different conversation."