An Open Letter To Congressman Boucher

When I called your Abingdon office last August to schedule an appointment with you while Congress was in recess and you were in this area, I was treated in an exceedingly rude and disrespectful manner by your office staff, one of whom even hung up on me.  I guess this is because I have differed with you substantially on the issues and I have been outspoken in that regard.

My wife has been waiting since January to get an appointment with you. She has made this request to your office staff repeatedly, only to be totally ignored. Never in almost a year’s time has she so much as even received a response from you or your staff, much less an actual appointment.

At the town hall meeting in Dublin, you arrogantly told one person who asked a question that they were incapable of comprehending the health care bill. At another town hall meeting earlier this year, you laughed at an attendee who disagreed with you on cap and tax, apparently trying to publicly humiliate him.

Mr. Boucher, I have something to tell you: You work for us. We are not your subjects. You do not rule over us, you represent us. You are not His Royal Highness Boucher. We have the right to disagree with you, and to speak to you about the major issues currently facing our country. We have the right to be treated with dignity and respect by you and your staff even if we disagree with you on the issues.

Let me remind you that our hard earned money pays your very high Congressman’s salary. Our money pays your gold-plated health care coverage; your generous travel budget; your plentiful staff and offices; and your lucrative retirement plan. While we are having to cut our household budgets and find ways to scrimp and save during these lean economic times, you do not. Have you given yourself a pay cut, cut back on your staff, cut back on your travel, cut back on expenses, or cut back on anything?

Perhaps your twenty-seven years in Washington have put you out of touch. Perhaps you now think you are above us.

You thumbed your nose at us by voting for cap and tax, a bill that is specifically designed to bankrupt the coal industry and cause electricity rates to skyrocket (as stated by President Obama). You will no doubt eventually vote for some form of government take-over of health care, even though we have made it clear  we don’t want it in any form. You support abortion; we don’t. You supported the trillion dollar boondoggle stimulus that we were told would keep unemployment no higher than eight percent but it is now over ten percent; we didn’t and still don’t. You supported the multiple bailouts costing hundreds of billions of dollars each; we didn’t. You believe in the global warming hoax; we know that it is a hoax. You support the radical policies of Obama; we don’t.

Last summer when the tea parties were going on, your colleagues in Washington called us a mob, nazis, astroturf, dangerous people, and other vile names; you stood idly by and said nothing in our defense.

You work for us.

Jessee Ring   

Dec. 9, 2009