I recently moved and thus switched congressional representatives. Seeing as my former representative was Bob Ney of the recent Abramoff scandals, I really didn’t see much potential for going anywhere but up. Then, over the weekend, I received the following letter:
Dear Mrs. Warner:
Thank you for contracting me in support of H.R. 2679, the Public Expression of Religion Act (PERA). It was good to hear from you.
On September 26, 2006, the House of Representatives passed, with my support, the Public Expression of Religion Act of 2005. Introduced by Congressman John Hostettler (R-IN), H.R. 2679 ensures local officials and communities do not face financial ruin to defend their rights to free speech under the Constitution. The legislation provides that when state or local officials are sued over public expressions of religion, no monetary damages, costs, or attorney’s fees may be awarded. This bill is now pending in the United States Senate. As such, I would encourage you to contact our Senators, Mike DeWine and George Voinovich, to express your support.
Again, thank you for being in touch. Please continue to let me know when I can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
David L. Hobson
Member of Congress
(blinks)
(blinks)
(blinks)
I wrote to Mr. Hobson about PERA, but I sure as hell didn’t write to him expressing my SUPPORT of the bill. It’s not that I’m angry that he voted for the measure (though it frustrates me). I’m angry because it in no way appears that he (or some random staff member) actually read the contents of my letter.
I’m going to have to carefully consider which representative I prefer: openly corrupt Mr. Ney, who would personally speak to me on the phone yet generally make, in my opinion, poor voting decisions or Mr. Hobson who apparently doesn’t actually read my letters but instead just assumes that if I’m writing about PERA, I must be supporting it. (sighs)
PS. It’s Ms. Warner not Mrs. Warner. Whatever. We'll take this one step at a time: first you start reading the content of my letters, then we'll talk prefixes.
