Quick Hit: Letter to My “Representatives”

Notice the quotes?  They’re so NOT fucking representing ME.

True story, you guys; I can’t make this shit up:

Dear Representatives:

    My husband and I were driving to work this morning, listening to NHPR, when a story came on about some of the issues being heard today in New Hampshire’s House of Representatives.  We were both so surprised by the story that we immediately called one another to make sure we’d heard correctly.

    Aside from the fact that the timing seems strange – why are hearings being held on our primary day? – are we to understand that there are bills being presented that would prohibit public employees from wearing perfume?  That legislative time is being spent deciding on a state firearm?  That an effort is being made to designate an official Terri Schivo day in New Hampshire?  That state prisoners should be put on a vegetarian diet?  Really?  These are the things that currently occupy our legislature?

    I would like someone to explain to me – and to the rest of the state – exactly what these ridiculous exercises are supposed to accomplish.  Are there genuinely elected adults in our legislature who honestly believe that these are pressing issues that require governmental intervention?  Can someone make a reasoned, thoughtful case as to why the House of Representatives is spending their time on these issues?  Are there really no other problems that the legislature can work toward solving that they have the time and the energy to devote to these ludicrous bills?

    I am honestly interested in an answer to my questions; I am a constituent of the state who is asking for some accountability from my representatives who, as best I can tell, are emphatically not representing me.

    Sincerely,

Chili

Ten Things Tuesday

Ten reasons I’m not a Republican:

1.  I don’t think poor people are the enemy.  I believe that it benefits us all to help the weakest and poorest among us.

2.  I think that some regulation of business, industry, and finance is a GOOD thing.  I don’t think that, if left to their own devices, business, industry, and finance would behave in any way that’s good or ethical (and past experience seems to bear that out).

3.  I don’t think that the government has ANY business telling me (or my friends or my children or ANY woman) that she has to bear an unwanted child.  I’m also not wild about the government having any say in whether or not I (or anyone else) has access to contraception.

4.  I think that clean air and clean water (for everyone on the planet) are more important than corporate bottom lines.

5.  I believe that health care is a right, not a privilege granted to only those who can afford it.

6.  I believe that equal rights means equal rights for EVERYONE, not just straight, white Christian men.

7.  I don’t think that money is protected speech, and I don’t think corporations are people.

8.  I don’t think that the military should be used to bully other countries.

9.  I believe scientists when they tell me that the Earth’s climate is changing, and that human activity, while not the cause of that change, certainly isn’t helping.

10.  I think that education is important, and that we should be doing more – not less – as a society to support and promote education for all our citizens.