Congressional disconnect

Dear Editor:Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard asked my opinion of Afghanistan in an e-mail. I gave it: "You asked my opinion about Afghanistan and here it is: Give Gen. McChrystal what he asks for and let him fight the war and do not let the politicians (e.g., you) sitting around 12,000 miles away worrying about campaign contributions muck up the effort. Obama will turn Afghanistan into another Vietnam if he continues dallying, dawdling and delaying like a confused hamster scurrying around wondering which hole leads to daylight. If the hole goes up it probably leads to daylight, take the one the General recommended. "However, 12,000 miles away in Afghanistan doesn't concern me nearly as much as what you politicians, obviously out of touch with reality, are doing to our economy and want to do with our health care. That affects me every day. Quit the spending like there is no tomorrow and forget health care! What you have done with the economy and plan to do with health care is an abomination beyond my wildest imagination. Not only are you planning on taxing the very air I breathe with the carbon tax, but you are intent upon cutting Medicare just when I'm going to be eligible to draw on what I've been paying into for all these years. "Why should I worry about the Taliban in Afghanistan when we seem to have our own Taliban hard at work in Washington, D.C.?" What bothers me most about Roybal-Allard isn't that we disagree on major issues because people disagree all the time. Rather it's that the only questionnaire mailed to me deals with events almost half a globe away, ignoring serious problems on my doorstep, in my home. This is a disturbing disconnect from very important matters right at hand and steering the conversation to an unpleasant, but necessary, task that infrequently touches my personal life. Something like your or my teenager, after crashing the family car, asking, "How's work going?" Understandable for a teenager but Ms. Roybal-Allard is no teenager and none of us should have to be reminding her of what matters most. Such is the sorry state of leadership in our government in this topsy-turvy world. - Scott Ramey, Downey

********** Published: November 20, 2009 - Volume 8 - Issue 31

OpinionEric Pierce