200

December 15, 2017

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

101 Main Street #380

Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Dear Congressman,

Re: 200

By accurate count, I have now mailed exactly 200 letters to you since the Trump inauguration last January 20—the day I decided that I had to “Do Something” about what I saw to be an impending disaster. The only thing I really know how to do is write; and, since I vote in your Orange County, California 48^th District, and since you are a Republican supporter of Donald Trump, and since you “represent” everything I consider to be wrong-headed or downright harmful to our country, I decided you would be the person must write to.

This letter is my 200^th. Each one has been personally composed and written—I use no boilerplate or screed and express my own ideas as succinctly as I can. Each one has been hand-signed, hand-addressed, and sent to your office via the US Postal Service. I have consciously avoided the kind of invective, insults, name-calling, and general lack of civility that characterizes so much political discourse. Each one of my letters is signed “respectfully,” and each seeks to maintain a respectful, if sometimes provocative tone. They come from a partisan point of view, it’s true, but they try to make points that are logical and based in fact.

I have enjoyed writing these letters, even though they have cost me a great deal of time. I’m not naïve. I know that you are unlikely to read most of them (all of them? any of them?) yourself, so I write them as much for those who follow my work on social media and in my blogs as for yourself, the primary recipient. I want to make a difference, and support those who are working in our district to send a different representative to Congress in the next election, so I share my letters with them. Even so, dare I hope that your staff at least do take a look at them? Surely, the steady incoming stream of hand-addressed envelopes must have caught someone’s eye? Surely, the record of 200 hard copy letters in today’s internet connected world cannot have entirely escaped notice.

And yet, Congressman, I am disappointed to have heard not one single word from you, my representative, who should be at least pretending to listen to one of his constituents. I misspeak: I have received, over the months, some three or four emailed responses in the form of boilerplate position papers. They do not engage what I have to say, they merely seize upon the general topic (health care, taxes, what have you) and expound on it at great—and frankly boring!—length.

Is it too much, after all this time and all these letters, to ask for a response? To ask you to read at least one of the letters that I compose with genuine concern and thought, to pay attention to what it has to say, and to respond in kind? Isn’t that your job—or a part of it? To listen, even—perhaps especially--to those who disagree with you? It would be simple enough, and take but little of your time: “Dear Dr. Clothier,” (I’ll do it for you) “thank you for taking the time to contact me with your views on (subject). I understand that you are (upset/angry/amused/outraged) at (Trump/the tax bill/the Republican attack on Obamacare/climate change) and wanted to let you know that even though I (share/totally disagree with/am dismayed by) your position, I will take it into consideration as I prepare to (make a statement/vote/attend a committee meeting) in a few days time. In service, your Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher.”

There. What could be more easy? And how nice for me, your constituent, to know that you have read the thoughts I have addressed to you at least one time. Nicer still, of course, would be to read that you read my words and actually changed your mind… but that is perhaps too much to ask. A simple response would do the trick. Isn’t that your job?

Respectfully,

Peter Clothier, Ph.D.