The Bum Rush Giving the Bum's Rush to Constitutents

I received an email that's relevant not only to recent stories I've been following, but it also demonstrates the arrogance with which government treats We the People when we presume to involve ourselves in the way they would rule us.

It also shows us something we all need to be willing to do if we are to ever have a system of self government: Take the initiative to implement our own ideas.

My hat is off to my correspondent, who agreed to let me post his email here.

Mr. Codrea,

Thank you for your articles. I’ve been following your writing since I came across it 6 months ago. You do a great job of articulating what so many of us think and say in a less coherent manner. I just finished reading your “Kill the Bill” series and am gratified to see I could pick out the insanity in the bill almost as well as you.

I am unfortunate enough to live in the Illinois 1st Congressional district, so as soon as I saw this Rush Representative thing had introduced the bill, I stopped reading your article and read the bill for myself, hopefully without outside influence in how I interpreted what I read. While reading the bill, I noted the outrages and set them to paper with questions. All this, I hand-delivered to Mr. Rush’s local office in Midlothian, IL. I stated in the letter and told the worker there that I had many questions on the bill in my letter and as a constituent; I would greatly appreciate some answers. Here’s the mentality in that office: “Why didn’t you mail it?” “Well, as you can see, it’s quite heavy, and since I live a few blocks away, I thought I’d save a tad of money in postage. Besides, security being what it is, I’m here, envelope open for inspection for various things that may not be paper and you can assign a face to the name on the letter.” “Oh, thank you sir. What’s it about?” “H.R. 45, I have a lot of questions.” “Well I’ll see that it gets to Mr. Rush in Washington.” This, after being left to stand at the door outside for almost 10 minutes while I rang and knocked in -2 degree weather.

Mr. Codrea, I do not expect any reply whatsoever from this elitist. I’m not an educated man but I have some operating gray matter. As you can see, I can get wordy, but I believe I’m entitled to a reply to my questions from those who claim to represent me. I’ve written his office twice in the past 8 years about other issues and never received a reply. I’ve not received so much as an acknowledgment before. Come to think of it, the only Illinois political organization which has stooped to answering me was Jack Ryan’s campaign just before he was forced out of the race for governor. Granted, it was a staffer I spoke with, but I at least received a personal call and all my questions were answered over a 30 minute conversation. I’ll let you know what comes of this if you’re interested.

C. Quilty

Thank you. Mr. Quilty. For your effort, for sharing it with us, and for setting an example.