I will preface the showing of this letter by saying that I spent the afternoon reading the personal journal of MsA this afternoon, and many of her arguments about the Marriage Protection Act influenced and infused my writing in part. I tried to not plagarize or paraphrase her words, but I did tend to lean towards many of her ideas, as they were excellently thought out and very succinct on the issue. I will also say that I would not have phrased the greeting as "the honorable Ron Lewis" but had no option as that was preformated on the site.
August 5, 2004
To The Honorable Ron Lewis
Today I received your most recent constituent update (summer 2004)and I found myself quite disturbed at some of the views that you hold to be "representative" of my views in Congress. In addition, there were certain positions that I was proud to see you supporting. I decided that I would address both sides in this email.
1.While I applaud your decisions to support the Medicare Presciption Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act for seniors, I would have hoped that the act would have addressed the reworking of other medical benefits that the government provides. In particular, I am distressed at the current number of lower income families that are receiving the "medical card" as it exists at this time. The abuse of this system is such that healthy adults will choose to not work to receive almost unlimited health care benefits that I work every day for. The abuse is such that people on the medical card have to pay $1.00 per prescription, while I pay in a large monthly sum and still come away with a $15.00-$30.00 prescription. How is this providing affordable healthcare to everyone? Don't misinterpret my words, I am in support of offering health care aid, especially to children and the elderly, but this much assistance appears to be a gross endulgance. This kind of system makes people dependent on the government and weakens the will to better oneself. Sure, I would love to be able to pay only $1.00 myself, but this is not possible. And I will also admit, that abuse of government funds does not occur on this level. Someone must see the need of restructuring of the entire welfare system. This issue MUST be addressed.
2. You wrote of values and your fight to push the Marriage Protection Act through. How dare you push your values on me! I am not in support of the act for the reason that it continues to deny people in our country the equal opportunity at benefits, tax breaks, and the legality of a union. Marriage for years has not been about love, family, gender roles, or any of the things that you and your fellow lawmakers proclaim it to be. Marriage in America is about legally binding contracts that protect death rights and bodily rights to another person. You needn't fear that America will go the way of a man wanting to marry a box turtle, or trying to get married to an appliance, because there are already legal processes set about to protect those rights. We are talking about allowing two consenting adults the right to legally join in a contract. What values are contained in that? Should you be a Christian, sir, I do hope that some of the teachings have fallen into your heart. Open yourself to realizing that legalizing gay marriages will simply acknowledge what has already occurred in America.
3. I agree with your position on the tobacco buyouts and encourage you to continue your efforts in that vein, at least until Kentucky finds another crop to enhance our state economy. I do however, encourage you to push for alternative crops in our state as the future holds less and less promise for tobacco.
4. I also agree with your efforts to improve veterans benefits. As they have served the country, so should the country serve them.
5. Continuing with the war effort is an effort I will not support. I support the soldiers and their families but have never agreed with blindly throwing ourselves into war. Yes the dictator had to come down from his position of unfallible rule, however, I fear for America's blind support of any effort to obliterate every challenger to our way of life. If you continue to believe in the war, fine. But please carefully consider every movement of our defense, not all causes are just causes.
6. Despite what you have dictated about the economy and job market, the lack of jobs remains. Even for those of us that are college educated and conscious individuals, finding jobs for the middle class is as hard as ever. I strongly encourage you to keep in mind that the creation of 1.5 million jobs does not mean that they are jobs for the American public. Creation of jobs is good, but it does not dictate where those jobs fell. Could it be that 1.5 million jobs were created in the uppermanagement of companies while layoffs continued on lower levels? I suspect that may be true.
Lastly, I would like to tell you about myself. I am a college educated professional, working as a property manager of a Section 8 property. I am unmarried, but engaged to a wonderful man who has a son. I am a registered Democrat, but always open to all sides of the political vein. I will continue to vote and support people I believe in. Someone who does not address my needs and views will not receive my vote, and while I do agree with some of the things you have voted for and supported, your views alone on the Marriage Protection Act have shown me that you are not worthy of representing me in office. I appreciate your work, and hope you do not take offense at my views. I believe we are all working for a better America.
Thank you for your time,
Susan Clark
