Three Emails, Two Replies.

On Sunday evening I sent emails to the congressman from my district, John Salazar, and to the two Senators from Colorado, Michael Bennet and Mark Udall. The emails were all pretty much the same; I urged them all to work for and vote for a strong public option in the health care reform package. Mr. Salazar's office responded almost immediately with a confirmation em about his newsletter (which I had signed up for at the same time that I emailed him), but no reply to my email. I'm O K with that. The third district in Colorado takes up a huge area on both sides of the divide (literally and figuratively). He has offices in Grand Junction (a city that named itself when the Colorado River was known as the Grand River),Pueblo, Alamosa, and my nearest town -Durango (the third, not the fourth). Look on a map and you'll see what I mean. As near as I can tell John is an upfront guy who tends to put rural interests first, because rural is what he is and what he does. Like most good rural people he doesn,t try to make a lot of useless noise.

Anyways, what I want to tell you about is the responses I got from my two Senators. The first response, which came in Tuesday around 5pm really had nothing much to say. The first sentence thanked for my message regarding the public option. Then this: "As I travel across Colorado, there is a strong feeling all over the state that the status quo is not working. Coloradoans are deeply interested in finding a solution to our health care crisis." Then some blather about "almost 800,000" Coloradoans currently uninsured, and businesses dropping coverage for their workers. Followed by this non sequitor: "Colorado leads the nation in entrepreneurship and innovation and we cannot allow health care costs to be such a burden on our businesses."
Then comes stuff abot ending rising costs, keeping ones current doctor and better access. Just before the close comes the kicker: "and they want these changes accomplished in a fiscally responsible way." and being open to any and all options. Finally he concludes with this: "I view this issue with a sense of urgency and moral obligation and will keep your concerns in mind as I continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to address this crisis." These are weasel words Mr Bennet should be proud of as a first term appointee. (He is replacing Ken Salazar ((John's brother)) who is now serving in the Obama cabinet) He will keep my concerns in mind. Great! He will work with his colleagues in the Senate to address, not resolve but address the crisis. But where does he stand on the public option? Who can tell? Weasel words seem to be the main currency in Washington.

Now here is what I think happened. When you go to contact your senator to tell him your views, you fill out some contact information and the you are asked to choose a "topic" from a dropdown menu and then enter a "subject" in a subject box and then write your message in the comment box. So what I figure is that his office computer gets an email with the topic "health care", the subject "the public option" and it reads the message as nonexistent. The computer just fires back a message thanking you for your comments about "subject" and a short letter with a bunch of weasel words about "topic".

Mr. Bennet, correct me if I'm wrong but I think I'm pretty close to the mark on this.

The response I got from Mark Udall's office was a lot more straightforward. In a nutshell:
I get a lot of email. I'm a busy guy. Go to my website and read my position on this issue.
So I went to his website, read his position on health care reform, and decided that even though he did not say that he was going to vote for the public option it sure looks like he's leaning that way. Not so many weasel words. (Or maybe they were weaselier and more subtle, but I don't think so.)

Todays Music:
One Night in Paris by Diana Krall

Today's Fiction:
Diary of a Whimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Today's Quote:
You can help your self baby,
all you gotta do is try sometime;
then you won't have to go round baby,
worryin' other people's minds.
Jimmy Reed