We have had some spirited political debates up here. I was just wondering how many of you have actually contacted you Congress person to let him or her know your views.

Here is a copy of an e-mail that I just sent to my representative, Betty Sutton. I Also sent a similar e-mail to our state senator, Sherrod Brown. There was no need to e-mail George Voinavich - he is a Republican and I know how he is going to vote <g>.

Ms. Sutton,

I would like an explanation for the fact that you are not going to be holding town hall meetings on the subject of health care reform in your Congressional district. May I respectfully remind you that I do not work for YOU. You work for ME. As our representative, it is your obligation to represent your constituents. Apparently, you do not think that it is important to get input from the people that you are representing. This is a BIG mistake. I certainly hope that, for your sake, that you have some sort of marketable skill with which you are able to earn a living in the private sector. I can assure you that if you insist on going against the wishes of the people who elected you, you will be losing your job when you run for re-election.

It is clear to me that a majority of Americans do NOT favor the current health care reform bill. Take a look at this Rasmussen poll on the subject: http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2009/08/01/opinion/mj1413756.txt. May I direct your attention to this portion of the article:

Those opposed to Mr. Obama’s reform appear to have momentum on their side. Polling last weekend showed that 48% of voters rate the U.S. health-care system as good or excellent. That’s up from 35% in May and up from 29% a year ago. Only 19% now rate the system as poor, down from 37% a year ago. It appears that the prospect of changing health care has made the existing system look better to a lot of people.

As a registered voter in the state of Ohio, I feel entitled to an explanation. This country can not afford to go deeper into debt. I love this country and I am deeply worried about the direction in which it is going. You people are trying to put out the current economic fire by pouring gasoline on it! I have many friends that actually voted for Obama and a lot of other democrats. All of them are shocked and dismayed over what they got, because it most assuredly was not what they expected. I have encouraged all of them to either telephone your office or e-mail you because “We the people” must have our voices heard.

Mr. Obama expressed a desire to “cross the aisle” and have a bi-partisan presidency. Apparently, the only thing that has bi-partisan support is the fight against this current bill for health care reform. That speaks volumes.

It appears from your record to date that you are more interested in voting the party line than in actually investigating the issues, consulting your constituents and making a representative decision, which is, after all, your job.

Respectfully,

Marcia G. Akins

PS. You probably also want to contact your webmaster and let him or her know that when you try to contact Betty Sutton from her web page, clicking the submit button gives you a 404 error. Wonderful! You can't even manage to have a web site that behaves properly, but you think you can run our health care. The mind boggles.