Can I Get Your Opinion On This? Please?

[orleans]

i posted this in the illinois forum and got a little feedback, but i thought i'd post it here to get a bit more feedback and maybe give other people an idea for some action they can take.

i live in illinois, the 13th congressional district and my "representative" is judy biggert (R). i've been grinding my teeth over these lawn signs people are putting up and thought i would send them a letter. along with my letter i would enclose a copy of the Children's Defense Fund Action Council's 2005 Scorecard with the page of reps from illinois, how they voted and what their score is, along with 3 pages that itemize each of the nine votes affecting kids. (the mailing would be three double sided pages which includes my letter)

i'd like your opinion on the letter and whether or not i should even do this.
here's the letter:

I noticed a Biggert campaign sign in your yard and was wondering how you can openly and publicly support a woman who does not support children. Then it occurred to me that maybe you just don’t know how she votes when it comes to kids. So I wanted to let you know.

Judy Biggert rated a big, fat ZERO on the 2005 Children’s Defense Fund Scorecard. In 2004 she had an 8 percent rating, 2003 she rated ZERO. In 1999 she rated 53%, in 2000 she rated 50%, in 2001 she rated 18%.

I am sure that you either have children, grandchildren, know children in the neighborhood, or care about children. Or all of the above. Therefore, I thought you might be interested in taking a look at Judy Biggert’s voting record.

1. She voted to pass a bill that will permanently get rid of the estate tax (which hardly helps any of us unless we have a net worth of more than $1 million) rather than putting that money toward children and programs that are in desperate need of help. Why did she vote to give more tax breaks to the super rich? If we have a budget crisis why does she insist on giving money to billionaires??

2. She voted for more tax cuts for the RICH (ie. Someone who earns more than $1million dollars per year) and cut funding for education, health care, low income programs & veterans’ health care. (What happened to “support our troops”?)

3. Now she voted to cut funding for child abuse prevention & Head Start. (How can someone be so heartless as to cut funding for child abuse prevention?)

4. More tax breaks for the rich (wouldn’t it be great if we could actually use some of these tax breaks ourselves? How rich does this woman think we are? Hey Judy, we aren‘t exactly living in a “gated community“ here!)

5. Now she votes against Child Support! (Are you kidding me? Who would vote against that?) She votes against foster care (I know people who have taken in foster kids and these people are the best--they deserve all the help we can give them and so do the kids that they take care of), student loans, (got a kid in college? Got a kid you hope goes to college? Good luck!) health care, children’s Medicaid. That’s really nice of her.

6. She didn’t want to give extra help for kids who are growing up in low-income housing. (luckily for those kids the House of Representatives, as a whole, voted against Judy on this one.)

7. She doesn’t care about the kids growing up in Washington D.C. because she didn’t want to give the police extra funding to help them with law enforcement for gun safety devices on handguns. It didn’t matter to her that a child or teenager is killed every ten days in D.C. by a gun. (Who really cares that it could have saved the lives of HUNDREDS of kids every year in D.C. Judy just works there. Besides, WE don’t live there. Right?)

8. She voted to let a prosecutor decide whether or not a kid is tried as an adult; a decision that should be left up to a judge. Because of this, certain non-violent offenses could lead to mandatory sentences! (Well, that’ll just keep more kids off the street and in prison where they belong! Wait a minute….)

9. She voted to allow religious discrimination! (Granted, right now it’s only okay in the Head Start program--but if it’s okay for the religious charity running a Head Start for kids in Downers Grove today then maybe, in a year or two, Judy will think it’s also okay for the next company you apply for a job at. If they can consider religion as a hiring factor in this federally funded program then why shouldn’t a private business or corporation be allowed to decide whether or not to hire you because you‘re Jewish, Catholic, Protestant? It might even be fun--having to only be able to work at a company that is owned by someone you go to church with. Just make sure you go to the “right” church, and make sure you go every week! No big deal, right? Wrong.)

Personally speaking, I love children. And I think some of them need a little more help than Judy is willing to give them. Remember the phrase: “Children are our future”? Well, I think Judy forgot that. Or maybe she just thinks her own grandkids are her future. Either way I believe her scope is horribly limited. She votes as if she only cares about herself. I think she has lost her social conscience and when you lose that you lose a big piece of your heart.

When she behaves this way she is NOT representing me, my family, my child, or any of the children I know. I just thought that if you care about kids then you’d care to know how your “representative” is representing you--and that she apparently doesn’t care.

And every time I see one of those signs with her name on it I think to myself “This is a woman who doesn’t care about children.” And then I wonder why would anyone want one of those signs sticking up in their yard--telling their neighbors that they don’t care about children either.

But maybe you do care. And you just didn’t know.

And now that you know--what will you do?

end of letter. please let me know what you think.

[Katherine Brengle]

1. wow... i don't live in illinois, but i am rec-ing this hopefully more

DUers will read it and maybe someone from your area will get on board with you.

Good luck--someone like this does not deserve to represent the American people anywhere.