I opened my e-mail this afternoon, and found this in it, labeled “an introduction.”
It said:
Hi there,
I’m a new Regional Press Secretary for the National Republican Congressional Committee and will be running point for the Committee on congressional races in Colorado. I know it’s awfully early to be talking 2016, but I wanted to open up the lines of communication nonetheless. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if I can be helpful. Though I’m based out of DC, I hope we will be able to grab coffee when I make it out your way.
I very much look forward to working with you in the coming months. Again, please don’t hesitate to reach out if I can be of assistance.
Best,
Zach
Zach Hunter
Regional Press Secretary
I couldn’t help it. I had to reply:
Dear Mr. Hunter:
I cannot help but think, given that I have voted Democratic in every election since 1976, that you seem not to have done your research in your effort to “open up the lines of communication.” Still, e-mail is free, isn’t it? Just a matter of downloading the list of registered voters from my district — or is it Colorado? or the Southwest? — popping your note in, and hitting “send.” And, really, you are to be commended for your efforts; in our polarized state that’s in the middle of our divided country, you seem to be reaching out to everyone.
In that, you echo the efforts of my congressman, Doug Lamborn. He, too, sends me four-color brochures, printed on card stock, and imprinted with the announcement that these campaign-documents-disguised-as-information are funded by the taxpayers. The brochures brag about Mr. Lamborn’s efforts to cut our taxes, blithely ignoring the fact that he supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars which will drain the treasure of the United States ruinously and uselessly for many decades.
Mr. Lamborn, in his most recent document, also told the voters in his district that he oversaw the construction of the admittedly lovely VA office in Colorado Springs. What does that mean, a voter might ask, oversaw? Is Mr. Lamborn the project superintendent?
In the meantime, the city which Mr. Lamborn is supposed to represent is recovering from the 2008 recession at an excruciatingly slow pace. You would think that to reward our congressman for carrying water for the far-right base of the Republican Party, and even for, heavens, implying that the Democratic president of our country is a “tar baby,” our city would receive all kinds of federal benefits. But, no, the latest news on that front, as reported by the Colorado Springs Gazette, some 16,000 soldiers may be leaving Fort Carson, one of the cornerstones of our economy. The only idea Mr. Lamborn has had in his years in office that might offer some economic benefit was a feeble attempt to make Pikes Peak a national park.
Our city is suffering, Mr. Hunter. It is a place of unequaled beauty and diversity; the climate is nearly perfect, the people are kind, the architecture that is left after the depredations of the seventies and eighties is appealing — and to call the scenery breathtaking is an understatement. And it’s just plain fun to live here, between trails in the hills and an awakening cultural scene in town. But these things have happened in spite of, not because of, Mr. Lamborn’s representation.
We need more of those trails. We need to make our tragically polluted river a place of joy and play. We need to convert our sources of power from climate-destroying coal to — something else. We need help making our city into the place it deserves to be — and not just for the multimillionaires cavorting at Phil Anschutz’s Broadmoor properties.
Will the Republican Party help Colorado Springs do that? Based on Douglas Lamborn’s record, I doubt it.
So thanks, Mr. Hunter, for reaching out. I suspect it will be our only contact.
Sincerely,
Eva Syrovy
Eva Syrovy teaches school in in Colorado Springs. She was a member of the 2010 Colorado Voices panel.
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