Write to legislative representatives about my opinions.

My letters didn’t change any of my representatives votes in any way. They all voted exactly the way I thought they were going to do. Only one voted in favor. But at least I let them know what I think. Now I guess it’s on to climate change. Oh now that one should be a piece of cake, right? Right…....

I have written several times now. I have no hope at all for one senator and am sure the other senator was always on board. My representative is one of those “blue dogs’. I have to look to see how the vote went. but at least I know it DID pass the house. Some of the things that people who oppose this idea say make me so mad and some make me sad. When I heard Michael Steele call it a bill “that nobody wants” I actually cried. I want health care reform, so I guess that makes me nobody. I guess I just don’t exist in his book.

I’ve sent off more letters to everyone about this. I am so dismayed by what happened in August this year. I just have to do something to counteract it. I write short letters that insist that we need some kind of reform this year finally. We’ve left this whole thing to the private sector for so long, since the Truman administration. If they were going to get a good system in place, you would think that they would have done it by now.

I’ve written my people in favor of efforts to reform health care in the US which is long overdue and desperately needed. I need to write again. News stories about the loud shoutouts being done now by the opponents make me afraid that our legislators will think they are responding to what the community wants. Courage is needed here. I hope my people have it.

I wrote to my representative about legiatlation to help encourage renewable energy sources and to conserve energy. Nothing before Congress is the perfect bill, but we have to start someplace. I also wrote about the monks in Tibet in support of a bill that would express displaesure towards China about this and urge dialogue with the Dali Lama.

I’m about beside myself that “the leg” seems poised to vote that revenues from the Salt Lake airport cannot be used to build light rail on airport property. This will probably ruin the whole plan to extend the TRAX out the the airport. My own representatives are very vocal opponents to this so I don’t need to write them to ask them to oppose this. But what the heck is going on in the minds of these people? What good will come of this if it passes? Sometimes as I listen to what the leg proposes and actually passes, I feel like they really must hate those of us who live in the city. This isn’t the only example of how I see them trying to stick it to us over and over again. I don’t get it. Guess I haven’t lived here long enough to really know what’s going on.

that disgusted me yesterday. Here is a great link to start.

I sent off an e-mail about supporting a bill that will call for things like a paper trail for voting and other measures designed to prevent another Florida.

Makes writing to the reps quite easy. I know that these days they prefer electronic communication ( no letter bombs!). The site has captured my specifc info, name, address, etc. and I went ahead and enhanced it by saying I do vote. I also posted a photo of me and my mom under the “see me” tab, so they know I’m a real person.

I am writing to you to discuss the upcoming Farm Bill. I consider myself an environmentalist, and am very concerned about the long term health of our planet as a whole. The Farm Bill is an environmental bill, for better or worse. I would like to see this bill be a bill that has programs that will serve to preserve and protect the natural environment. I believe that most farmers and ranchers WANT to preserve the health of the land they own or work for future generations. But they are also people who are in the business of agriculture, people who need to make a living for themselves and their families, people who need to make strategic business decisions. Therefore, I think an important key to preserving the health of the earth resides in creating harmony between business and the environment especially as this relates to farming and ranching.

One factor that will soon not make good business sense for many producers is the present Conservation Reserve Program. This is a critical aspect of the Farm Bill that has served to preserve habitat that is needed for birds and other animals. As you may know, songbirds, in particular, are in decline all over the country, and one important factor in this is the decrease in habitat, especially grasslands as can be found on farms and ranches.

Right now many producers have land in this program, but soon their contracts will be up for renewal. The present price they receive for conserving their land will probably not be competitive with the price of corn and other commodities because of the recent push to produce more ethanol.

I hope that you will support an expansion of the Conservation Reserve Program coupled with setting the stipend for producers at a competitive level. Other aspects of the farm bill related to this issue include habitat, wetlands, and grasslands preservation programs all of which I think also all need to be expanded.

I also would like to see more and better programs that are designed for producers who do not grow commodities but instead create products that are designed to be sold directly to consumers in local areas.(people who produce fruits, vegetables, small amounts of meat and eggs, sweets like honey and maple syrup, value added products like cheeses, etc especially if organic methods are used.) I believe that the development and preservation of these kinds of producers is a critical factor in a needed multi-pronged approach to decreasing global climate change and enhancing the overall health of our local communities.

I will be writing you later about the issue of global climate change, but for now I think we need to approach that issue in as many different ways as possible. One of these needs to be the decentralization of our food system. A large portion of the food we need does not have to be grown in huge, far away farms and then shipped great distances. This is a huge misuse of precious fossil fuels. (I also think this decreases our overall security from threats like terrorism.) All people in the US should be able to get as much of their food as possible from local sources. This means we need the local people who want to do this work to be able to be economically viable. Please also support aspects of the Farm Bill that are designed to help these small, local producers.

Finally, it is critical that farmland and ranchland itself be preserved. Every acre of this kind of land that is lost to development is a tragedy. Please support aspects of the Farm Bill that are designed to keep farm and ranchland as farm and ranch land, not urban sprawl land.

Thank you very much for considering my opinions on this subject. I look forward to seeing a new Farm Bill which will actually be a good environmental bill.