To Rep. John Boehner: You have recently stated that you are “still trying to find the first American who’s in favor of the public (health insurance) option, other than a member of Congress or the administration.” Evidently, you have not been trying very hard.
Please try a little harder. Try reading the responses (all of them, not just the ones you agree with) on the very same newspaper editorial pages which you have lately been bombarding with partisan propaganda. Try reading some of the letters from the “discard” bin where your office screeners routinely dump mail they deem unfavorable. Try arranging at least a few token meetings with ordinary folks who are more concerned with the well-being of the nation and the people than with party agenda and ideology.
You might discover, mixed in among your familiar crowd of corporate lobbyists, Limbaugh ditto-heads, and Faux News dupes, a number of others who are passably intelligent, liberally educated, broadly informed, in touch with reality on more than an occasional basis, and aware of what “socialized medicine” actually is, and that it is not what is being proposed.
Busy though I am, I will personally volunteer to help you in your search for a constituent whose views differ from your own. My credentials: I have been an American citizen since birth in 1944, a resident of the 8th Ohio congressional district since 1949, and a registered voter in this district since 1966. I have never sought government office at any level. So it seems I meet all of your stated criteria.
Although I am certainly not the first such person to favor a public health insurance option, I am one of thousands in your own district and one of millions nationwide. So you need look no further. Here I am.
Now, if you refuse to believe this unless I physically “walk up to you,” simply call me to set up an appointment next time you expect to be in your West Chester office. (Consider it a “fact-finding mission.”) I will personally invest the time and gasoline to drive down from Middletown. I will walk up to you with my birth certificate and photo-ID proof of residency in hand. If it is true that you are indeed “trying to find an American who’s in favor of the public option,” then I can count on your most eager and sincere cooperation.
On the other hand, if what you have said is not true, then I will be disappointed — though not at all surprised.
Steven A. Joyce
Middletown
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