The Email I sent my state representative
Before we begin, I'd like to first complement Connie on her excellent response on the telephone. I have spoken with people from Lankford, Mullin and Hern's teams today, and while Senator Mullin's was polite, only Connie was understanding, eager to help, and ready to go above the minimum. As our congresspersons and governor lack the courage to provide an email address for the public, I ask you forward this to their offices.
I have lived my entire life in the state of Oklahoma, my grandmother came here on a covered wagon. Like a lot of Oklahomans, and Americans, I'm struggling. I should, most likely, be considered disabled, but rather than go on disability I work from home, self employed, with a few assists from the state and federal government to go along. One of those is SNAP, which is more essential than ever with skyrocketing prices.
I was not sent any renewal notices or alerts. As such, I had to call in to OKDHS to get renewed. I was on the phone for a total of three hours before I was able to speak to anyone. Once I was able to, the young woman I spoke to was kind, helpful, considerate and effective. The entire process was complete in minutes. This tells me that they are woefully understaffed for the call volume they are receiving.
Now, for someone like me, I can spend the time listening to hold music for three hours. But what about my best friend's widow (he was killed by a lack of adequate medical care in 2020) who works a normal day job and gets a thirty minute lunch? What about the single mom that works the register of the Dollar General across the street? Or the other poor, hard working people that live in my apartment complex, where our rents just keep going up despite the conditions just getting worse?
Oklahomans rely on these programs, and these cutbacks are killing us.
And it can't be good for the people working those jobs either. These are devoted civil servants who do a generally thankless job day in, day out, dealing with stressed, often angry people, and they've been nothing but helpful every time I've dealt with them. They deserve pay appropriate to the difficulty of their job and enough staffing to deal with the needs of the populace and keep stress levels low.
They're the best part of the government, people there to help other people and make the system keep working, like the garbage men, the DMV workers, the teachers. But the funding only seems to go to the parts of the government that enforce and kill, rather than those that help and protect.
The program that made Cox not gouge me and provide internet (required for my work) at $20 a month was wiped out. My rent has gone up $100 dollars in the last year. The power bills have spiked. Everything is more expensive, and all of it for what? ICE and tax breaks for the rich? I have to fear getting thrown out of my apartment and put on the street every month so Elon Musk can become the world's first trillionaire and the white house can have a tacky ballroom?
Real people are dealing with real problems here. We need help, not speeches and insincere nods to religion.
We're Americans and Oklahomans. We're supposed to look out for our neighbors and do the right thing despite the risk, not let fear and indifference rule us because that path is easy.
