Write Roskam

I am writing a letter to my representative every Saturday. I am anticipating he will never respond, but I guess we'll see.

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Summary

In the course of this summer, I wrote one letter to Carole Cheney, one to Tammy Duckworth, one to Dick Durbin, and seven to Peter Roskam.  There were also two guest letters to Roskam from a friend.  I received zero (0) responses, including from Carole Cheney, who is running against Roskam and whose letter detailed my difficulties in contacting Roskam. 

In summary, if someone tells you that the best way to get involved is to write a letter to your representative, they either haven’t tried or their reps are way better than mine at responding.  I don’t really want to drive out to Roskam’s office and try to see him that way, but as a government representative, he absolutely needs to make himself available to his constituents.  I should’ve gotten 7 responses, even if they were just form letters. 

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My last letter to Roskam!  Since they get recess all August, he hasn’t voted in a way that made me upset since last time.  I doubt anyone will read this one anyway.  Next summer, what Roskam really needs is a motivated intern like me to read all his letters and respond to them.  If he hired me, I’d even stop writing them.  Thus concludes my ““fun”“ experiment in political activism.

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So apparently Congress gets to not work all of August, which is pretty handy.  Because I learned that fun fact, I decided to send Roskam some fun facts in return.

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No letter

Unfortunately, I am out of town this week and cannot write Roskam.  Fortunately, I wrote three letters last Saturday (no responses yet). 

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I just tried calling Peter Roskam, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and the White House, and all of their offices have “full voicemail boxes,” or the line was busy (read: jammed).

Then I tried using the “White House, Inc.” website, which is a service that directs your call to a random Trump business. That number was blocked when it redirected my call.

The yam does not care about your opinions, and neither do the hypocritical republicans that are holding office. This is a direct attack on free speech.

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It’s true.  I have  tried to call Roskam and found his answering machine full.  He also never responds to letters, even when I gave him a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope one of his interns could easily send back to me.  I do not think he has any contact with his constituents at all.

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I’ve never written either of my senators, Durbin and Duckworth, but I don’t like that the Democratic Party has decided to stall every one of Trump’s nominations.  I don’t want my party to turn into the Republican party—we don’t stand for anything, we just stand against someone else. 

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This week, I’ve decided to show my senators (both Democrats) some love, but I can’t claim to write to Roskam every Saturday if I don’t, you know, actually write him a letter.  If an intern does open this, I hope they do enjoy that triangle.

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A Democrat has announced her run against Roskam in my district, and she specifically pointed out that Roskam never responds to his constituents.  I decided to write her a letter showing her my support.  Seeing as I am specifically complaining that Roskam ignores his constituents, I imagine I’ll get a response from her. 

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Want to Write your Own Representative?

It’s easy!  First, you need to figure out who your representative is.  Google something along the lines of “who is my representative.”  You’ll have to put in your zip code and possibly address.  When you know who represents you in the House, look up their mailing address.  Roskam has three: two in Illinois and one in DC.  Most reps will have one in their district and one in DC.  I like to write the local offices because it makes it more obvious that you are a constituent. 

Next, make sure you have an issue to write about.  I look up Roskam’s voting record by googling “Peter Roskam voting record.”  Representatives have to keep this information available somewhere, but sometimes it takes a lot of searching.  You can also look up upcoming House votes if you want to ask your representative to vote a certain way. 

All together, it takes about five minutes.  And, you can do it with a friend.  I highly recommend reaching out and making contact, especially with Republican representatives and senators.  It feels good to get involved.  Or at least, it does it your representative responds. 

Happy writing.

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I almost ran out of time today!  Luckily, I had an issue ready to go.  Privatizing air traffic control would be bad for the consumer and bad for people who fly small airplanes for charter.  It would just help consolidate power in the hands of titans like Delta and American Airlines.  Since Congress is considering privatizing ATC, it seems like a perfect time to ask Roskam NOT to support it. 

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I was lucky enough to have a friend join me in write your representative Saturday.  She, too, wanted more opportunities to reach the congressman. 

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Because I received no response to my previous letter, which asked what genre my next letter should be in, I chose a sonnet for this week’s letter to Roskam.  The request?  Town hall meetings, which Roskam stopped holding when too many people showed up.  I think congressmen ought to meet their constituents face-to-face, though, and I would love to go to a town hall meeting, if only Roskam would hold one.

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What is this blog?

This is a blog keeping track of my summer-long journey into politics.  I am going to write my representative, Representative Roskam, every Saturday.  Roskam is a hard-core conservative, a climate change denier who took $2,000 from the NRA in 2016.  Because I live in a gerrymandered district, Roskam gets voted back into office every year almost automatically.  He has been a representative here since 2006. 

Besides letters, I have also called Roskam (he doesn’t clear his answering machine so I can’t leave a message) and sent him emails (which he also doesn’t respond to). 

I encourage all zero (0) of my followers to also write their representatives every Saturday. 

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Having never received a response from Representative Roskam, I have decided to determine whether or not any of his interns even glance at his letters.