Thursday, July 18, 2019

E-mail messages to my Congressional Representative

From: "Joseph L. Puente"
Subject: [“Resolution Condemning President Trump’s Racist Comments...”]
Date: July 16, 2019 at [≈ 3:45] PM MDT
To: Congressman Chris Stewart [via Contact Form]

Congressman Stewart will be voting "Yes" on the “Resolution Condemning President Trump’s Racist Comments Directed At Members of Congress,” correct?

A "Yes" vote should be a foregone conclusion, which is why I've requested a confirmation for a "Yes" vote and did not ask "HOW" the Congressman intended to vote on the resolution or "IF" he intended to vote on it.

The decent, human, American, thing to do is to vote in support of said resolution.

To vote against or even to abstain from the vote on the resolution would send a clear signal that Congressman Chris Stewart (R-UT) sees nothing wrong with the President's racist comments, making it much easier for people to infer that 1) Chris Steward must also be a racist and 2) As an elected representative of Utah, those people that he represents must be racists.

While I know that there are racists in our community and they more than likely have overwhelmingly supported Donald Trump and his party-line-towing sycophants (one of which Congressman Stewart has repeatedly proven himself to be), the majority of people in Utah are not racists and are simply the victimes of gerrymandered legislative districts designed to empower Republicans in Utah who care more about party power than fair representation of the people.

I personally doubt that Congressman Stewart has the moral backbone to vote in support of the above-referenced resolution and I would be delighted if he were to prove me wrong.

Sincerely,

Joe Puente
Independent Voter


I received an automated response to my message which I then replied to after learning that Stewart voted against the resolution...


From: "Joseph L. Puente"
Subject: Re: A Message from Congressman Stewart
Date: July 16, 2019 at 6:46:42 PM MDT
To: Congressman Chris Stewart

You have no spine...

I’m not surprised.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/07/16/president-trump-house-resolution-squad-aoc/1743579001/


Three days later I received the following form-letter...


From: Congressman Chris Stewart Congressman.Stewart@mail.house.gov Subject: AMessagefromCongressmanStewart
Date: July 19, 2019 at 10:05 AM
To: Mr. Joseph Puente...


I responded by sharing with the congressman an editorial cartoon by Theo Moudakis, originally published by The Toronto Star...