Wouldn't it be nice if politicians were accessible, even after they're elected?

Election 2014

Once upon a time, I wrote to my Representatives in Congress. I began when I was very young, just fourteen years old. That's right, just 14. I was a new Sea Scout and had become enchanted with the art and science of navigation. I wrote to my Representative and asked for the charts of the Chesapeake Bay where I lived and sailed. Within days, I received a mailing tube full of them, every chart drawn in every scale, covering the Bay from one end to the other. How about that? The experience encouraged me to write again.

Flags are prepared for delivery to constituents by the office of the Capitol Architect

I first got the idea when a member of Congress gave our school an American flag that had flown over the U.S Capitol Building. Actually, many flags have flown over the Capitol since the practice of giving them to community organizations began in 1939. The Capitol Architect's office processes more than 100,000 requests from Members of Congress annually. A pair of guards run them up and down the pole all day long. A card is attached to each attesting to its provenance and given to Representatives and Senators to be passed onto constituents.

I don't write so often anymore. My Representatives in Congress are ideologues and we are separated by word processors. Our letters are shuffled into piles: For and Against. Our responses are regurgitated from the bowels of machines. Whereas no member of Congress would not allow the sun to set on an unanswered letter in those halcyon days of long ago, they now depart each day as other machines affix artificial signatures to the day's output.

Certainly, our population has doubled since I was a 14-year old Sea Scout, but so have the number of Representatives in Congress. Are they so busy, so inundated with requests for flags, that they can't answer a letter from a constituent?

Even my beloved President, Ronald Reagan, failed me. When he fired the Air Traffic Controllers for striking, I wrote with an idea to transfer air traffic control from the Federal Aviation Administration, to a private contractor. That way, the cost of air traffic control could be spread among the users (airlines and private pilots) and the FAA could focus on policing the system. It always seemed absurd to me that the same bureau that provided a service policed itself. Apparently, my letter found its way to the stack reserved for those who disagreed with the President's action, and I received the response directed to his opponents. Opponent? Me?

Greg and his dog, Reagan, standing on the corner waiting for voters to talk with (Click to visit his website)

Accessibility is the principal thing that first attracted me to Greg Raths who is running for Congress in California's 45th Congressional District. He began his campaign last year when the declining state of affairs in America moved him to action, even before our current Representative, John Campbell, announced that he wasn't running for reelection. He had a banner printed and began meeting people. He's attended every city council meeting in the district. He's joined civic organizations. He's walked door-to-door. I haven't seen or heard of Greg's two opponents beating down any doors to meet me or my neighbors.

Greg's campaign reminds me of the campaign that brought Richard Lamm to office as governor of Colorado in 1974 when I lived there. He too won against the campaigns of better known, better financed candidates, by walking from one end of the state to the other, making himself accessible.

I can't help but watch Greg with people and think, wouldn't it be nice to know who your Representative is, to at least know his name and what he looks like? Wouldn't it be nice to once again have access to our Representatives so that we can contribute to the effort to help solve our nation's problems? We certainly have enough problems to solve.

Reagan looks like a standup sort

Of course I don't expect things to return to the way they were when Abraham Lincoln was President and any citizen could walk into the White House unchallenged and request a meeting. Nor do I expect any member of Congress to dictate a personal answer to every letter as they once did. However, don't you wish you had a candidate who is accessible to you? Why don't you go out and find one? Hopefully, they'll remain accessible once they're elected.