Sekiur My Thoughts

John McCain said it best during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, in St. Paul Minnesota several weeks ago, when he said: “Their lives should matter to the people they elect to office. They matter to me.”, referring to how he has and will fight for the American people.

Having experienced a very difficult time some years ago, this hit a very personal chord with me. During this time I sought the help of our elected officials and just started to write letters to my state Governor, congressman, senators, Department of State, Department of Justice and even the Whitehouse.

After doing some research on committees and sub-committees a list was made, as well as adding to the list the candidates running for president. The final list included Senators Barack Obama (D), Bill Nelson (D), Blanche Lincoln (D), Bob Bennett (R), Charles Grassley (R), Charles Schumer (D), Chris Dodd (D), George Voinovich (R), Hillary Clinton (D), Joe Biden (D), John Cornyn (R), John McCain (R), Johnny Isakson (R), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), Lamar Alexander (R), Mark Pryor (D), Mel Martinez (R), Mike Crapo (R), Mitch McConnell (R), Orrin Hatch (R), Patrick Leahy (D), Richard Shelby (R), Sam Brownback (R), Ted Kennedy (D), a governor, and two congressman.

Now this list was not hand picked but its interesting to see the composition regarding their party affiliation, which basically amounts to 10 Democratic Senators and 14 Republican Senators making a total of 24 Senators.

At that dark time and not knowing fully well how government operated, I wrote to all these elected officials; of which only five replied.

Three of the letters offered support and also noted very kindly that the Senator from the state of residence, be given the opportunity to assist the constituents they were elected to represent. One of the letters mentioned how busy the Senator was dealing with its constituents. The last letter was of course from my state Senator.

So should our lives matter to our elected officials?

Should one of their many assistants take the time to read and reply a two paragraph letter acknowledging a request for help?

As it turns out the majority of our elected officials do not seem to think so. Out of the five Senators who replied, four were republican senators and one was democratic. Putting numbers to it 10pct of democratic elected officials responded and almost 30pct of republican elected officials did the same.

The only presidential candidate who responded to my outcry requesting assistance with a federal matter.!

Senator John McCain.

So is this what they mean by out of touch with regular people?

Great sketch from Saturday Night Live I had to post.

Whoever thought republican presidential nominee John McCain would select a non-political figure from the business sector like Carly Fiorina or Meg Whitman. Even though these two business executives are close to McCain, there is no way in hell he would have picked any of these women.

There has been a lot of buzz on McCain wanting to choose Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge as his running mate, which according to the right-wing commentators would have divided the party, since they are both pro-choice. On the other side of the coin was Mitt Romney who is well liked by the conservative base, but had some uptight moments during the primary against McCain.

McCain making a bold move and surprising all the pundits, picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin who is a relatively unknown in the republican party; but yet managed to suck all the hot air from the Democratic Convention.

Even though Sarah Palin has no foreign policy experience, she has served in the Wasilla, Alaska city council for four years, Mayor for six years and almost two years as Governor of Alaska, giving her more executive experience than McCain, Obama and Biden put together.

Having no foreign policy experience could be viewed as a problem, but being on the bottom of the republican ticket without experience is not as problematic as being on the top of the democratic ticket without experience. In the words of Hillary Clinton: “In the White House, there is no time for speeches and on the job training.”  referring to Barack Obama.