Good morning to the staffer that’s reading this, and to Senator Johnson:
The first thing I want to say is that every time I’ve ever contacted your office for help with an issue (not often, but I have), you have been incredible. For every stand the Senator takes that I don’t agree with, and there is a lot, I will go to my grave telling that to anyone.
But today, I am angry. And sad. I feel helpless and furious in the face of yet another mass shooting. Last week, as I shopped at [insert name of grocery store patronized by equal numbers of white and Black people], I thought about the privilege I have to go to the grocery store while white and buy groceries – a right that shouldn’t be a privilege, but is. That is a direct result of your stance on the Second Amendment. Last night, I went to bed and this morning woke up to reports of another slaughter of grade school students and their teachers, this one in Uvalde, Texas. But it could have just easily been Oshkosh or Milwaukee or Oconto. I would have a lot more respect for your views regarding fetal right to life if they extended to actual children – and adults, while we’re being honest.
I am not anti-gun. I come from a family of hunters, and I’ve spent plenty of time at indoor and outdoor gun ranges [names of gun ranges]. (I thought of mentioning here that I’m a pretty good shot, but didn’t want it to be misconstrued as a threat, so I didn’t.) But no one needs an assault rifle unless they’re in a theater of war. If the image of parents in a waiting center giving DNA samples in order for authorities to identify their children as a direct result of you and your colleagues’ choices doesn’t give you pause, I don’t know what will. As far as I’m concerned, that 18-year-old might have pulled the trigger, but every politician that has refused to support responsible gun legislation is to blame for what happened yesterday.
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully:
Amy Waldman
Voter
TO ANYONE INCLINED TO REACH OUT TO THEIR FEDERAL AND STATE REPRESENTATIVES: Feel free to use any part of this as a template for your own communication to that/those individual(s).
(True confession: Lightly edited for grammar because I typed it in a white-hot fury and hit “send” on the Senator’s pre-fill form.)
the sentence factory 