I have this friend and to say he is politically minded is an understatement. Why he does not run for office, I’ll never know. He needs to just do it. Instead, he set up something called The American Patriots Committee and is pushing for our elected officials to know and understand the Constitution of the United States.

Now, I will freely admit to this. I think that most of our elected officials treat our founding documents like toilet paper. The blatant disregard across the party lines for constituents is ridiculous.

Our county board of supervisors decided they might want to enforce some sort of design standards for incoming commercial business. Ok, now I get where they are coming from. Do I want 75 big box warehouse style stores next to historic battlefields and the homes of our founding fathers? Not particularly. This measure seems a little late in the game since we already have major commerce centers that makes the epic fail list in regards to design. This seems like deciding to build a dam after your town gets washed away in the rain. A band-aid will not fix me if I’ve chopped my own leg off.

My friend thinks that telling someone just how they can build on their property is wrong. He sent an email in to each member of the board, asking if they were sure they had the right to do this. He asked them if they considered if it was constitutional.

Only one member responded. Henry “Hep” Connors. His response was something to the effect of he did not have time to debate Constitutional Law with my friend. My friend did not take the obvious blow off, and responded back at which time Mr. Connors replied with an email stating he wanted to “opt out” of my friend’s “email list” and he was “exercising his Constitutional right to be left alone.” Mind you, this email came from his county seat email address.

What the heck? Ok, if my friend was criticizing the man’s pants and the representative wanted to say he didn’t feel like hearing it… well OK. But to say you do not want to be bothered by a constituent about a current county issue? Once you are elected, do you not really give up your “right to be left alone”?

What kind of country do we live in where our elected officials do not care to hear from those they represent? I think there’s a word for a form of government that does not care much for what the people want or think… hmmm… does anyone know what that word is? It sure isn’t the words we use to describe OUR government, is it?

I’m thinking Senators McCain and Obama are probably a little sick of kissing little old ladies and babies right now, but they plod along. Could you imagine the backlash if they said, “Why are you asking me about the DOW? I just want to be left alone.” “I don’t want to hear about Iraq, I just want to be left alone.”

I did not get to vote for this Mr. Connors when he attained this seat. I was in a different area of the county. Happy news, though! As of Monday I am in his district. Guess who does not have my vote for re-election?

Well, Hep, in two years you can get your wish to be left alone. When you get voted out of office.

–Lady O