To Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

This is the text of an email which I sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) on Saturday, 11 November 2007.

Mr. Reid:

In response to your disclamer that "Regrettably, I can only respond to mail from Nevadans or those with ties to the state," it is understandable that you have no desire to discuss politics with somebody who does not influence your status as a congressional representative of the state of Nevada, so I have no misconceptions about you responding to this email. However I will at least hope that you read it and take head of the suggestions contained within because I am positive that I am not the only American who feels this way.

You are quoted as saying "We're going to continue to do the right thing for the American people by having limited accountability for the president and not a blank check, said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev." with regards to your position on blocking funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My response is this.  Even though you may not have agreed with the circumstances and/or the reasoning behind going into, or remaining within Iraq (god knows I didn't and still dont agree with them), or Afghanistan, the simple truth of the matter is that the American people as a whole (by proxy of their elected officials, of which you are one) agreed to allow it.  In doing so, that decision has put countless numbers of our armed service personnel at risk for several years.

I will concede that we as a nation got ourselves caught up in a civil war that we have no place being in the middle of, however denying the funding that our armed services personnel need to effectively defend themselves and stay alive at this point in time is unacceptable. 

I am a registered Democrat.  I did not vote for George W. Bush in either election, and I do not agree with his assessments nor his actions.  However, I do believe in the democratic system and the fact that we as a nation need to stand behind each other, regardless of party affiliation, and especially we need to stand behind our armed service personnel whom we have put in harms way whether directly or indirectly.  Currently, our ultimate concern in Iraq and Afghanistan should be the health and welfare of our brave soldiers who are deployed there. 

This situation should not be used as a "platform for political reform" in any means other than to remove our brave men and women of the armed forces from the undue harm in which the previous politics of the era have placed them.  To do anything else may sacrifice their health and wellbeing, and could be considered by some as a criminal act.

Therefore I propose that, instead of attempting to block funding to our brave men and women who are risking their lives every day, you instead focus your energy in attempting to assist the efforts that seek to bring an executive into the office who will echo the voices of the many Americans now wanting their fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, sisters and brothers home from this debacle that our current administration has placed them in.

Please sir, I emplore you.  Do not use the lives and deaths of our family members as a means of furthering your own political career.  Instead rather I suggest that you use this opportunity to safeguard the lives of thousands of Americans, thus placing yourself above the ranks of the ordinary politician, and thereby furthering your own political career as well.  Afterall, we are supposed to be a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Sincerely,

Brock M. Hunter
West Virginia