An open letter to my congresspeople

Blogger's note: This is the letter I sent to my congresspeople—Ashley Hinson, Joni Ernst, and Chuck Grassley—yesterday. I thought I could send it to them all at once using their emails, but I found out that their email addresses are not public. (It is apparently up to each congressperson how they handle communications.) I had to fill out a form on each of their websites to send it to them.

Aghast by the news of Alex Pretti's death on Saturday, my wife asked me, "What country do we live in?" My answer was the only one that popped into my mind: "Not the country we grew up in."

I wanted to let you know how disgusted and angry I am about the events that have happened in Minneapolis this month. The reckless and aggressive crackdown in Minnesota and the blatant lies about the events and those who have been killed by federal agents are not only disgusting and disgraceful but have degraded trust in the federal government as well as your party's and the administration's respect for Americans' constitutional rights and lives. It betrays a sickening disregard for fundamental laws and morals.

There has to be a better way to deal with illegal immigration. If illegal immigration is such a problem, I expect you to find ways to incentivize legal immigration and crack down on the industries that exploit those hoping to find a better life in the United States—like our ancestors. From what I have heard, our legal immigration system is useless and broken at best; it is labyrinthine, unnavigable, and unjustly expensive. If you want people to do it the right way, you have to make it work for everyone. Otherwise, you make yourself look like an enabler of illegal immigration and a can-kicker.

Also, I woke up to news of the president's latest attempt to acquire Greenland every day last week. Every day. Though it is no longer the president's favorite topic, I want to echo what Thom Tillis said about the subject: I'm sick of stupid. The president's sense of self-importance and delusions of grandeur make me queasy.

I expect you to be a sane leader, a representative of our betterment and interests, a defender of our constitution—not a follower who kowtows to childish, selfish, and hallucinatory ambitions and a rubber stamp of approval for one man's reckless and unchecked ego trip. Governing for the views/clicks/likes of internet trolls and couch potatoes is not helping us.